Chicagoland

Archdiocese’s Year of Strong Catholic Parents begins - Third year of Strategic Pastoral Plan focuses on family faith life

By Michelle Martin | Staff Writerd
Sunday, June 23, 2013

As the Year of Sunday Mass draws to a close and the Year of Strong Catholic Parents begins, don’t expect to see a wholesale change in the way the Archdiocese of Chicago continues to try to evangelize and form Catholics.

Rather, think of it as the next step in an ongoing journey, said Nancy Polacek, coordinator for the archdiocese’s strategic pastoral plan, which is entering the third of its four years.

“The idea for the Year of Sunday Mass was to encourage parishes to launch something that would continue,” said Polacek. “It’s about engaging people in the practice of the faith. This year, we’ll talk about families attending Mass together.”

As the Year of Sunday Mass ends, Polacek said, she has compiled a book of some of the things parishes did to observe the year so that others can learn from their examples.

At Our Lady of the Wayside in Arlington Heights, the parish posted a prayer about the Year of Sunday Mass on its website and encouraged parish groups to use it when they gathered.

Holy Name Cathedral hosted a book-signing of Father Louis Cameli’s “Bread of Life: Exploring the Presence of Eucharist in Our Lives.” This book was written with the Year of Sunday Mass in mind.

Several parishes on Chicago’s Near North Side came together to promote Sunday Mass through a marketing effort that included a website with parish information and Mass times, cards distributed by parishioners and advertising on the CTA.

Transition to next year

Those efforts can continue and enhance the Year of the Strong Catholic Parent, she said.

Parishes are now being asked to turn their attention to ways they can support and encourage parents, who are their children’s first teachers, and Polacek hopes to use some of the tools that proved popular during the Year of Sunday Mass.

For example, many parishes used the Mass “One Word at a Time,” which highlighted a different word describing an action or gesture each week for reflection and appreciation in their parish bulletins or on their web sites.

Others have used resources to prepare “teaching Masses,” in which each step is explained, or shown Cameli’s video guide to the Mass, “Draw Near,” which will soon be available in Spanish.

For next year, the archdiocese is working with Tom McGrath, author of “Raising Faith-Filled Kids,” and Loyola Press to issue 52 words about Catholic parenting.

Polacek’s office is also working with the Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry to develop a list of resources for Catholic parents, with plans to send those to each parish. In addition, schools and religious education programs will be asked to encourage their families to participate in “Family First Fridays,” which will include a monthly at-home faith activity, and the archdiocese plans to develop a parent-friendly web page that will include questions and answers and resources for parents.

In addition, Father Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary and a well-known figure in Catholic media, will make three videos for parents whose children are about to receive the sacraments of baptism, First Communion and confirmation.

Each parish also will be asked to name a “family advocate” to be the point person on receiving information about how to better support families.

Polacek said that the archdiocese has learned over the past two years — the Year of Teens and Young Adults and the Year of Sunday Mass — about the importance of asking people what they need and what would be most helpful to them.

That process started with the development of the strategic pastoral plan in the first place, she said, noting that the emphases of the different years came from a survey of 8,500 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

It continued with a meeting of teens to kick off the Year of Teens and Young Adults, which helped name the year as well as offered suggestions about how to encourage young people to become more involved in the practice of their faith.

To help bridge the transition from the Year for Teens and Young Adults to the Year of Sunday Mass, teens were asked to participate in a contest, making videos that would show the importance of the Mass in their lives. Another video contest — this one about the importance of strong parents — is under consideration, Polacek said.

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