Pastoral Vision
A Characteristic of Pastoral Excellence
From the very beginning, our Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project— Sustaining Excellent Pastors-Promoting Pastoral Excellence -- wrestled with the “vision” question. What was our vision of pastoral excellence? Indeed, what was our vision of “excellence” itself if we were going to be faithful to our Catholic tradition?
A partnership of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the Dominican House of Studies and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), our SPE project was created in May 2002 to explore what pastoral excellence looks like and how to sustain it. Our goal was to identify and examine “excellent” pastors in the Archdiocese, describing in depth the marks of good and faithful ministry and identifying what promotes and sustains pastoral excellence. As our project progresses, we will use our findings to design and create programs for the continued formation of pastors and to assess the initiative's impact on sustaining and promoting pastoral excellence. With a rapidly graying presbyterate —in our archdiocese the average priest is 59 years old--such formation and sustenance is crucial.
As we conducted our research, the subject of “vision” arose early and often. To get a handle on the nature of excellence, we asked senior diocesan officials to give us the names of five pastors they considered “excellent.” We surveyed every pastor, priest and seminarian in the archdiocese, asking them to describe the marks of excellence. We surveyed and conducted focus groups with parishioners.
Again and again, whatever our methodology, “vision” kept cropping up. Excellent pastors, our survey participants told us, have a vision for their parishes. They capture that vision in their lives and they bring it forth from their parishioners. Vision, they said, is an essential element of leadership, separate and distinct from administrative and management skills. Pastoral vision, parishioners stressed, does not occur in isolation, but grows out of particular contexts. It does not come preformed, but is unique to a particular community.
Reflecting on the Data
With our survey results and other research data in hand, we brought together a group of pastors and theologians for a three day retreat to sort out the characteristics of pastoral excellence and how best to sustain it. A massive task, this process required us not only to make sense of the data but also to do so within the Catholic world-view and, more immediately, with an eye toward how this information can be used in the both the initial and ongoing formation of pastors.
As we reflected on the research, 11 characteristics eventually emerged. One of those, the sixth, specifically addressed the role of vision. An excellent pastor, we concluded in our report, “has a vision for what it means to be a people of faith in this time and this place and has the interpersonal skills to engage others in that vision, work through conflict, form community, and lead people in service.”
Yet, we were puzzled, at least initially, as to how vision relates to ongoing formation. In our research, pastors told us that preaching and administrative skills were the areas where they needed additional formation. Few pastors, on the other hand, cited vision as a pressing formational need. If vision is an essential element of pastoral excellence, what role was it to play in our efforts to improve pastoral formation, particularly when pastors themselves told us they did not consider it a pressing need?
At first, we thought that “vision” would be at the top of a list of skills needed for pastoral formation, one item in a broader list of administrative skills. But as we wrestled with the relationship of vision and formation, we began to think more deeply about our understanding of pastoral formation, looking back at the words of Pope John Paul II. Writing in I Will Give You Shepherds (Pastores Dabo Vobis) - On the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day, Pope John Paul II noted that priestly formation has four aspects: human formation, spiritual formation, intellectual formation, and pastoral formation.
Seeing a New Vision
As we thought about the Pope's understanding of priestly formation, we began to see “vision” in a new light. Pastoral vision, we realized, was much more than a skill. Instead, “vision” has an integrative function. As we continued our research and reflection, the image of the cross emerged. We now understood that pastoral vision is at the intersection of human and spiritual formation as well as intellectual and pastoral formation.
Pastoral vision, we concluded, is the perspective honed by the pastor as he integrates the four aspects of his formation (human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral) in service to a particular community. It is how he integrates his priestly life and ministry. It is the animating principle for his ministry as priest, prophet, and king. It is the hermeneutical principle for his day-to-day decisions. Theologically, it is the way the pastor takes on the mind of Christ. In our report to Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, we expressed it this way:
A pastoral vision is a pastor's personal way of appropriating and communicating “the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16) His vision is formed in and through the Church, by God's grace, by the integration of his formation, his ministry, his personal life of prayer, and his relationships. The parish is the primary context for his vision and is the community where it will grow. The pastoral vision of the parish fires his imagination and guides day-to-day decision-making.
The Pastoral Context
Viewed from the pastor's perspective, pastoral vision is forged through the integration of his formation experiences. It is a lively dynamic that takes place within the heart, mind, and soul of the pastor. We learned that all experience is formative for the pastor who is continually bringing to bear all of his knowledge, skills, even his limitations, to the challenges of leading a community of faith.
Consequently, the parish is the context - even the crucible - in which the pastoral vision is forged. It is the pastor's commitment to, and attention to, the parish as a whole that provides the fertile soil for the development of a pastoral vision. Seen another way, the parish is an elaborate network of relationships that come together to form a community of faith. Proverbs tells us that where there is no vision, the people will perish (Proverbs 29:18). It is also true that without people the pastor can have no vision.
But formation and integration, even pastoral vision, are not ends in themselves. Instead, the pastoral vision, in turn, animates the three offices of Christ that the pastor embodies. The pastor is a servant of the Word of God and is responsible for preaching the gospel and passing on the teachings of the Church. The pastor is responsible to see that the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, are faithfully celebrated. Finally, the pastor governs the parish after the example of the Good Shepherd as an expression of Christ's kingship.
As we listened for stories of pastoral excellence, we noticed a vibrancy within the parish community -- a vibrancy characterized by a desire to share the gospel with others, to grow in holiness as a community of faith, to cultivate the experience of community centered in the Eucharist, and to reach out in solidarity to others in need.
Conclusion
We believe the best way to sustain pastoral excellence is to provide pastors opportunities to cultivate their pastoral vision. And how does a pastor do that? He stays close to the parish context, struggling to be committed to these people, at this time, and in this place. He acquires new knowledge and skills to continue his human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation. He integrates these experiences through prayer and service. We also believe that small peer groups are a helpful way to encourage and support this process of integration. Finally, the pastor lives out his vision every day as it animates his prophetic, priestly, and kingly responsibilities.
In the Archdiocese of Washington, pastoral vision is clearly a characteristic of pastoral excellence. It serves as an integrating and animating principle in the mind and heart of excellent pastors. It roots the pastor in the hopes and fears of his people. It propels him to serve his people creatively and faithfully.
In Romans 15:5-6, Saint Paul prays, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A pastoral vision gives the pastor the grace of perseverance and encouragement since, ultimately, it is born of the mind of Christ alive in the people, the scriptures, and the sacraments. Saturated with the Holy Spirit, the pastoral vision animates the pastor and the people to glorify God with one voice by proclaiming the gospel, cultivating a life of holiness, building community, and reaching out to others in solidarity.
Donald R. McCrabb, D. Min., is director of administration for the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and project coordinator for Sustaining Excellent Pastors - Promoting Pastoral Excellence.
