January 15, 2012: A special note . . . . The Archdiocese is forced at this time to consider providing care and service to its people in ways different from what has been customary for many years. This issue flows from changes that have risen to critical levels, for example: *The number of Catholics actually practicing their faith regularly has dropped markedly. *Therefore those offering financial support to the works and maintenance of parishes has fallen to very low levels and *along with the drop in volunteer and financial support has come the decline in the number of priests available to serve and care for the people who are practicing their faith. These factors and more demand that we look for alternative ways to continue the mission of the Church and to offer spiritual care. This raises the question “To and for WHOM?” For the planning to be appropriate it is important that each parish have as accurate knowledge as possible of those Catholics living within their boundaries whether they are practicing their faith or not. The only way a parish can know of the presence of a Catholic individual or family in the parish is by the initiative of the individual or family to register as parishioners as soon as they are parishioners by their presence within the boundaries of the parish. From this point on waiting to register until there is a need for service or care is running the risk it may not be available because that possible need was not planned for at all since there was no knowledge of the presence of the person or persons in the parish. Are you registered in our parish? If in doubt just call and ask us.that each parish have as accurate knowledge as possible of those Catholics living within their boundaries whether they are practicing their faith or not. The only way a parish can know of the presence of a Catholic individual or family in the parish is by the initiative of the individual or family to register as parishioners as soon as they are parishioners by their presence within the boundaries of the parish. From this point on waiting to register until there is a need for service or care is running the risk it may not be available because that possible need was not planned for at all since there was no knowledge of the presence of the person or persons in the parish. Are you registered in our parish? If in doubt just call and ask us.
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January 22, 2012: [A SPECIAL NOTE] On this past Wednesday at a meeting at St. Mary Parish in Hanover for the pastors and pastoral associates of all the parishes in the South Region of the Archdiocese suggested parish pairings by the Archdiocesan Planning Commission were announced. At this point we emphasize that they are suggested and there will be opportunity for further refinement. We received word that the suggested grouping for St. Thomas More parish would change from clustering with the other two Braintree Parishes to collaborating with Sacred Heart Parish of Braintree/Weymouth. This process is just beginning throughout the Archdiocese and it will involve many conversations and meetings to discover what will be the most effective way to care for the people practicing their faith in the various parishes of the Archdiocese. We will keep you informed as we initiate a review of this suggestion. There is one important thing that you can do, however to contribute positively to this endeavor, and simply, that is to join us for Mass and pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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January 29, 2012: SOME THOUGHTS …. The draft plan for Pastoral Service Teams and parish pairings to facilitate this plan is now public knowledge and meetings to explain the proposed plan are continuing and will continue for the forseeable future. There are some things we all have to be careful about at this time such as
1.) To be sure that we see this for what it is at this time a proposed plan
2.) That we understand that this is a plan for providing care and service not a plan to close churches or parishes
3.) that we use the time ahead to review what might be the advantages or disadvantages to the various proposed pairings.
4.) that the trends driving the need for this plan i.e. declining numbers of faith practicing Catholics and declining numbers of priests available to serve those who are continuing to practice their faith are trends that are reversible with some changes of heart that might come from some serious listening to the Word of God
5.) that we all need to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we work through this process and
6.) at the very least make sure that you and your family are registered as members of a parish so that you are included among those for whom we need to plan to care. Be assured that we will do our very best to keep you informed as we move through this process.
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February 5, 2012: ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON PASTORAL SERVICE TEAMS . . . .If we are going to talk about the plan, we need to understand most of all, that it is a plan to continue to use every resource available to us to care for God’s people and to use those resources in the best way possible.Clearly we have both human resources and fiscal and physical resources. And we have blessings and problems with all of these types of resources. The major problems have been developing for a period of time and have reached the point where we absolutely have to do something to address them. The Pastoral Service Teams are an attempt to do that by reorganizing the pastoral care patterns for those giving the care and those receiving the care. [This proposed plan does not include the closing of any churches or parishes.] Ultimately the presence at or absence from the Eucharist and the fiscal support or lack thereof by the people of a parish will determine its future.There are two significant problems demanding attention. They are: the persistent decline in the number of priests and the pervasive, marked decline in the number of baptized Catholics doing what Jesus commanded when He said “Do this in memory of me.”Parishes were established and churches were built so that the people would have the opportunity to come together as a community to celebrate God’s love for them and show their love for Him. God’s love for His people hasn’t changed at all, but fewer and fewer of the people He loves are responding to His call to be fed regularly by His Word and the Bread of Life.The Pastoral Service Team approach has the potential of allowing us to address these problems with a less radical approach and provide time for God’s people to reflect and perhaps hear more clearly the call of the Father to be regularly in His presence and to minister to Him as He ministers to them.More to come . . . . . .Remember, we cannot plan to serve you if we do not know you are in the parish. If you have been receiving an annual parish appeal letter you are registered. If you have not been receiving that annual mailing, we do not have you registered. If you have a doubt, simply call during our regular office hours and we can tell you if we have you as a registered parishioner.
