June 12, 2024 at 9:30 a.m.
SERVANT LEADERS!
In the front of the chapel space inside the Pastoral Center, 14 graduates stand around the altar. Father Robert Longobucco, celebrant of the day’s special Mass, asks the attendees to raise their hands in prayer as they bless the group of graduates and officially mark their completion of a new diocesan program.
Immediately afterwards, there are cheers and applause. Friends and family in attendance hug their loved ones on their way back to their seats. One man leans forward, clasping his friend in front of him on the shoulders and gives him a shake.
“Congratulations!” he says.
Father Robert Longobucco blesses the graduating class of the Diocese's first Pastoral Associate for Leadership Formation program.
It was a special day, not only for the group but for the Albany Diocese, which celebrated the completion of its first Pastoral Associate for Leadership Formation Program. The closing gathering and Mass were held in Rooms 1 and 2 at the Pastoral Center on Tuesday, June 4, with a reception afterwards.
“Your enthusiasm from day one and understanding has brought us great joy,” said David Amico, Director of the Office for Discipleship Formation. “It’s with great delight and thanksgiving that we mark the completion of the program.”
The Diocese’s new Pastoral Associate for Leadership Formation Program offered the laity an opportunity to oversee a combination of church duties, many of which were historically left to a pastor to fill but are increasingly more difficult to accomplish for priests taking on pastoral leadership roles at multiple parishes at a time.
The program was born from this particular need, as priests expressed a hope to have someone who could assist them in day-to-day church operations. Having someone to fulfill the daily operations of the church could help free up priests’ time to focus on their sacramental duties.
“Day-to-day tasks, which could include pastoral and operational needs — anything from dealing with a family calling about a funeral to interacting with diocesan staff about finance, property, insurance, stewardship, etc.,” Amico said. “The responsibilities of the pastoral associate would depend upon the specific needs of the parish, the individual’s gifts and the gifts of other staff members.”
The program consisted of an eight-month training, starting in October 2023, with orientation, nine learning modules that were offered on 17 Tuesday evenings in the Pastoral Center (and by Zoom for distance participation), an evening of reflection, mentoring support, and a spring practicum.
“We were trained to be able to know the ins and outs of parish life, parish operations, parish finances,” said Maureen Billa, pastoral associate at St. Mary’s in Clinton Heights. “We had folks come in that said what it’s like to be a pastoral associate for operations or leadership, or what does it mean to be Catholic because we have to do everything through the lens of Catholicism. The (diocesan) HR team came in and spent evenings with us. We had evenings about canon law. We had evenings with finance and stewardship. We had some evenings on doing record keeping and all that fun stuff.”
Of the 14 graduates, many were already involved in church roles to varying degrees. Some were already serving as pastoral associates for their church, but without such an involved role as the leadership program provides. Others served as volunteers in bereavement or other ministries.
Joe Varone, coordinator of faith formation and sacramental preparation at St. Joseph’s in Greenfield Center, noted how much the program drove home the importance of the Church’s mission to reach out and spread the word of God.
“The majority of the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ is not clergy,” he said. “So many people think I go to church on Sunday and that’s all I’m supposed to do. And our job is to educate them on how there’s so much more that Christ is calling us to do.”
As the Diocese faces financial restraints from bankruptcy, having extra hands to help in any form is a timely blessing.
“It’s a time for my brothers to let go of things that we had to do before and hand them over to people who are likely going to do it better,” Father Longobucco joked in his homily.
“Our responsibility is to teach one thing and one thing only, and that only through the Spirit can we say Jesus is Lord — and isn’t that great?” he continued. “And for all the time we might have had more money and more priests and more things, that was still the only resource that mattered.”
Amico noted that “it is a local decision as to whether new/more pastoral associate positions will become available in our parishes. In some places, a pastoral associate could possibly serve more than one parish in a given region … More than ever, there is a need to think and minister collaboratively and creatively.”
Billa, like some other fellow graduates, will take the knowledge she’s gained back to her current parish. Other graduates hope to expand on their church involvement in retirement, or will look for new churches that may need additional help.
“We have a new pastor assigned to us, and he’s a first-time pastor, so I’m excited that I might be able to help him in some ways I couldn’t have been able to a year ago,” Billa said. “We have a great team and great staff, so I think with that new knowledge that I have, I’ll be able to help him in ways I couldn’t have helped the pastor prior.”
Along with Billa and Varone, the rest of the graduates of the Pastoral Associate Formation Program are: Kerin Banker, St. Henry’s in Averill Park; Denise Chonski, Mater Christi in Albany; Eileen Earle, Corpus Christi in Round Lake; Edward Falterman, Our Lady of the Americas in Albany; Danielle Hubbard, St. Clare’s in Colonie; Susan Ivie Mahar, St. Pius X in Loudonville; Laurie Luizzi, Christ Our Light in Loudonville; Maryanne Martin, St. Edward in Clifton Park; Frederick Meyer, Tri-Parish Community of Immaculate Conception in Glenville, Our Lady of Grace in Ballston Lake and St. Joseph in Scotia; Dominic Russomanno, St. Mary’s in Nassau; Matthew Tabone, Holy Cross in Morris; and Aaron Tremblay, Historic St. Mary’s in Albany.
Comments:
You must login to comment.