PLD becomes VIP

"What people should know is, priest or parish life director, it's pretty much business as usual," declared Pat Heston.

After 38 years as a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament Church in Mohawk, Mrs. Heston speaks from experience. She had a "dear, dear friend" in Rev. James Steuer, Blessed Sacrament's late pastor, and she has become a friend to Sister Mary Jo Tallman, CSJ, who took the helm as parish life director (PLD) after the priest died in 2003.

Sister Mary Jo, who celebrated her third anniversary at Blessed Sacrament at the beginning of this month, spoke to The Evangelist about coming into a parish where people were used to a traditional leadership model and her pride in how well parishioners have adjusted to the change.

Minuses

In its last decade with a pastor, Blessed Sacrament parish had suffered several blows. Father Steuer had both a stroke and a broken shoulder, and consequently cut back on parish duties and programs.

Though a popular homilist and counselor, "he couldn't really give it his all," Sister Mary Jo explained.

Father Steuer's death in 2003 left the parish in the care of three sacramental ministers who took turns celebrating Mass on the weekends. But two of them were removed from ministry during the clergy abuse crisis, leaving Blessed Sacrament in even more need of a leader.

New leader

Sister Mary Jo recalled a deanery meeting at which priests and PLDs from the area discussed the 175-family parish's fate.

"I heard [another pastor] say, 'Blessed Sacrament deserves the chance to be a parish,'" she said. "Those words stuck in my head."

So Sister Mary Jo, whose previous ministry was in Ilion, applied to become the PLD. Mrs. Heston remembered the decision to hire her as a quick one: "There wasn't a lot of discussion about it. We did know the church would close if we didn't have somebody."

Most parishioners welcomed the idea of a PLD. Sister Mary Jo joked that "the people who didn't welcome me, I didn't know about! They didn't talk to me about it; they just left."

But a few did make their feelings clear: On the day she arrived, the parish's deacon, religious education director and secretary/housekeeper all quit. Some parishioners had signed a petition that the deacon be made a PLD instead of Sister Mary Jo. When he was not chosen, they, too, left the parish.

Getting to work

The new PLD plunged into making necessary changes. She hired new staff and arranged for the parish rectory, which was in need of serious repairs, to be renovated. For nine months, while that work was being done, she commuted from nearby Utica.

Since Blessed Sacrament's catechists had not yet been trained to teach religious education, nor attended the required diocesan Virtus anti-abuse program for parish employees and volunteers, Sister Mary Jo arranged for that.

Blessed Sacrament also combined its faith formation program with St. Francis de Sales parish in Herkimer. In addition, Sister Mary Jo started a parish advisory council and worked on recruiting parishioners for leadership positions, including new trustees, Eucharistic ministers, lectors and altar servers.

"When I came here, there were two people who gave out Communion -- they also read -- and, I think, three altar servers," she remembered. "Now, there are 15 altar servers, six lectors and 15 Eucharistic ministers!"

Mrs. Heston is one of them. She told The Evangelist that she's become involved in her parish "mostly just since Sister has been here."

Pluses

The PLD made an effort to be completely transparent in making changes at Blessed Sacrament. During her first year at the parish, for example, she wrote a letter in the bulletin every week, detailing the progress of the work on the rectory and other news.

She also printed the amount of the weekly collection in the bulletin, plus periodic reports on parish finances.

To Mrs. Heston, one of the best changes during Sister Mary Jo's tenure was restarting a social committee that had disbanded years before. That group has sponsored a host of parish festivals and dinners.

"The facilities of the parish are being used more than they used to be," Mrs. Heston boasted. "We had a spring festival we hadn't had in 20 years, rummage sales, parties; we [members of the parish's Catholic Daughters of the Americas] serve dinner to the indigent and homeless at the Salvation Army once a month."

Pitching in

Sister Mary Jo believes that Blessed Sacrament's parishioners want their parish to stay open so much that they are willing to do the work to keep it so.

All along, she said she got the impression from parishioners that "this is our parish, and we need to know how to do this [ministry]."

Looking back, Mrs. Heston believes that she was "always comfortable" with the idea of a PLD leading the parish. She's also impressed that Sister Mary Jo is a hard worker.

"We're quite happy with Sister," Mrs. Heston stated. "It seems like she's always been here."

(Sister Mary Jo spends most mornings doing office work, and most afternoons visiting the sick and homebound. She also teaches religious education during the school year and does "everything but say Mass" when a parishioner passes away. Her efforts are paying off: In 2005, small Blessed Sacrament parish had six weddings, five students in its Confirmation class and ten who made their First Communion. "All the numbers are up," said the PLD.)

(8/10/06) [[In-content Ad]]