St. Pius X Parish Pastoral Council Present: Brian Evers, Tom Christman, Peter Ranalli, Julianne
Ruff, Pat Tobin, Paul Kutey, Tracy Coffey, Frank Hughes, Joe Tamer,
Fr. Farano, Frank Pugliano, Pres., Sandy Zelka, Marlene Papa Absent: Dennis Mullahy (due to a School Open House), Steve
Morgan, Rudy Paulsen, Jackie DeSanti, Jean-Baptiste Zongo and Dan Slavin Tom Christman led the opening prayer. Frank P. called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Frank P. reviewed the Action
Items from the March meeting. March Meeting Minutes – Paul Kutey approved the
minutes as drafted, and Joe Tamer seconded. The minutes were approved,
as drafted, with all in favor. COMMITTEE REPORTS No one had any questions or comments concerning any of
the reports that had been previously distributed to members via e-mail. Tom announced that Fr. Farano received two wonderful thank
you letters from the Homeless Action Committee and the Capitol Area
Council Churches for St. Pius’ recent efforts. “CALLED TO BE CHURCH”
UPDATE Frank P. said that the previous monthly “Called
To BE Church” (CTBC) meeting (held on April 10) was intended to
be a discussion of faith formation for young people from ages 6-18.
Several people expressed concern that the scope, which covers children
and young people from grades K–12, was just too broad. A comment
was made that it would be “ridiculous” to even try to formulate
strategies to address the needs of the people in this group because
they are so disparate (very young children to young men and women who
can vote, join the military, or be in college). Another comment was
made that those of us in the Local Planning Group should not be talking
about what we think these young people need and want, we should be meeting
with them and asking them directly. Frank said that the facilitator
noted all of the comments, but continued with the meeting to try to
achieve the stated goals for the evening. Frank’s sense is that
not much was accomplished. Joe Tamer asked how we can engage parents to become more
involved in their children’s religious education and faith development. Frank P. mentioned that parishioner Peter Hines is working
on placing all CTBC information that is available to date, on the parish
web site. This will include: a description of what the CTBC process
is; the names of our parish representatives and guidance team members;
summaries of each monthly meeting for our Local Planning Group, as well
as complete transcripts of those meetings; a list of the topics to be
discussed at each monthly meeting; and summaries of the town hall meetings
held in each parish last fall. A note will be placed in the bulletin reminding parishioners
about the parish web site, and encouraging them to use it and to make
suggestions concerning what additional information should be posted
to it. OLD BUSINESS Discernment Process for New Council
Members Marlene reported that nomination forms were placed in
the pews. A call for nominations will be in the bulletin for three weeks,
and nomination forms will be placed in the pews again on the weekend
of May 5 and 6. An information meeting for interested candidates will
be held on Tuesday evening, May 29 after the 7:00 Mass. (NOTE: All council
members are asked to attend this information session, if at all possible.)
The formal discernment session for new members will be held on Tuesday
evening, June 5, after the 7:00 Mass. Council members interested in serving as officers next
year will be nominated at the parish pastoral council meeting in May.
If necessary, a discernment session for officers will be held sometime
after June 5, subject to the availability of our facilitator, Sr. Monica
Murphy. Parish Census Tom has begun some background work to prepare for a parish
census. He began by speaking with Nancy Uruskyj, business manager at
St. Pius. Nancy and Tom discussed what kind of data is already in place,
and how any data collected in a new survey should be formatted so that
it will be compatible with the records that Nancy now has. Next, Tom spoke with Jeanne Schrempf, director of the
diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis. Jeanne could not help
Tom, but referred him to Jack Manning, director of Pastoral Planning,
who Tom says was very helpful. Among other things, Jack told tom that
we can probably expect to get a response rate of only about 60%. To
improve on this percentage, Fr. Farano said that we should about handling
the parish census the same way we do the Bishop’s Appeal (try
to elicit as many responses up-front as possible; send a follow-up note
to anyone who does not respond to the census; make a personal contact
with anyone who does not respond to the follow-up note). Jack also suggested that Tom contact Fr. Noone of St.
