Diocesan Planning Department created
By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor
PISCATAWAY — Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski announced the creation of the Department of Diocesan Planning and introduced its first executive director, Jeffry Korgen, at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center Sept. 16.
Diocesan staff welcomed Korgen with a prayer service that included hymns and readings that emphasized a spirit of collaboration in building the kingdom of God in the Diocese of Metuchen.
The Department of Diocesan of Planning will be responsible for promoting strategic planning, deanery and diocesan pastoral council development, research and synod implementation. As head of the department, Korgen will work with the Commission for Synod Implementation and report to Msgr. William Benwell, vicar general and moderator of the curia.
Addressing diocesan employees, Bishop Bootkoski said the new department was recommended by the Commission for Synod Implementation for successful implementation of the synod norms.
“They concluded that successful implementation of the synod norms which are so interrelated and which touch on so many aspects of diocesan life, would involve a new spirit of collaboration among each one of us and new structures that would foster new dialogue,” the bishop said.
“I want to say here that a great deal of thoughtfulness, successful cooperation and planning has marked the history of our diocese,” the bishop continued. “But as we grow, the challenges continue to grow even more and become more complex. So has the need for planning in a more coordinated and comprehensive manner. In response to their recommendations it is my pleasure to formally announce the creation of a new department, the Department of Diocesan Planning.
“I believe this department will not only help us continue the good work we are doing but give us a new spirit of both collaboration and cooperation by fostering new conversations between departments and offices, and between departments, offices and our parishes, where the mission of the diocese is truly lived out. I believe this department will unite us more deeply not only in our planning but in living the mission of our diocese.”
Before introducing Korgen, Msgr. Benwell emphasized the role of the synod in the establishment of the department.
“This is not about a person; this is not about the announcement of a new employee,” he said.
“I see today as the best sign yet that the synod has made a difference, that it was as the bishop promised that it would be, an activity that will not end in futility. If there was no synod, we would not be gathered in this space this afternoon. We would not be embarking on a new way of doing business, a new way of doing mission. If there was no synod there would be no Department of Diocesan Planning... I consider today the first great legacy of our first diocesan synod.”
Msgr. Benwell said the search committee that was appointed to recruit a director of diocesan planning was impressed by Korgen’s vision, energy and commitment to the universal church.
Prior to joining the diocese’s leadership team, Korgen worked at the National Pastoral Life Center in New York where he served as secretary of the Roundtable Association for Diocesan Social Action Directors as well as secretary of the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development. Previously he was a social justice educator for the Archdiocese of New York’s Department of Social and Community Development.
Pastoral planning
In an interview with The Catholic Spirit, Korgen described pastoral planning as the intersection of mission and accountability.
“I look at planning as praying and thinking about how the body of Christ acts in this place and time,” he said, stressing the need for planning to be done in consultation with pastoral leadership. “An office of diocesan planning should be about facilitating that.”
In applying for the executive director position, Korgen said he found his vision for diocesan planning matched that of the search committee charged with finding a leader for the new department.
“I wanted to be part of a diocesan planning process that involved getting groups of committed parishioners, pastors, deacons and religious together with lay ecclesial ministers from those parishes to really figure out what direction they want to go in,” Korgen said.
He synthesizes that process into one question: “How do we act as the body of Christ in this place and time?”
Korgen said that for the first 100 days, until Christmas, he will be doing a lot of listening. His goal is to meet with every pastor in the diocese as well as the heads of the various diocesan ministries.
In addition, an important task for the new department will be to provide “good, understandable demographic data” to the parishes, Korgen said.
“Canon law talks about a pastor being responsible for all the souls in the parish boundaries. An office like this should be able to provide them with good understandable data about the souls in the parish boundaries so they can better plan what the ministries of the parish will be,” he said.
Korgen said his department will be working closely with the Department of Formation and Leadership, headed by Father Robert W. Medley, which has responsibility for pastoral council development.
“Parish pastoral councils are seen around the country as a consultative structure for planning within the parish,” Korgen said.
Synod implementation
Korgen stressed building upon the success of the synod with a relational approach to planning and developing consultative structures.
“You had this great synod that really lifted up a really attractive vision for the diocese. How do you live that now? That’s going to require a plan with measurable outcomes to it. I see that process as one of building on what’s already happened. Synod implementation is about taking it to the next step,” he said.
While describing a synod as a “great planning tool,” Korgen emphasized the need to engage the pastors and parishes in its implementation.
“In the church in the United States, the parish is where the church lives. This cannot be a process that is done in isolation from pastoral leadership,” he said.
Called to ministry
Korgen’s interest in ministry began while he was serving as a drug abuse prevention specialist working with peer leadership groups of teenagers who wanted to both stay off drugs themselves and help kids their own age resist using drugs.
Working in the field, he found that there were few drug abuse prevention programs that actually worked. He did, however, learn of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous, a recovery program that emphasizes spirituality and a relationship with a higher power.
“I kept asking questions like why aren’t we talking about spirituality in preventing drug abuse?” Korgen said, but the last thing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wanted was to have someone preaching in the public schools.
“They really were discouraging and I thought well maybe what I needed to do was go into ministry,” he said.
Feeling called to family life, he learned that there were opportunities for lay people to do ministry. He earned master’s degrees in pastoral ministry and social work at Boston College.
Korgen was baptized in the Methodist tradition and came into the Roman Catholic Church through his encounter with Catholic social teaching at Boston College and his friendships with the monks of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, La.
He lives in Montclair with his wife, sociologist Kathleen Odell Korgen, and their two daughters.
He is the author of Solidarity Will Transform the World: Stories of Hope from Catholic Relief Services published by Orbis Books (2007) and My Lord and My God!: Engaging Catholics in Social Ministry (Paulist Press, 2007) and is co-editor of Living God’s Justice: Reflections and Prayers (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2006). His articles on community organizing, Catholic social teaching, pastoral planning and youth ministry have appeared in publications such as America, Social Policy and Church.
