Assistant Editor
A series of regional meetings in the Albany Diocese has introduced a new communications effort looking toward the 21st century.
"We Are All God's Priestly People," a video produced by the diocesan Catholic Communications Office, is a 13-minute interview with Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and other diocesan and Church leaders on their vision of the Church in the coming millennium.
The video was shown at the meetings, and each parish in the Diocese has received its own copy, along with a list of suggested uses for it and a new diocesan booklet defining parish ministries (see related story).
The video calls for lay participation in parish life as a necessity to the continued growth of the Church.
"Each of us has a responsibility for the mission of the Church," the Bishop states in the video. "When we are baptized into the Christian family, we become a person in which the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling. We have a call to ministry to bring about the mission of Jesus in the world today."
Before the Second Vatican Council, he adds, the clergy were seen as responsible for teaching, ruling and sanctifying in parishes, while the laity's role was simply to be taught, ruled and sanctified, as well as to financially support their parish.
Today, however, "the involvement of the laity in the life of the Church is very important. Each of us has talents that we are called to utilize."
As vital as lay participation, he comments, is the pastor's willingness to work with parish staff, the parish council and the parish community.
Quoted in the video are such experts as Brother Loughlan Sofield, ST, keynote speaker at last year's Parish Convening; Jerrie Goewey, former director of the diocesan Family Life Office; and Rev. Christopher DiGiovine, campus minister to the College of St. Rose in Albany.
The video concludes with a challenge to laity to rekindle "that spirit of faith, love and service that existed in the Apostolic Church."
The Albany Diocese will show "We Are All God's Priestly People" in a half-hour slot on Time-Warner cable on a date to be announced shortly. To accompany the video, a companion piece was filmed in which Bishop Hubbard, Jerrie Goewey and Father DiGiovine discuss their reactions to the issues presented and practical applications of the Bishop's ideas.
Several parishes have already begun to use the video. St. Joseph's parish in Rensselaer used the video as a homily during Masses one weekend in September; other parishes have decided to play it for new parish council members or other parish ministers. When the video is shown on local cable stations, individuals are encouraged to watch and tape it.
"I am confident, knowing the people of this Diocese as I do," the Bishop says in the video's commentary, "that we can address these challenges and opportunities and move into the future not with fear and apprehension, but with hope and optimism " the hope and optimism that comes from knowing that we are indeed God's priestly people, and nothing but nothing can separate us from the power of God's love."