Francis de Sales regarding a computer program for the census. Tom will
do that. Sunday Morning Drop-In for Parents
of Religious Ed Students Fr. Farano spoke with Judy Ranalli and Brian Evers about
starting a drop-in program on Sunday mornings for the parents of children
who are in the Religious Ed program. Judy will include a note in material
that she sends to the parents to see if there is an interest in a drop-in.
Teams, or at several parents, would have to take charge to ensure that
everything that is needed would be in place each Sunday. We want to
be able to offer a drop-in when Religious Ed starts again in the fall.
Social Get-together for Young Mothers Frank P. spoke with Gail Bouchard and Julie Murphy. Julie is part of a group of 6-10 young mothers from the
parish who meet each week (sometimes with their young children), but
it is not strictly a “social” group. They come together
to discuss their faith; socialization happens, but that is not the purpose
for the meetings. So, Julie didn’t have any feedback pertaining
to the issue of a “social” get-together. Gayle says that she definitely thinks there is a need
for young mothers to come together to socialize and to share, but she
also thinks that such a group should have a purpose when they meet.
For example, Gayle suggested that such a group could write notes to
people in the parish who are homebound, or to students from the parish
who are away at school. Gayle told Frank that she would talk to a couple
of other people about a “get-together” concept, and would
get back to him about it. Tracy and Joe said that they disagree with Gayle on the
group meeting for a “purpose” or “task”. They
think that such a group would never get off the ground if it was formed
for any reason other than to just socialize. They both feel that any
such initiative should be informal to start; if the group members then
decide for themselves that they want to “do something” when
they come together, that would be fine. Fire Lane Parking Fr. Farano wrote a note to parishioners, that was placed
in this weekend’s bulletin (April 21-22). The council members discussed what other steps could be
taken to ensure that no one parks in the posted fire lane areas any
more. Suggestions include: placing orange traffic cones in the fire
lanes; having volunteers stand outside church for a few minute after
Mass begins to tell anyone who tries to park in the fire lanes that
they cannot do that; placing a note on the windshield of cars parked
in the fire lanes, reminding drivers not to park there any more). The
members agreed not to take any further action on this until we see how
well drivers respond to Father’s bulletin note (which was excellent,
by the way). NEW BUSINESS Council Constitution Frank P. gave a proposed, redrafted version of the Constitution
(prepared by Paul Kutey) to all Council members for their consideration.
He asked all members to be prepared to discuss the proposed changes
at the May meeting. Peter suggested that Frank send a copy of the current
Constitution to all members via e-mail. Frank agreed to do that. Thanks, Paul, for all of the good work. SCHOOL BOARD Pat Fitzgerald of the School Board stopped in briefly
to mention that the school I sponsoring a golf outing on Monday July
16 at Wolfert’s Roost as a fundraiser. They want to have one hundred
golfers (the fee is $l50 per golfer). Pat asked the council members
to spread the word about the outing to anyone who they think may be
interested. PASTOR’S COMMENTS • Fr. Farano mentioned the upcoming Bishop’s
Appeal. Frank P. led the closing prayer. Next Meeting ……………May 16
at 7:00 pm Respectfully Submitted Marlene Papa, Secretary
April 18, 2007
Fr. Farano acknowledged the difficulties that Frank summarized, but
also said that he believes that any discussion about faith is a good
thing. He also noted that issues pertaining to facilities and finances
are not as critical in suburban parishes as they may be for city and
rural parishes, so perhaps our Local Planning Group representatives
will be able to revisit the faith formation concerns at future meetings
instead of spending the time that is set aside for such things as finances,
etc.
• Father also mentioned that St. Pius X School has been chosen
as one of 500 throughout the country to have a poster sent up with the
next space shuttle. What a wonderful experience for the students.