Pastor Meeting Nov 17

Dear Our Lady of Ransom Family,

On Tuesday, November 17 the pastors of our grouping had our initial meeting with the Renew My Church leadership from the Archdiocese of Chicago. As a reminder, the parishes (and pastors) in our grouping are: Paul of the Cross (Fr. Brito Berchmans), Our Lady of Hope (Fr. Wojciech Oleksy), Mary Seat of Wisdom (Fr. Derek Ho), St. Juliana (Fr. James Wallace), and Immaculate Conception (Fr. Matt Heinrich).

We had a tremendously positive conversation and are excited to make the next steps in positioning the Catholic Church in our area in a way that is ever-the-more able to make disciples, build communities, and inspire witness.

Fr. Jason Malave, the Cardinal's Liaison to RMC, importantly said: "Our journey is more spiritual than structural." Hopefully, that sounds familiar to you, since for the past two years we at OLR have been emphasizing how our spiritual mission must drive the structures of our Church, not the other way around. We cannot speak about Renew My Church without speaking about a lived relationship with Jesus Christ - the two go hand-in-hand.

In this meeting, we established dates beginning in January and going through Easter for bi-weekly meetings between groups from each of the 6 parishes. These meetings will form the core of the feedback that we provide to the Archdiocese. As a reminder, our group will be our Senior Leadership Team, who you can meet here.

There will also be a few opportunities for our entire community to "virtually" gather, and learn more about Renew My Church and what lasting parish renewal looks like while providing feedback on possible futures of the Catholic Church in our area.

The expectation is still that we will receive a decision from Cardinal Cupich sometime in May with changes, if any, to parish structures taking effect July 1, 2021.

The next meeting is among the pastors and the leadership of RMC and is scheduled for December 15. I would ask you to keep that meeting in your prayers as, together, we determine the best way to help our people become fruitful disciples proclaiming freedom in Christ.

He is Risen!

Fr. Matt