1
NCCL Rep Council Minutes
November 1, 2012
Members Present: Michael Andrews, Michael Berger, Bishop Leonard Blair, Mark Buckley, Teri Burns, Mary Fran Cassidy, Pat Clement, Josie Contente, Cathy Cornue, Maria Covarrubias, Carol Ann Gaddis, Brian Garcia-Luense, Gina Garroway, Elizabeth Girton, James Gontis, John Fencik, Pam Fischer, Diane Kledzik, Brigid Johnson, Jim Kemna, Margaret Kuntz, Pat Lederman, Elizabeth Marcil, David McCutchen, Joanie McKeown, Bill Miller, Claudio Mora, Leland Nagel, LibiaPaez-Howard, Rhonda Parenton, Karen Pesek, Ann Pinckney, Bryan Reising, Peter Ries, Elaine Robertson, EnedinaSaucedo,TishScargill, Vicki Smith, Michael Steier, Linda Stryker, Daniel Thomas, Michelle Tomshack, Mary Jo Waggoner, Michael Wagner, Kathy Ward, Michael Westenberg, Frank Zolvinski
Members Not in Attendance: Christopher Anderson, Richard Drabik, Patricia Koenig, Dr. Robert McCarty, Erin McGeever, Claire McManus, Dr. Peter Murphy, Rev. Elias Rafaj, Jonathan F. Sullivan
Pre-Session Committee Chairs Orientation and a New Representative Orientation were held at 4:00.
Mass: At 5:30 the NPCD Executive Council and the NCCL Representative Council celebrated an All Saints Day Liturgy.
A reflection on the Synod by Peter Murphy was cancelled because he was delayed in returning from the Synod in Rome due to the storm that hit the east coast.
Bill Miller, NCCL President and Carrie Sallwasser, NPCD President welcomed the participants from the two organizations. Lori Dahlhoff and Lee Nagel gave an invitation for table conversation by pairing individuals from the two organizations.
Evening Session
Fr. Frank DeSiano, an observer at the Synod on the New Evangelization, was Skyped into the room for his reflections on the synod as well as questions from those present.
Some of the questions asked and ideas were:
●What if our faith was really alive in our families?
●What if we really were a community of believers?
●Our faith is joyful and supportive of each other and sustained in the liturgy. A pastoral strategy could be developed with these ideas.
●There is a very strong ecumenical part to these ideas.
●How do we raise the level of professionalism of catechists in their ministry?
●How do we promote the status of parish catechetical leaders as vitally important
leadersin the parish structure?
●Lay people must be heavily involved in this evangelical role.
Questions asked:
1What is Ecumenism’s role? The sense of Christian unity was affirmed in dealing with this common problem of helping people find God in the secular world. There was a real positive sense in sharing with other Christian denominations.
2Was there any strategy coming out of the Synod that will be shared with us? Pastors can develop their own strategy. There were 58 propositions that came out of the Synod. Who will be the animator for this strategy with so much to do in the parish already? Who will do the inviting? Who will lead the small groups? We will need competent people.
3You talked about building relationships. Did you get a sense that the bishops feel it is important to build relationships before teaching content? People have to have a sense of a personal encounter with Christ.
4Is this the real paradigm shift to a relational model that Vatican II was suggesting and is the church ready for this? This has been lined up since Vatican II. In the texts of Vatican II you can find this and it will be used for the Year of Faith. We should have the confidence to do this paradigm shift.
5Is additional content still needed? We will understand the articles of faith better when we have an encounter with Christ. We are looking for a method for the integration to follow. We are talking conversion language. The experiential is needed so the cognitive, sacramental, behavioral will follow.
6Was there any talk on adolescent catechesis? There were ideas on intervention given. New media, social media, and the internet are needed to catechize our young people.
7You suggested using small groups to evangelize before coming back to Mass. How do we do this? Once you develop relationships, you can journey with them and help them with faith issues. Theology on Tap is one way to help people connect.
8How do you characterize the treatment of the Holy Spirit? We need to emphasize the Holy Spirit in our world.
9What about RCIA? There was a lot of talk about when to do Confirmation. There is a lot of interest in initiation especially with children. There is also significant conversation about the importance of doing Mystagogy well. The catechumenate is the model for initiation as a way to help people deepen their relationship with Christ.
10Are all young parents in the world ill-prepared to teach our faith to our children? It is a problem in other continents as well. There are many difficulties in Islamic countries as using evangelical language puts their lives at risk.
11People need to have the practice of daily prayer. Was there any talk about this? It was only suggested in the importance of families. Fr. Frank would like to start a campaign on prayer, helping others to pray during different parts of the day
12What does it mean to raise the level of catechist to a more formal ministry? The catechist is absolutely essential especially in third world countries and must be well formed. In the United States, the Parish Catechetical Leader role is much like the role of the “lead catechist” in many third world countries. We would like to see the PCL role given more respect and status in the USA.
13What is the status of the catechist in the local parish? They might not recognize the catechist as a minister.
