The announcement pleasantly surprised many in attendance for the St. Jude Medal Awards Prayer Service. The Plan officially launched the next day, October 28th, the Feast of St. Jude the Apostle, patron of our Diocese.

“I think it can rightly be said that though I, as bishop, am the one who promulgates this Pastoral Plan, it is truly a plan which is from the ground up. It came from you. It comes from our priests, our deacons, our lay people, and this is the fruit of what we have heard from you,” said Bishop Parkes, referring to over 150 listening sessions that were held in the five counties of the Diocese starting in 2021. These sessions were held in union with churches across the globe for the universal Synod on Synodality.  The word synod generally refers to a habit of mutual listening, dialogue, and collective discernment.

Father Gary Dowsey is a local priest who served on a Task Force to develop the Pastoral Plan. He was glad to see the bishop announce the Plan to many parishioners and priests from across the Diocese.

“It was a great opportunity to present the Pastoral Plan, and I could feel that everyone around me was truly ready to embrace it. I feel very excited about the next five years. It's good to have a vision. It's good to know where we're going. It's good to have something to work from, but it's also good to have a plan that we're all united behind and that we can work together to courageously live the Gospel,” said Father Dowsey, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish, in Trinity.

The new Pastoral Plan calls for bold measures at the parish level to ensure that a pastor and his staff consult with parishioners on strategic initiatives such as changing Mass times or building renovations. This coincides with newly released recommendations from the Universal Synod on Synodality to implement Parish Pastoral Councils.  A Call to Conversion calls for every parish to have an effective Parish Pastoral Council, that includes members of the parish’s cultural communities, to serve as a consultative body to the pastor.

Here are some other goals of the new Plan:

• Expand Pinellas Hope and Tampa Hope, the diocesan homeless shelters managed by Catholic Charities, into Pasco, Citrus, and Hernando counties.
• Open a new Catholic elementary school to be built on the campus of St. Anne Parish in Ruskin by August of 2026.
• Challenge Catholics to increase acts of mercy, such as feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and sheltering the homeless.
• A diocesan-wide effort to promote the Sacrament of Reconciliation at our parishes and schools in union with the Jubilee Year 2025.
• A diocesan-wide event, Eucharistic Encounter, will be offered as part of the Jubilee Year 2025 celebration.
• Encourage everyone to grow in holiness and discipleship.

“The foundational goal upon which the whole plan is built is that we will value and place God first among everything in our lives, upon all that we do, in our personal lives, in our parish lives, in our families. We will place God first,” said Bishop Parkes.

This foundational goal is for all individuals, families, parishes, and schools to take to heart. We can do this by:

1. As individuals and families, think and pray about how we can put God first in our lives and in our decisions. 
2. As a community of believers, commit to valuing God’s gift of life from conception to natural death and advocating for those who have no voice or whose voice has been silenced.
3. As parishes and schools, look at our policies, practices, and activities and ask if they reflect God’s will for His people and His Church, and do they serve as pathways to lead people into a deeper relationship with Christ.

Bishop Parkes has asked all parishes in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties to show a launch video about the Pastoral Plan during the month of November.

To read the entire plan, visit www.CalltoConversion.org.