By Sharon Abercrombie
Staff writer

“Called to Holiness,” the 2008 Pastoral Plan for the Oakland Diocese, has truly “taken root” during the past year, reports Janet Cooke, advisory committee chair for the project. She said the commitment and supportive actions of diocesan and parish staffs along with parishioners made such success possible.

Cooke also credits the plan with helping “us get through the transition to a new bishop and to stay connected to what it means to us as a diocese to live as Christ calls us to live.”

Her comments followed the June release of a progress report outlining actions relating to the plan that have taken place since it was inaugurated last year. Described in April 2008 by Bishop Allen Vigneron as “moving the diocese along the path of renewal charted for us by Vatican Council II,” the plan is scheduled to be fully in place and operational by 2013.

The plan, in development for nearly two years, set forth goals, objectives, and action steps in five areas of pastoral life — sacramental renewal, faith formation and catechesis, pastoral leadership, youth and young adults, and stewardship.

An outstanding example of leadership development, Cooke said, was January’s summit at Christ the Light Cathedral in which some 400 priests, deacons, lay ecclesial ministers, parish staffs, leaders of ethnic pastoral centers, and other lay looked at leadership models and how clergy and laity can interact effectively.

Other implementation successes, according to the report, include:

• A clergy study day that introduced stewardship in relation to the pastoral plan to 150 priests.

• Confirmation workshops for Spanish-speaking parents of Confirmation candidates in two parishes. Nearly 700 people attended.

• Marriage preparation trainer workshops for over 100 people.

• Formation of a Human Solidarity Commission to organize parishioners to respond effectively to the marginalized, both locally and globally.

• The hiring of a clear-speech specialist to provide English-language development for priests for whom English is a second language.

• Development of a mentoring program for newly ordained priests.

• Spanish-speaking training day for Eucharistic ministers that drew 181 people from 22 parishes, plus two training sessions for lectors attended by 138 people from 24 parishes.

• Publication of several articles on the Eucharist in the Catholic Voice and El Heraldo to educate the laity about the sacrament’s role in the universal call to holiness.

• Sponsorship of an outreach day for Tongan youths from Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and Stockton.

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