Pastoral Regions

Most Recent News from the Regional Pastoral Council

Posted on Monday December 14, 2009

Minutes of the San Pedro Regional Pastoral Council Meeting of September 22, 2009

I Gathering and fellowship: Present were: Bishop Alexander Salazar, Deacon Bob Miller, Deacon Frank Dieter, Deacon Carl Gibboney, Sister Karen Wilhelmy, CSJ, Sister Kathleen Burns, SND, Rev. Antonio Garnica, MSC, Ana Rosal, Alfonso Perez, Rosalie Marquez, Hortense Casillas, Becky Maffucci, Rev. James Kavanagh, Charles Salfity, Martin Clement, Mary Baum, David Kennedy, Earl Lovett, Nora Rodriguez, Lou Cassani, Erik Rubalcava, and Hank Cierpich.

Guest included: Myra Perez, Baby Alfonso Perez, and Deacon Dale Sheckler.

Excused were: Rev. Michael Sears, Marisol Meza, Roger Enriquez, Frances Jonte, Jim Dela Torre,

Absent was: Rev. Michael Gleeson,

II Opening Prayer: The gospel of Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48 was first proclaimed by a female voice, then again by a male voice. Meditation and reflection followed with observations on fundamentalism, taking the word literary, tolerance, and jealously among the disciples.

• Installation of Erik Rubalcava Dale Sheckler

Charles Salfity called Erik Rubalcava and Dale Sheckler forward. Bishop Alexander Salazar prayed over them, blest them, and presented them with their Regional pin and the Synod document.

Charles Salfity then asked both new members to give a brief synopsis of their biography.

Erik Rubalcava shared that he is currently the principal at Serra High School in Gardena, and a member of St. Anthony of Padua parish in Gardena, where he has served as their youth minister.

Dale Sheckler shared that he was just ordained a Deacon in June. He said that he converted to the Catholic faith in 1995. He owns his own business with his wife and is involved with the Rite for Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) at St. Lawrence Martyr parish in Redondo Beach.

Deacon Frank Dieter added that Deacon Dale will be taking his place on the Council and he thanked everyone for all their love and support over the years.

III Agenda Confirmation: The last distributed version of the agenda was approved as prepared.

IV Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed, grammatically adjusted, and then approved.

V Moderators’ Comments: Charles Salfity read from a prepared statement on the importance of establishing chairpersons for each initiative and the development of strategies for the implementation of the six initiatives as well as how they will be reported. He then went on to list the duties of those assuming the role of chairperson to the initiatives.

Charles also stated that “these are the building blocks I see myself laying to build our team.” He closed by saying that in conjunction with all the changes and other issues occurring within the church, we need to continue to serve and let our passions shine.

VI Bishop’s Comments: Bishop Alexander Salazar announced that His Eminence, Cardinal Roger Mahony, decided to make a lateral transfer between Bishop Oscar Solis and Bishop Alexander Salazar. Cardinal Mahony stated that this transfer will give Bishop Solis the opportunity of the pastoral ministry as a Regional Bishop, and Bishop Salazar will assist the Cardinal with important pastoral priorities. This change will be effective on September 30, 2009.

Bishop Salazar thanked the members of the Council for their leadership, for their support and for the many hours of service that they have so generously given to the Archdiocese and to the San Pedro Pastoral Region.

Bishop Alexander Salazar also announced that on Saturday, September 19, 2009, the first Parish Life Director (PLD) within the San Pedro Region was installed. Appointed by Cardinal Roger Mahony, Ms. Margarita Flores was installed as the PLD of Sacred Heart Parish in Compton. Also appointed at the installation ceremony were Monsignor John Woolway as Priest Minister and Bishop Joseph Sartoris as Priest Moderator.

VII The Six Synod Initiatives: Sister Karen Wilhelmy, CSJ, distributed several handouts to all the Council members present and then gave a brief history of the Synod within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The last Synod resulted in the document “Gathered and Sent”.

Sister Karen discussed the foundation for the Pastoral Initiatives and explained what the intention behind the initiatives were and how we, the people, are called to be an active part of the process. She then gave numerous examples on how to approach the initiatives citing how to reach out to others using love, courage, humility, wisdom, dignity, collaboration, self giving and self discipline.

Sr. Karen said that the mission of Jesus was not about entitlement, but about empowerment. She then went on to discuss the three components of faith formation: Form, Inform, and Transform.
Sister Karen closed her presentation by discussing the Interdependency among the six Pastoral Initiatives stating that each initiative has an inward and an outward dimension because each is rooted in Mission.

VIII Initiative Committee Reports

• Initiative III - Education Committee: Lou Cassani, chairperson for the committee on Initiative III, invited all to participate in this committee’s endeavors. He said that the collaborative research they are doing is somewhat confidential at this point in time, but they are working diligently and will give a report later on.

David Kennedy added that the Archdiocese Pastoral Council (APC) is taking a survey on this initiative.
Charles Salfity then alluded to the vacant positions from the SPRPC on the APC. Bishop Alexander Salazar said that Charles should be on the APC since he is now the Moderator. His Excellency also recognized Martin Clement for his input on Initiative IV and suggested that he might be a good choice to fill the other vacancy on the APC.

• Initiative II - Deanery /Parish Representatives: Hank Cierpich asked if there were any changes to the list he sent out to all the Council members who agreed to extend their ministry to parish representative. Inquisitive discussion followed as to the purpose and agenda behind this task and the goals expected from this effort. It was generally agreed that the parish representatives were a major communication link between the local parishes and the SPRPC.

Bishop Alexander Salazar said that in addition to Pastoral Council information, we could also share statistical information such as the following:

Archdiocese wide we baptized over 100,000 babies, had 60,000 1st communions, and 30,000 confirmations within the past year.

It was also noted that these facts should be part of initiative III and overlaps with V.

• Initiative VI - Social Justice: David Kennedy spoke for Frances Jonte and stated that this committee did have a meeting this month and the information from that meeting will be distributed at a later date.

• Initiative IV – Ministry and Leadership: Martin Clement invited all members to be part of initiative IV committee.

• Initiative I – Evangelization: Charles Salfity announced that Becky Maffucci has volunteered to be the chairperson of the initiative I committee. Discussion followed as to who will be members.

IX Synod Office Report

• Creation and Sustainability: Rosalie Marquez said that she and Charles Salfity attended a seminar on this topic. She said that sustainability is about social justice and ecology and we have a responsibility to be conscious of that privilege and become active participants. Through any projects that we can create, we can engage, educate and empower our small communities to serve as small-scale experiments that if successful, can be transposed for widespread use.
Rosalie closed by saying that she wanted to represent us on this committee.

X Announcements

• The San Pedro Regional Congress will be held on October 3rd at St. Matthias High School in Downey. Workshops will be available in the morning and afternoon.

• The Second Annual Regional Pastoral Councils (RPCs) Inter-Regional Gathering will be held on January 16, 2010 from 8:30 – 2:00 pm. Charles Salfity said that we have been asked by Deacon Dave Estrada to be the host of the event.

XI Closing / Night Prayer / Fellowship
His Excellency Bishop Alexander Salazar was applauded and presented with cards of farewell, and then everyone joined in the closing night prayers.

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NEXT MEETING:

November 24, 2009
Conference Room
Volunteers for:

Refreshments…Rosalie Marquez & Lou Cassani

Opening prayer/Gospel reading…

Night prayer