ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA

PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL

MINUTES

MAY 18, 2010

Opening Prayer-Fr. John

Members Present: Fr. John, Fr. Paul, Karen Kelley, Sharon Smith, Judy Finkler, Diane Kreager, Lisa Malkewicz, Gene LaViolette

Members Absent: Ros Amor, Ken Kaucic, Roger Mathia, Frank Malkewicz, Ray Smith, Maggie Chipman

  1. Review Minutes: Judy facilitates meeting. Perhaps we should abbreviate minutes-bulletin points for publication. Keep them as full minutes for PPC. Sharon is having trouble with the link. Make sure we approve minutes for publication. Judy suggests we table the minutes for next month. Perhaps the secretary will approve what should be published (in the future) on the website.
  1. Finance Report-will table, as Frank is not here. Judy asked Father what the response was from Joel Hoff’s presentation. Joel did a summary and put it in the bulletin. The next collection was up to $12,000 from $9500. Gene wonders if people will be informed of the shortfall ($60,000). Yes, it was in the St. Jude’s bulletin. Mary has the presentation on the computer. Karen and Gene want to see it. Judy is wondering why so many (50%) give less than $250 a year. Karen wonders if there is a financial report from SH recently? St. Jude’s was solvent. Two years ago, we had the highest donations. Mary Ann says SH has key donors who have left the church. Fr. Paul wants to know if we could put a weekly budget and post what is collected. It shows what is needed. Maybe finance council can do this, and brainstorm. Maybe finance council should be expanded as well to help out. Judy asks how school enrollment is going. All have re-enrolled (156). They will need financial aid to stay in the school. Despite great advertising, open house only had 5 families. Father wonders if we can get information of people in this area who are moving in. Find out about the charter school on Chippewa and Mich Street. What is the tuition? Benefits? School board looked at the declining enrollment trend. Need to reach out to Hispanic community. Father John noted a June meeting for pastors and principals (on south side) called by Mark Myer (Superintendent).
  1. Discernment Process for PPC-Lisa (proxy for Frank) – There is a timeline to be posted in bulletin asking for PPC members. There are verbal announcements as well. This begins May 30th and concludes July 11th. PPC members would be questioning people after we determine what talents we need on PPC. Prayer is the focus. Then silence after questions. Basically, the Holy Spirit guides the meeting. Nominees and PPC members present vote on top selections. We need to fill 6 spots. Are there 3 or 4 members who are willing to facilitate the selection process? Frank will make the pulpit announcements. At the June meeting, lets come up with the questions: what expertise, qualities do we need? Should we make a sub committee to report back on possible questions? Diane will work on it. Brian may be able to help Diane. This format comes from the Boston diocese. Father thinks we should have a brief write up about each current member so we can see what skills we may be lacking. It would be good to pull from all groups in the parish. (For example: faith formation, building committee, youth ministry, marketing) Sharon says perhaps retired people have skills we don’t know about. Can Lisa check if Frank’s committee is handling the timeline? Diane will e-mail questions to PPC to review prior to next meeting on June 15th.
  1. Bishop Rhoades visit-Sunday, July 18th. He will be here for festival. We hope he will see prospective property. Joe Ryan and Joel Hoff will walk property in the next few weeks, as the diocese considers buying it. Gene wonders if he could see SH church? Fr. John wants to cancel 9:00 SH mass, so SH folks will come to St. Jude’s 10:00 mass. We need to advertise this. This is not a question and answer time-not appropriate. Lets make sure polish dinner is right after mass. Or, could bishop could visit property at 11, then start lunch. Should we provide a blessing for kids? Judy wondered if the gazebo/rosary could be included. Father thinks we should just plan the lunch right after.
  1. Organization Chart- (Karen) Judy notes Karen did a great job with this. All the parish committees are organized on a chart. This was presented in 2007. There should be 2 PPC members for each header: administrative, Christian service, outreach & development, spiritual formation and education, worship. To what extent would each PPC member be involved? The purpose for alignment is for communication. PPC member would get minutes from their group. We would like to post them on the bulletin board. Is the board in a good place to read minutes, without stopping mass traffic flow? We could highlight a different group every week in the bulletin.

Transition Committee is now discussing how to incorporate communication.

PPC should discern which group we could be a liaison for. We could also use the chart at the discernment meeting to show what groups are active in our parish.

  1. Commission Coordinators-TABLE THIS ITEM
  1. Goal Setting Judy-We should put this on June or July agenda. Our goals are faith, building and unity. Will these goals change or continue?

We need to ask committees to set their goals-some groups may not be so formal, are more of a social group.

  1. Ken-website- minutes and agenda will be on the website link.
  1. New Business-none
  1. Fr. John’s comments-no additional comments

Closing Prayer: Father Paul

Next Meeting: Tuesday, June 15th at St. Jude’s – 7:00 PM