As we come to the close of the academic year, bidding farewell to Fr. Patrick and welcome to Fr. Nathan, it’s time for another look at the planning process that has been taking place for several months at the Catholic Community at Stanford. The Pastoral Council, as you may remember, conducted a survey of the community in January, gathering comments and suggestions on what draws us to CCAS, and how we might better serve one another. We had not conducted such a survey before, and were not at all sure what the results might be. We were quite aware of Luke Timothy Johnson’s caution that “the process of discernment is risk-filled ...the interpretation of the present is perilous, prone to error, always in need of renewal and revision.”
The next step in our process was to hold a community planning retreat. On April 5, members of the Pastoral Council, the Finance Board, CCAS staff, and representatives from different age and interest groups met together for a planning retreat to consider the results of those surveys. Fr. Nathan shared his vision of what our community might look like in the future; we prayed for the guidance of the Spirit; and we combed through all the comments and suggestions culled from the over 200 surveys submitted. It turned out to be not so perilous an effort, as consensus began to emerge as to what our mission should be, and how we might renew, revise, and act to fulfill it.
Various participants called for us to build a distinctly Catholic community, one with a primary mission to the students here at Stanford but inclusive of all groups, including those who may not always feel welcome in the church. Everyone agreed that we should be a community that is particularly responsive to the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. Building such a community would involve concerted efforts in five areas: community outreach & volunteer opportunities; Catholic social teaching and practice; education; spirituality; and sharing talents.
In the area of community outreach, it was suggested that we compile and disseminate information about existing opportunities for volunteer work in the community. We could use the website to publicize and expand the range of such efforts, and establish a collaborative network with other parishes and agencies to link community members with worthwhile and meaningful service opportunities.
A related discussion concerned our responsibility to carry out Catholic social teaching. We are a relatively affluent and certainly privileged community, and we have the resources not only to articulate the Catholic moral perspective, but also to work effectively for justice in crucial social and economic arenas: war, poverty, capital punishment, institutional discrimination.
Regarding education, we agreed that as a universitybased community we are well suited to develop programs and events to encourage mature Catholics to carry out the call of Vatican II for an engaged and empowered laity. We need to equip both undergrad and grad students to engage the intellectual challenges to faith on a secular campus. The students encouraged us to take a “bottom-up” approach, developing ministry teams and dorm-based small groups that would complement more formal education programming provided by CCAS staff and outside speakers.
The group’s interest in fostering the spiritual life of the community was strong. The vitality of our liturgies, our music and preaching, is widely appreciated, while enhanced programming of retreats, prayer groups, and counseling was recommended.
In considering all of these areas for potential endeavor, it became clear that we need to develop ways to share our talents in the service of the community and its mission. Permanent community members need to be better integrated into the ministry to students, perhaps through vocation counseling and sharing wisdom on living as a Catholic in their professional life. The gifts of all members of CCAS need to be called forth, acknowledged, and utilized to serve each other and to further our mission.
All these recommendations were reviewed and distilled by the retreat participants. At our CCAS staff planning days last week – three days of lockdown in the annex where we do a soup-to-nuts review of our work – they were the themes around which we evaluated and planned our programs and our staff assignments for next year. We added to the list of recommendations enhanced communication – improved website, redesigned Sunday bulletin, e-mail communiqués, and more. We agreed strongly that social justice outreach, education, and fostering spirituality were areas where we have much room for growth....while gratefully aware of the rich resources of our community that might be mobilized. If there was one theme that came up over and over it was the talent and generosity of our community members, and how we need to learn to invite more participation in our work and fellowship.
This is a particularly pressing invitation at this time. For all our wealth of vision and talent and energy here at CCAS, we are facing a significant financial challenge. While we receive office and worship space from the university, we are unable to ask for contributions through collections in the Memorial Church. The support we receive from the Diocese of San Jose has become more limited over the past few years. We are facing the necessity of downsizing our programming at the same moment that our vision for the future is crystallizing.
As a result, the Finance Board has strongly advised that we embark on a concerted development effort. Last Wednesday, a large group of those who had attended the planning retreat met with Petrus Development, a firm specializing in campus ministry. We began the work we need to accomplish: to articulate our unique mission as the Catholic Community here at Stanford; and to address both the short-term financial shortfall and the long-term development that is required to continue and grow our ministry. Perhaps most importantly, we need to find new ways to gather together, with all our gifts and generosity, to become the community of our hopes.
Catherine Wolff
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