March 2nd, 2009 Parish Pastoral Council Minutes The Parish Pastoral Council met on Monday, March 2nd, 2009. Members present were: Ron Greene, Laura Baker, Tony Kraus, Debbie Luedke, Pete Johnson, Mike Hagan, Carol Alvey, and Tom Hayden, Connie Caceres, John Wells, and David Danhauer. Members absent were: Juan Fernandez Staff Members present were: Fr. Carl McCarthy, Alan Sims, Kay Beth Riney, Ken Caselden, and Chris Gutierrez. Tony Kraus called the meeting to order at approximately 6:32 p.m. Opening Prayer: Carol Alvey led the opening prayer. Carol shared a wonderful prayer, which will help all of us to meditate on Lenten conversion. Approval of Previous Minutes Mike Hagan made the motion to pass the minutes from the February 2nd meeting, Carol Alvey 2nd the motion and the minutes were unanimously approved. Continuing Education: Continuing Education will be tabled for the next meeting. John Wells will lead the discussion for continuing education. Hispanic Ministry, Youth Ministry, and Senior Citizen Update: Ken gave a brief report on CHRISTeens Youth ministry. The middle school youth (7th and 8th grade youth) has participated in confirmation retreats. They have also written letters to Fr. about celebrating the sacrament of confirmation. The Owensboro Deanery Youth are being challenged to raise $3000.00 for Fr. Titus to send to Africa for the H2O project, they kicked this off at an outing that was well attended at Diamond Lanes. Ken let the council know that the gatherings are going well at the youth house and that there is an Open House planned for the weekend of March 14th and 15th after each Mass. The youth house will be blessed by Father Carl after the 6:00 p.m. Liturgy on March 15th. Fr. Carl and Ken extended an invitation to the PPC to come to the Open House and Blessing. Tom Hayden made some nice comments about the confirmation retreat. Ron Greene asked Ken about what we may need furniture wise at the house, Ken let him know that he would let the PPC know of things needed at the house as the house becomes more settled. Please see Committee Report Sheet that was handed out prior to the meeting. Chris gave the report for Hispanic Ministry. The Hispanic community will be having special Lenten spiritual exercises on March 16,17th and 18th, this will be held at the Centro Latino. There will be a Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Retreat held the weekend of April 17th-18th at Gasper River. First Communion for our Hispanic young brothers and sisters will be June 14th, “Corpus Christi Solemnity”. Chris will be attending the USCCB Justice for Immigrants Campaign in Cincinnati March 26th-28th. The practices for “V’ia Crucis” have begun and will take place on Friday evenings. The “Fiesta de Resurrection”, Eucharistic Celebration planned for Easter Sunday and after for Jesus, but Fr. Ray will be honored as well. (It is his Birthday!) Please see the Committee Report that was distributed prior to the meeting. Fr. Carl spoke about Senior Citizens Ministry. He states that Senior Citizen Potluck is growing and has doubled in the past month. The seniors were asked to come up with a name for the Ministry of the Sick and Dying, they came up with “Caring Hearts Ministry”. Fr. Carl sates that the seniors are very interested in taking on the task of helping with the “Caring Hearts Ministry”. The bus ministry (specifically Darryl Howard) will be bringing the bus riders on Friday to say the Rosary, Benediction, Mass, Stations and for the Lenten meal. Please thank Darryl for his dedication and stewardship in regards to the bus ministry. Old Business Debbie Luedke led the Ad hoc committee for the nomination and election process of PPC, discussion on changes in constitution. We will look at the presentation changes in Articles I, II, and III in April and then Vote on this in May. During the last two weekends in March there will be ballots in the pews to nominate people to the PPC. On the ballot will be a list of those who are currently on the PPC and those who will roll off this year. The nomination process will be announced in the bulletin. Good Samaritan Home Update given by Alan Simms. Alan shared with the PPC that there was a meeting planned for the diocese regarding refugee training on 03-03-09. The Parish was surprised that this meeting was called and we knew nothing of this. Suzanne Rose organized this meeting and we were not notified of this meeting prior to it being set up. Mr. James Robinson (from the immigration group in Bowling Green) said that he was coming at the request of Suzanne, and Mr. Robinson let Alan know that nothing in Washington D.C. had changed. He also stated there was little to brief a group on at this time. James has agreed to send information to Alan in regards to refugee ministry and changes to immigration legislation. Some questions came up about the makeup and status of meetings for the Social Justice Committee, as they have had no meetings in the last couple