14 Comments

Nice work, Caitlin!

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Without wanting to seem unduly critical of something that seems to be working, I would love to see dioceses and parishes say “we are a discipleship parish”. Then stewardship would come as a matter of course. Stewardship and discipleship are related, but the former flows from the latter. Discipleship shouldn’t be taken for granted.

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I'm curious whether there are a lot of homeschooling families in that diocese. Homeschooling isn't free--the materials and so on cost actual money, and it usually involves one parent foregoing a lot of income. It could be hard for homeschooling families to donate a full 10% of their income. But maybe that's not an issue for some reason.

I'm also curious whether the expectation is to give 10% of pre-tax income, or of post-tax income.

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Disappointed in Wichita!

As priest of the diocese of Wichita, it bothers me that the Catholic world does not know about the wonderful things that have been happening in our unique diocese in the heart of America. If you want to know what Stewardship actually is, this article will not really help you. It wasn’t poorly written, but the author does not have the adequate research necessary for such an important topic. The title is a contradiction in itself—does it really work? I would say over 25 years and still going answers that question.

It is amazing how many people discount the only Stewardship Diocese in the USA. For example, she moves on from what is going to be an informative article on stewardship to:

“But the stewardship model means that almost all Catholic schoolchildren come from families of active Catholics — leaving little room for non-Catholics to be exposed to the faith.”

We’re very sorry for taking the opportunity to make sure our own Catholics are part of the New Evangelization by starting in house. Okay what’s the alternative? Does she prefer the overpriced Catholic schools in other dioceses all over the nation that make it nearly impossible for non-rich Catholics to get a Catholic education. Are they evangelizing non-Catholics? I would argue they aren’t. That’s the point, the rich non-Catholics and the poor people use them for an education and sports and leave the school without a thought of being Catholic. Is that really evangelizing? Is LeBron James a Catholic because he was evangelized by the Catholic Church in the Catholic school he attended? He doesn’t seem to be a Catholic. There are other ways to do outreach by the way.

Now, if she had done a little more research, St. Anne’s, St. Patrick’s, St. Margaret Mary are examples of city parishes that are overwhelmingly Hispanic providing tuition free Catholic education for children most of whom come from poor families who have entered the country without much knowledge of Catholicism even though they are nominal Catholics. Is trying to help them evangelizing enough for the author?

The actual title of the article should have been ‘What Wichita does is cute and all, but it will never work in a real diocese-and really it’s just okay, nothing special.”

In case you don’t agree:

“There are trade-offs to the stewardship model in Wichita, too.”

This is where the author is going to give some negative feedback, but it’s quite ridiculous off-base if you live in Wichita parish.

How about this for trade-offs:

Perpetual Adoration!

Consistently outperforming large dioceses in per capita seminarians!

An average priestly age of around 40 years old! Did you hear that Pillar?! 40 years avg age of priests!!!!

Not having to close schools and parishes!

Having flourishing parish communities!

Greater percentage of Sunday Mass attendance than most of the rest of the country!—-are you taking notes yet?!

Catholic schools that outperform their public school counterparts for way less money than a typical rich Catholic school!

Nope nothing to see here—please move on to the non-fantasy version of the Catholic faith in a typical diocese where the lowest common denominator is king. Why not talk about the big picture of what’s going on in our diocese. An abundance of fruit has been born, and almost completely ignored by the author.

A break from reality:

“Snyder told The Pillar that the stewardship approach would not likely work at the current levels of Catholic giving in many parts of the United States.”

Please! What if tithing meant tuition free Catholic education?! Do you think people might give more than 2% then?!

Everyone, not just some, everyone of the graduates that I’ve talked to from my alma mater, the University of Dallas, can’t believe what is happening in Wichita, and would gladly tithe knowing that they were actually going to get a tangible return on their investment.

Are there struggles with stewardship? Yes. Is the diocese of Wichita perfect? No. However, I would put it up against any other diocese in this country as a whole. At least, we aren’t following the status quo and watching everything disintegrate before our eyes. Maybe someday a journalist will take sometime and travel to Wichita so they can get a real sense of what a Stewardship diocese actually is. I doubt it will ever happen, because we’ve been knocking it out of the park for years and all we get in return are articles like this that move on before barely scratching the surface.

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Great article. Thanks for investigating!

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This was taken from a longer comment addressing the article's tone and concerns (sub stack objected to the length):

As for the question, “Does it work?” Here, from my perspective and experiences on the ground as a parishioner and parent, it does work! But when it comes to the question of would it work elsewhere? I think we need to ask and consider what exactly is meant by “It”? If “it” is the financial funding, then *possibly* not, as the article outlines. But what if “it” meant ensuring that catholic families felt supported by their parishes and dioceses as they do the hard, daily work of raising catholics in a world and culture that is increasingly hostile to the faith?

I feel incredibly supported by my priests, our parish school and our parish community. This feeling of support (financial, spiritual, moral, educational, sacramental) helps me to feel a sense of security in my identity as a catholic, which then empowers me to also do the other, difficult work of service and evangelization in the forms that I am currently called to, both for my fellow catholics and my fellow man. I am confident that my catholic community cares, in tangible ways, for the well-being of my children’s souls and for the future of this catholic community. Do Catholics across the United States feel as I do? I am fairly confident that I am more the norm than the exception here in Wichita. Is this a normative experience in other places? If so, how exactly do priests and administrators know this? If not, why not? What could be done to change that? Is it not something that should be changed?

I would respectfully challenge priests and school administrators to start asking questions like these of themselves and their parishioners: Do we serve you? And enable you to serve each other? How can we (better) serve you? How can we find a “place” and a way for each parishioner to be active participants in the community, social and spiritual life of the parish? And to use their gifts and talents to glorify God? Do parishioners feel supported and served by your churches and schools? Especially when it comes to financial burdens and the Church’s teaching on marriage, family planning and sexuality? Why? Or why not? Importantly, HOW? Are there parishioners who feel left out, unwelcomed, shut out? Do our institutions structurally perpetuate class stratification within the church, by unnecessarily emphasizing the differences in financial situations between different members? Where and how can your support for families become more tangible for those families who may not feel very supported currently? Would a catholic education for every catholic child in your parish be a worthwhile goal? A possible one? If not, why?? Is it a question of funding, or of culture? Are there changes to be made in either funding or culture to better support and value catholic education? Do we really value catholic education and its potential for shaping souls and our communities? If we say that we value it, how?

Do other places need to adopt the “stewardship model” to successfully foster strong parish communities? Not necessarily. But! The catholic institutions and hierarchy do need to be asking themselves how and what they can do to better support families as they take on the difficult work of raising children in the faith. In this, Wichita certainly does and can provide an interesting model, perhaps not for a 1:1 imitation, but certainly as it shows that something other than the norm is possible when we combine a deep commitment to the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity with flexibility, sacrifice and imaginative problem solving.

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Dec 13, 2021Liked by JD Flynn

Seems to me that Wichita has actually achieved something that would be the envy of most dioceses. Many dioceses in the East and other areas of the country are closing churches, combining parishes and struggling with declining mass attendance, particularly among the youth.

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