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FEBRUARY 12: We have included a two-page insert with this week’s bulletin for your reading and review in your own good time [SEE LINKS BELOW TO DIOCESE WEBSITE AND DOCUMENTS]. It lists and describes the four general principles used by the Pastoral Planning Commission in developing the pastoral service team plan with pastoral collaboratives and the six specific criteria used in determining the 127 proposed pastoral collaboratives in the Archdiocese of Boston.Remember, we cannot plan to serve you if we do not know you are in the parish. If you have been receiving an annual parish appeal letter you are registered. If you have not been receiving that annual mailing, we do not have you registered. If you have a doubt, simply call during our regular office hours and we can tell you if we have you as a registered parishioner.See our parish website www.stmparish.org for easy links to the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Planning website www.planning2012.com and related documents and information.
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FEBRUARY 19: What is happening now in individual parishes are the things preliminary to assessing whether the proposed pairings are appropriate and workable. It is very important that this be done because over the years things can come to get done almost automatically without evaluating who does them and what time and effort is involved. Now we have to be sure those things are noted and considered. But it is very important that everyone understand that while there are several factors driving this effort, the primary one at this time is the ever-diminishing number of priests and the ever increasing ages of the priests still remaining to serve. The aging process is not controllable. The vocation issue is the responsibility of the whole church not just the priests presently serving God’s people. In the not too distant future time will be be made for you to have your thoughts about the proposed plan heard.Remember, we cannot plan to serve you if we do not know you are in the parish. If you have been receiving an annual parish appeal letter you are registered. If you have not been receiving that annual mailing, we do not have you registered. If you have a doubt, simply call during our regular office hours and we can tell you if we have you as a registered parishioner.See our parish website www.stmparish.org for easy links to the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Planning website www.planning2012.com and related documents and information.
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February 26, 2012 -- The Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission (APPC) has begun a series of 20 vicariate consultations with council members of parishes to discuss proposals to strengthen parishes for the mission of evangelization in the Archdiocese. At these meetings the APPC is providing materials regarding the proposed plan and pairings as well as tools to conduct sessions at the parish level so that we may hear your thoughts on whether the proposed plan and pairings are appropriate and workable. Following our vicariate consultation next month, we will proceed with ways for you to discuss the pastoral planning efforts of the Archdiocese.In an effort to continue to provide information about the process as well as our parish to you, this week’s insert is a map [click HERE] of our parish boundaries, the street listings [click HERE] and the portion of Braintree within the parish boundaries of Sacred Heart parish. Remember, we cannot plan to serve you if we do not know you are in the parish. If you have been receiving an annual parish appeal letter you are registered. If you have not been receiving that annual mailing, we do not have you registered. If you have a doubt, simply call during our regular office hours and we can tell you if we have you as a registered parishioner.
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March 4, 2012: PASTORAL PLANNING . . . . What is this Pastoral Planning fuss all about? Simply it’s about aligning our resources to be able to spiritually care for people as best we can with the resources available to do so.The Church has human resources, physical resources, and fiscal resources. Sadly in 2012 the Church of Boston finds itself with problems in each of these resource areas – problems severe enough to demand a reorganization of how we position our human resources and how we use our physical and fiscal resources.If one wants to take the time to look, it is not hard to identify the problems, especially the main ones:1.) The number of ordained priests available for care of the people continues to drop markedly, with the average age of the remaining priests climbing higher. These two factors have an impact on service and care.2.) At the same time, the number of people gathering to do the work of God’s people i.e. celebrating the Eucharist is diminishing with a correlating diminishing of fiscal resources which makes the maintenance of the physical resources more difficult. This diminishment pattern is not new, but has now reached the point where failure to act is not an option. Thus the Pastoral Service Team plan which is being proposed. We owe it to ourselves to give it a fair and thoughtful consideration while asking ourselves what we personally might do to reverse the trend from one of diminishing to one of increasing.correlating diminishing of fiscal resources which makes the maintenance of the physical resources more difficult. This diminishment pattern is not new, but has now reached the point where failure to act is not an option. Thus the Pastoral Service Team plan which is being proposed. We owe it to ourselves to give it a fair and thoughtful consideration while asking ourselves what we personally might do to reverse the trend from one of diminishing to one of increasing.
