Strategic Planning Process

Since last summer the Diocese of Madison has been undergoing its Guided by the Spirit strategic planning process.

The Guided by the Spirit process seeks to serve the people and witness to the presence of Christ and the Church in the Diocese of Madison, while being good stewards of the diocese’s priestly, monetary and temporal resources well into the future.

This past week the Diocese of Madison’s Planning Commission, made up of eight lay members from around the diocese and eight representative members of the clergy, took the next step in the process. The commission spent most of the week reviewing the suggestions offered by the diocese’s 41 parish clusters, as to what can be done in the way of planning their organizational structure for the future. All 133 parishes, organized into the 41 clusters, were represented by nearly 700 representative people from every parish in the Diocese of Madison. These representatives gathered together from October through early March and submitted the suggestions to the Planning Commission. After compiling the suggestions submitted by the cluster groups, the Planning Commission spent three days in retreat generating preliminary recommendations which have been sent back to the parishes for their consideration, conversation and response.

At the conclusion of the three-day retreat commission member Msgr. Jim Uppena, Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Milton, stated “I continue to be inspired and amazed at how the Spirit is alive and working through this process which is so open and inviting of all perspective ideas, suggestions and recommendations.” Likewise, Mr. Paul Hahn, a parishioner of St. Patrick in Albany, remarked “there has been a strong spirit of collaboration and cooperation through the process to cover the needs of each parish, the diocese, and the church. There is recognition of the good work being done and that with help for the priests more could be achieved by the parishes.”

These preliminary recommendations in no way constitute final recommendations, let alone decisions by the bishop, who, by design, is not part of the recommendation process. Likewise, these preliminary recommendations should not and cannot be interpreted as plans to be implemented until final decisions are made.

Late this spring the Planning Commission will make their final recommendations to the bishop, after getting feedback from the 41 clusters on these preliminary recommendations. Bishop Morlino will then spend the summer evaluating recommendations, discussing options with his Diocesan Pastoral Council, Presbyteral Council, his staff and, as he has stated, listening to the questions and concerns of any parishes with “severe hardship” as a result of the final recommendations. The Bishop will make final his decision regarding the future organizational structure of the diocese in the early Fall. Only then will any parts of the plan begin to be implemented. The implementation process will likely take a number of years to complete.