After a very brief day of rest, I hit the road again on Monday.  The Casper Catholic Community is celebrating the completion of a beautiful, new Catholic School these days.  Monday evening, a very joyous crowd gathered to dedicate the chapel. 

For several years, a dedicated group of visionaries and benefactors have worked hard with local pastors and parish leaders to make this dream a reality.  It is nothing short of a miracle, in days when many Catholic Schools are closing, that this community made a serious commitment to not only re-invigorate their efforts around recruiting and providing for a solid, excellent Catholic education.

We had a great celebration, and everyone enjoyed getting a first look around.  Congratulations, Casper Catholics!

Tuesday morning was filled with meetings in advance of the beginning of our annual clergy September Institute.  This year, we have devoted the whole time to preparing our clergy for the implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal.  Rev. Paul Turner of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph is sharing a wealth of knowledge and history with us.  It is both informative and entertaining.  Our clergy should be well prepared to preside with these new translations, and we should be better equipped to begin preparing our Catholic parishes for the same transition.

We also began our institute with a few hours just for me to address the clergy.  My primary topic this institute is the preparations for our diocese to begin a strategic pastoral planning process.  As a part of this time, I shared for the first time, publicly, my vision statement for the diocese.  I feel it was well received.  I’m trying now to find the best way to make it available on this blog…stay tuned.

Our institute will conclude at noon Thursday.  Then, we will implement a new Diocesan Pastoral Council.  I’ll have more to say on that in the near future.  So, the calendar is pretty full these days!  God bless,

+PDE

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