Paulist summit sets stage for new ministry model

Published: 2004-11-24

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (CNS) -- At a weeklong summit in Albuquerque, the Paulist Fathers decided to create a new regional ministry model. The plan calls for several Paulists to live together in one place and look at the needs of that region of the United States or Canada in light of their mission and create different ministries to meet those needs. Attending the order's first strategic summit were 141 Paulist priests, seminarians and novices -- nearly the entire order except for some ill or elderly retired members. The Nov. 3-10 session was intended to set the strategic framework for the order's next five years. "We're willing to see how our country is regional and just what those regions will be able to draw from us," said Father Stephen Bossi, rector of St. Paul's College, the Paulist seminary in Washington. "In other words, we're prepared to look in a new way at what we have to offer." Being part of a eucharistic community will still be key to Paulist ministry, according to the order. But beyond that community's spiritual and sacramental needs, Paulists will explore other ministries regionally that are called for by their statement on mission direction -- evangelization, reconciliation, and ecumenical and interreligious relations. Currently, the country's 161 Paulist priests are involved in a wide range of traditional local ministries, including parishes, campus ministry centers and Catholic information centers, and they conduct a variety of national ministries.

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