14 We talk about encounters with Christ, but that language is sometimes foreign to our priests and we don’t hear it in homilies. The priest’s job is to help parishioners identify encounters with Christ that are already happening in their lives and to appreciate those encounters. Many Catholics don’t understand that concept. We need to talk in gospel terms. .
Friday, November 2 Morning Session
Bill welcomed all Rep Council members.
Enedina led morning prayer for “All Souls Day”.
Bill asked each new Rep Council member to introduce themselves.
Minutes: Ann Pinckney moved and Bryan Reising seconded that the minutes for the May, 2012 Rep Council in San Diego be approved. Motion carried.
Financial Report: Joanie presented the financial report. Members asked questions. The three sources of income come from: Conference and Exhibition, products, and dues. Gina has made contacts to increase memberships and have lapsed members renew. Gina also introduced herself to exhibitors at the 2012 Exhibition and encouraged publishers to become NCCL members.
1Membership committee can generate ideas to increase membership.
2Trial membership is in progress and so we will evaluate its success soon.
3Grants are another way to increase revenue. We need people that have experience in writing grants for non-profit organizations. We need committees to offer needs for grants to make it easier to write grants.
4What is the big picture for finances? It appears we will make a profit of $15,000 this year which is what we budgeted to make. However, some of this may be used to help defray some unforeseen expenses. It is still too early to tell.
5Advertising revenue for CL Magazine is $22,000 less than the cost of producing and mailing the magazine. We are soliciting new advertisers for the magazine.
Executive Director’s Report
1 Lee went over the membership numbers (2074 members).That is a slight increase from last year. At most we are only reaching 15% of parish catechetical leaders. This can be due to an increase of part-time and volunteer parish catechetical leaders. The cost is less than $1.25 a week to join as a parish catechetical leader.
2Diocesan directors and PCL organizations who are interested in seeing the names of trial members from their dioceses can contact Gina.
3National Collaborations: PAC-NIAC-Transforming Adolescent Catechesis has pilot programs going. The application for a major additional grant was not funded.
4The Alliance for the Certification of Lay Ecclesial Ministers: NCCL has two candidates up for certification approval. Three new persons from NCCL submitted applications for candidacy. National Collaborations: The Diocesan Educational Leadership Institute is a great resource with webinars and question and answer sessions.
5Strong Catholic Families, Strong Catholic Youth has over 50 dioceses participating. We participate in webinars with other organizations.
6Echo the Promise has a goal of $10,000 and so far we have raised $5100.
7Doing Great Ministry with Less will be available as an eBook. The NCCL Amazon Bookstore has made $326.43 in 10 months. CL Weekly has been sent out 287 consecutive weeks.
8The NCCL offices are moving to the Hecker Center at St. Paul’s College.
9Our annual appeal will be to help with moving expenses which are estimated at about $5000.
10Thank you to our members who support NCCL.
11Lee represents NCCL as a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Evangelization & Catechesis
12Through PAC we have connections with the USCCB Committees on Family Life and Cultural Diversity.
NPCD Report
We have been in conversation with the Executive Committee of NPCD to find ways to work together. We looked at ways we could collaborate.
1 The first way is to help with the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Lee read the draft of a joint statement to the bishops of the dioceses affected by Hurricane Sandy to offer help and our solidarity. We will be sending the letter to the bishops this afternoon and to the diocesan directors early next week. Members will be e-mailed a copy of this letter, along with Catholic Charities and Home Missions.
2We discussed doing marketing on a joint membership drive in the late summer/early fall of 2013 in as many ways as possible. We could use publisher web sites, diocesan directors, our own membership, and a mailing to every single parish to let them know we have services to offer to their catechetical ministry. Ideas to promote it are to show previous magazines and the CL Weekly. A question is: could we offer a discount if they join both organizations?
Highlights of phone calls to new members
●Would like help with family scheduling.
●Can we put workshops from the Annual Conference on the web site?
●Some members are overwhelmed and don’t have time to look at CL Weekly.
●Not going to Conference because of distance.
●One question was how to pull families in and provide practical ideas to keep families connected.
●Would like to see more practical ideas from NCCL including resources.
●New member joined because other DRE’s told her to join.
●Member from affected storm area was touched that NCCL is reaching out to help them.
●Enjoyed the “Did You Know?” sent to the PCL Forum
●Want more information on RCIA.
●Some do not have the money to pay for membership.
●NCCL was regarded as an important call to one of the storm affected parishes and the message will be given that we called.
●They really appreciated the phone call.
●Gina can e-mail the brochure and the membership form to any rep and anything else you need to recruit. It is also on the web site.
Proposed process for Discerning At-large Board Members
Brian presented the process which begins in November.
1Step 1 is identifying if any current board members are eligible.
2Step 2 looks at names that are identified and finds out if they are willing to serve and fill out a form.
3Step 3 is finalizing the initial reduction of candidates so the number doesn’t exceed one more than twice the number of open seats.
4Step 4 is the final selection with a simple majority one at a time so as to fill the needs of the organization.
Proposed Process for Electing Officers
1Pre-step 1: LDC prepares for member participation prior to and during the NCCL Annual Conference and Exposition preceding the year of elections and starts raising names at the grassroots level.