of months. Fr Carl stated that the Executive Committee would like for the Parish Council to come up with a statement to the diocese regarding the Good Samaritan home. David spoke of the statement being simple and basically stated; we should put care and contemplation into this statement. Fr. Carl explained the importance of having a boundary to let all people know that the Good Samaritan Home is not under the umbrella of any committee. Carol added that the Parish is responsible for the Good Samaritan Home. The letter will simply state the above points and be sent to all involved with social concerns including; the Owensboro Diocese head of social concerns, Dick Murphy, James Robinson, Social Justice Committee, and Suzanne Rose. It was decided that the Executive Committee will draft this letter at the next committee meeting and it will be ready for the PPC for evaluation and final consensus at the next PPC meeting. Tom Hayden gave an update on the Ministry to the Sick and Dying. Tom and Fr. Carl report that the Ministry has about fifteen volunteers and two families have already been served. Tony asked about following up with families who lose a family member, could this ministry possibly check on the family a couple of times after the families initial loss. Everyone seemed to think that this was a good idea and Fr. stated that they could devise a list and check on the widowed spouse and/or family members. Stewardship process is in full swing and the Stewardship Committee has been calling the parishioners that have not responded to Stewardship forms. They have had good success with this process. We will do home visits to parishioners that aren’t coming to Mass. We will go to them at their homes and see what we as a Parish can do. We are at about 75% answering to the Stewardship process. Fr. Carl has been in touch with Fr. Ron Knott as to how to reach out to those who haven’t responded to Stewardship and those who do not participate or come to Mass. Thanks to Alan and the Stewardship Committee they have done a super job! Alan spoke for a few moments about the February 2009 offerings, things were up some and this is a good for our current financial situation. Alan and April our going to be attending a meeting in Madisonville on 03-05-09. This meeting will focus on the current economy and its influence on the finances of Parishes. This should give April and Alan good information to help with finances at our Parish. Family Life Committee is now reinstated (was Childcare Committee). This committee is planning outreach to our families with young children and there is now a “Faith and Family Corner” in the bulletin and some other helpful information will be in the newsletter. F. DRE/CRE Committee has met and Kristen is coming up with a good job description based on the needs that the committee is coming up with for this position. The committee will meet again on Wed 03-04-2009. We will be updated as things move forward. New Business Spiritual Liturgy has asked the Parish Pastoral Council for input regarding the Easter Mass times. They would like for the times to be as follows: Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday at 6a.m., 8 a.m., and 10a.m. and 12 p.m. in Spanish. The 6 p.m. Mass will not be celebrated on Easter Sunday, it will resume the 2nd Sunday of Easter. The PPC thought that this was a good suggestion from Spiritual Liturgy. There was also some discussion about promoting the 6 a.m. Mass in the bulletin. The Parish Pastoral Council “Stations of the Cross” on Friday, February 27th were well attended, there were about 75 who were present and many who enjoyed the Lenten meal after the stations. Thanks for your participation. Fr. Carl spoke about the numbers participating in the “Journey Home” series (approximately 12-15 per meeting). Fr would like us to continue to discuss and pray about Evangelization. We are called by our Baptism to evangelize the good news of Jesus to others. We have done 3 Jesus walks with some success. Fr. Carl would like for us to be able to reach out to the 20-30 year old group, this age group is not represented well in our Parish. David spoke about making Evangelization a future goal for Sts. Joe and Paul. Chris gave a reflection on being called to evangelization and being true disciples of Jesus. Fr mentioned that he would be getting an article relating to Evangelization for us to read and think about. Thanks to Chris for a wonderful reflection and Fr. Carl for engaging the group in the discussion! St. Paul the Apostle presentation will be on March 22nd. At 3-5:30 Fr. Eugene Hensell, will be our speaker, we welcome him back to the Parish. Committee Reports – Please refer to reports included in PPC packets. Closing Prayer led by Fr. Carl. IX. Prayer leader for next month: Connie Caceres Continuing education leader: John Wells Meeting adjourned at 8:23, next meeting April 6th at 6:30. GOD BLESS!

Respectfully Submitted, Laura Baker PPC Secretary