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MARCH 11, 2012: PASTORAL PLANNING . . . . As we have stated in past bulletins, beginning last December, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission (APPC) has been conducting a series of three rounds of consultations with priests, parish staffs, parish pastoral and finance council members all across the Archdiocese regarding the proposed Pastoral Service Team plan and the proposed collaborative parish pairings. Each parish is expected to consult with its parishioners and provide feedback to the APPC as well. After receiving input from the consultations, the APPC will then prepare a final recommendation to Cardinal Seán for his decision. This week some members of St. Thomas More parish attended the third round consultation and obtained materials regarding the proposed plan and pairings and some tools to conduct a parish “town meeting” to hear YOUR thoughts on whether the proposed plan and the pairing with Sacred Heart Parish is appropriate and workable. It is important that(1) You read each week the information provided in the bulletin (all current and past statements and bulletin inserts are available at www.stmparish.org);(2) Check out the information at www.planning2012.com;(3) Watch for announcements regarding the parish “town meeting”. We hope to give you plenty of notice as to the date and to provide you with materials and information for you to review and consider; and(4) Attend the open “town meeting” and give your feedback. By May 1 we will need to deliver “homework” (you can see a copy on the planning website) to the APPC with our comments and feedback. This will be your opportunity TO BE HEARD! As this process continues, keep in mind that we owe it to ourselves to give the proposed plan a fair and thoughtful consideration while asking ourselves what we personally might do to reverse the current trend from one of diminishing to one of increasing.
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March 18, 2012: PASTORAL PLANNING . . . . In preparation for a parish-wide review of the proposed Pastoral Service Team plan and the proposed collaborative parish pairings, we have been collecting information about our parish and hope to do the same regarding Sacred Heart parish. Last month we showed you where we are in terms of parish boundaries. As of today, based on the information available to us in our parish database this is who we are: 1587 Families/Households (Single Adults, Couples, Couples with Children, Single Adult with Child(ren) with 4,911 “souls” are currently registered in St. Thomas More parish. In order to plan for the future, that number needs to be as accurate as possible. If you have any doubt as to whether you are registered, please call the parish office (781-843-1980) during office hours (Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) and we’ll gladly check our database. As this process continues, it will also be very important for us to be able to communicate with as many people as possible using all means available to us – this bulletin, our parish website (www.stmparish.org), “snail mail”, and e-mail. At this time we have current e-mail addresses for the families with children in our Religious Education program. We would like to update and increase the number of e-mail addresses we have for all other parishioners so that we can occasionally communicate important information regarding planning in a more economical and timely manner. Please click HERE to provide us with a FAMILY E-MAIL to be used by St. Thomas Parish for important communications! We respect your privacy and do not give or sell our e-mails lists to anyone. We would like to have one family member’s e-mail address be designated as the “family’s e-mail address”, but feel free to give us additional e-mail addresses if you so choose.
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APRIL 8, 2012
PASTORAL PLANNING - APRIL 8, 2012
Have YOU Heard?
PASTORAL PLANNING FOR CATHOLIC PARISHES
INCLUDING ST. THOMAS MORE HAS BEGUN.
NOW is the time for YOU to HEAR and BE HEARD!
Choice of 2 PARISH TOWN MEETINGS in the Church Hall
·April 21 (after 4:00 p.m. Mass) OR
·April 29 (6:30 p.m.)
PLEASE COME
·Listen AND ·Give Your Input & Feedback

APRIL 15, 2012: [THINGS CHANGE . . . ]
By April of 1938 the people of this area of Braintree had convinced the Archbishop of Boston William Cardinal O’Connell that the people living here needed their own parish and would commit themselves to building a church and supporting the parish. Their request was granted and the parish of Saint Thomas More was established on April 27, 1938 with the first Mass being offered in the new church on November 3, 1940.
As the parish approaches its 75th anniversary in 2013, a careful look finds that many things have changed in the parish over those years and in the society in which we live today and in the manner in which people who have been baptized in the Catholic faith practice their faith, or neglect the practice of their faith.
One major area of change is the number of priests available for the service of the people. For example, in 2005 the Boston Archdiocese had 486 priests ordained for Boston serving in the Archdiocese. As of March of 2012 that number was down to 372 (-114). Priests are as subject to the limitations of the human condition as any other person. It is not reasonable to expect a priest of 70 to have the same stamina he had at 29.
Although in different ways this proposed plan will elicit an openness to change from priests, deacons, laity in professional positions in parishes, and all parishioners as well. With trust in Jesus, a deep love for the Church He founded and left for us, and a willingness to listen to the guidance of His Holy Spirit, hopefully we can work together as adopted children of the same Father to establish a pattern of care for the pastoral needs of those God has entrusted to our spiritual care.