Bishop Wester spends afternoon with DCCW board

Intermountain Catholic

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DCCW board members and friends enjoy listening to Bishop John C. Wester as he speaks about his priorities for the Diocese of Salt Lake City following a lunch at Tucci's Cucina Italiana Restaurant. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Diocesan Council of Catholic Women board members and friends invited the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, to be their guest speaker at Tucci’s Cucina Italiana Restaurant Dec. 19.

"We’re so grateful that he took this time to meet with us," said Amy Kennedy, DCCW president and Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner. "Hearing his personal input, his pastoral ideas and how specifically it relates to what we can do as a council and as individuals inspires us."

The bishop addressed some of his priorities for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, including stewardship, the Year of Faith, the importance of Catholic Community Services, the leadership of the DCCW, the Diocesan Pastoral Council and vocations, and saved time for questions.

"Stewardship remains our number one priority in the diocese," Bishop West said, adding that the effort, which began last year, is uneven throughout the diocese. "Some parishes are very much into it, some are coasting and some are just getting starting. There are reasons for that; some of the parishes have been building and some are more organized than others."

Nevertheless, "it’s important to remember that stewardship is not a program, it’s a way of life," the bishop said. "So, in dealing with the parish and councils, you have to politely and kindly remind people that it encourages us to relate to God and with one another with an attitude of gratitude. We need to deepen our sense of stewardship because it’s spirituality; a way of being Catholic, and it’s specific and important for us as a community and as a diocese."

The bishops’s second priority is the Year of Faith, he said; the year was proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, it began Oct. 11 and ends Nov. 24, 2013. The bishop noted that the DCCW already has programs on its website that assist members in learning about the faith, celebrating the faith liturgically and living the faith through works of charity, which are the three pillars of the Year of Faith.

DCCW women are in leadership roles; people take them seriously and seek them out to answer questions, said Bishop Wester. They also have many roles as wives, mothers, single women, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, nieces and aunts, but they also have roles in the diocese, he said. "But given your many roles, what are you doing personally to engage in the Year of Faith?" he asked them, noting that his personal goal is studying the 16 chapters of the Gospel of Mark.

The DCCW has been involved with Catholic Community Services in its Refugee Resettlement program, and the bishop thanked them for supporting CCS, which he said is a vital part of the diocese.

He also spoke of the Latino Ministry pastoral plan and the fact that 80 percent of the Catholics in Utah speak Spanish. "We need to reach out to the Latinos, support them, minister to them and integrate them," he said. "We are just one diocese – parishes that flow into one diocese."

In addition, the bishop encouraged the DCCW to support the different ministries in the diocese, including the Diocesan Development Drive and its ministries and the Diocesan Pastoral Council by getting to know its representatives so they can relay suggestions or concerns. He also spoke of the importance of the role of deaneries in a diocese as large as Utah, the Intermountain Catholic newspaper and its importance as a tool for communication and faith formation in the diocese, and he asked the DCCW to pray for the vocations of priests, religious and lay ecclesial ministers.

The DCCW women said they were inspired by what the bishop had to say.

Margaret Cragin-Masarone, a Saints Peter and Paul parishioner, liked the bishop’s comment that DCCW women are leaders, she said.

"It also was very generous of him to give us his time," added Pamela Heimbecker, of Saint Thomas More Parish. "I liked his concept that we are one large diocese. In other words, communication and engagement with one another will be a key to unifying us."