2Step 2: (May-June) The LDC prepares a list of the needs of the conference and a list of candidates with their completed questionnaires.
3Step 3: (July-August) Initial reduction of presidential candidates. From the list provided by LDC, Rep Council members submit their preferences for presidential candidates. Based on their input. LDC asks Rep Council to approve two nominees as the presidential candidates. The LDC invites the two nominees to be present for the Fall Rep Council meeting. A question was raised what happens if you don’t have candidates to accept the presidency. With active involvement by the membership and Rep Council, we should be able to find qualified candidates to accept. We need all Rep Council members’ access information for the summer months.
4Step 4: Contact the other people nominated for office. If they are willing to be candidates, have them provide the necessary information. Presidential candidates will be allowed to submit names of other potential candidates for the other officers.
5Step 5: Final Selection is at the Fall Rep Council Meeting. The Presidential candidates choose their slates with the Rep Council’s input and the LDC’s help.
6We need to change the wording of passive voice in both processes since few people understand the meaning.
Province Feedback of 3 most pressing issues
Tables discussed the most pressing issues facing the area of catechetics. After discussion, each table decided on the three most important issues. Each person then voted on their top three issues. These are in order of priority.
1Recruiting, training, and mentoring professional catechetical leaders
2Lifelong and family faith formation, especially adult faith formation and sacramentformation regarding the sacraments
3Finding creative and effective ways to connect, evangelize and catechize adults
4Engaging families as partners
5Teach for conversion and content and encounter
6Helping pastors and parishioners appreciate the value of a professional catechetical minister
7Developing vibrant parishes leading to engaged disciples.
8Addressing the dwindling number of disciples who truly practice their faith.
9Addressing dwindling diocesan and parish resources
10Teaching respect for various cultures and developing tools to catechize in various cultures such as, ethnic, generational and technological, etc.
11Changing the culture of the family and how to address it.
2013 Conference and Exhibition
●Ignite the Fire of Faith is the theme and will be May 19-23 in Cleveland. There is mass transportation that costs $1.25. It runs between the airport and the hotel.
●“Rapid Resources” will be a new concept for Round Tables. Persons will be able to participate in 4 seven minute presentations with 3 minutes of questions and a handout will be distributed to each participant. Diocesan/Parish Programs, Resources, and Timely Topics will be the subjects of each table. There is a limit of 10 persons per table per session. Only exhibits will be open during this time.
●Ted Style Talks on Wednesdaywill be a little longer with more discussion time. Table facilitators will have discussion guides.
●Dessert will be served prior to the closing of the exhibits.
●Fr. Fragomeni will do closing keynote and post-conference on evangelization.
FCH as a Federation
1FCH would like to become a federation of NCCL to promote the catechesis of Hispanics. They would like to be united to be part of the voice of NCCL.
2They will have a pre-conference on Sunday and other workshops during NCCL Conference and Exhibition. The federation is for those working with Hispanics.
3Many publishers will provide resources for FCH.
4The Board was looking for the Rep Council’s counsel for the decision. Federations are focus-groups that will enhance NCCL’s mission. Both groups are beneficial to each other.
5Can the relationship be evaluated? Letters of application have been sent in that explain how they operate but there has not been a process for evaluation of how the relationship is working at a later date.
6The Rep Council unanimously recommended Federation status for the FCH. The Board will take up this topic at their next Conference Call.
Committee work
Each committee will meet to discuss their work. Each committee should submit a written report.
Communication Committee Report:
Topics for Communication Committee:
- US Bishops/Cardinals
- Evangelization
- Find people that could translate the CL Weekly
Pat Clement would like to become a member.
Teri Burns is considering becoming a member.
(Note: Brigid Johnson is doing the “Did You Know?”… which is distributed to PCL’s.)
- We will commit to regularly TO add to the web page. We will send direct invites to all NCCL members to ‘Like the NCCL page” and encourage them to hit “Like”.
- Another idea is to join a Linked in Group
- We will send direct invites to all to join Twitter. We need to have a Tweet-Up at the Conference.
- Pat will add catechetical resources to Facebook.
- The committee would like to try to do a little bit of translation of the CL Weekly.
- We need an “acceptable use” policy on Facebook and Twitter.
- We need to get administration accounts for Claudio Mora and Patricia E. . They would like someone to contact them from the technology committee to do this.
Intercultural Committee Report:
Two new members were added to the Intercultural committee:
Josie Contente and LibiaPaez-Howard
Rural Catechesis Committee Meeting Report:
Rep Council Mtg. 11/2/12
Karen Pesek, Chairperson
- the committee has 4 new members:
John Fencik
Jim Kemna
Sr. Margaret Kuntz
Kathy Ward
- Karen Pesek explained the membership and the work of the committee
Membership includes members who represent
- publisher, Sadlier
- two academic institutions:
Loyola University (of New Orleans)
Boston College
WORK OF COMMITTEE:
1. Evening Conversation at conference – co-hosted by Sadlier -