The Archbishop of Seville, Jose Angel Saiz Menesespresented this Sunday during the evening mass at the Cathedral his first Diocesan Pastoral Plan for the Archdiocese of Seville. A project that intends to serve as an orientation “to all of us who carry out the performance of the pastoral task in our beloved Archdiocese, and in response to the call of the Holy Father to walk together in the life and mission of the Church, in synodality and living the spirituality of communion”.
The document prepared by Saiz Meneses proposes a series of lines of action for the five-year period that will end in 2027. The diocesan Church will receive this project which, according to the Archdiocese, “will gather the feeling of the diocesan Church». The prelate, addressing the priests and deacons, explained that this Pastoral Plan should serve “to give continuity to the work that is being done in the Archdiocese” and “response to the challenges of the Church at the present time”.
Its president has been the priest Antonio Vergara, who explained that “with this initiative, proposed directly by the archbishop, we wanted to show that in the diocesan Church we are listening; that is, that this Pastoral Plan it has not been done solely ‘from above’but it has had the participation of all the social reality that is lived in the different parishes and ecclesial institutions»
The new pastoral plan prepared by Monsignor Saiz Meneses will have five courses of duration and is structured in four blocks. First, ‘Missionary disciples called to holiness‘, focuses its actions on Christian formation, community welcome and missionary conversion “to be true evangelizing apostles”, present in different areas. The second, ‘A house with open doors‘, proposes actions to intensify the celebratory dimension and the life of prayer. The third block, ‘A family on the way out‘, is aimed at the geographical and existential peripheries, with the idea of energizing charitable and social action. And finally, the fourth section, ‘The joy of being the People of God‘, will help to continue growing in communion, co-responsibility and synodality. At the beginning of each course they will send a letter from the Archdiocese to the priests with the actions that must be carried out in said course.
The first block of this Pastoral Plan 2022-2027, ‘Missionary disciples called to holiness’, seeks to offer a formative itinerary according to age (childhood, adolescence, youth and adulthood) that promotes catechesis and evangelization; expand the academic offer of the Faculty of Theology intended for the laity, complementing the own existing titles, with the elaboration of courses, especially biblical and Social Doctrine of the Church, for the service to the parishes, ecclesial movements and brotherhoods; constitute in the parishes a «host team» that facilitates integration into the parish and diocesan community and reports on the various projects and pastoral activities of the parish and the Archdiocese; Strengthen and coordinate the evangelizing presence in the media and social networks, with an evangelization plan in collaboration with the different diocesan pastoral authorities; encourage parish diocesan missions.
The block named ‘A house with open doors‘ Seeks to encourage participation in Eucharistic adoration and the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours in the parishes and convents of the Archdiocese and extend the opening hours of the temples; celebrate obsequies and masses for the dead as privileged occasion of evangelization; promote the participation and experience of Sunday Eucharists “so that the community dimension of the parishes is strengthened”; promove prayer groups, that help to grow in spiritual and community life; and revitalize the administration and celebration of the sacraments of healing: reconciliation and communal anointing of the sick.
When Saiz Meneses mentions ‘A family on the way out‘ tries to address the creation of an ‘Observatory of Social Reality’an entity that will offer from the Archdiocese an analysis on the situations of poverty and exclusion Social, raising awareness and proposing solutions. For this, the Episcopal Vicariate for Social Pastoral will be responsible for preparing a guide with these social action resources. Also, The Parish Caritas will be energized and its archpriestal coordination, parish groups will be promoted that promote charitable and social action in specific projects and specific services will be offered to young people within the social ministry.
It will be in the last block (‘The joy of being the People of God‘) in which the structures of communion and the conversion needed to live more and better ecclesial communion and co-responsibility in the evangelizing mission. Here the archbishop proposes the celebration of the II International Congress of Brotherhoods and Popular Religiosity, in addition to promoting in the parishes the Parish Pastoral Council, integrating all the realities of his pastoral environment. He also mentions the revitalization of meetings for pastoral areas in the diocese, the promotion of coordination between parish priests, religion teachers and educational centers and the integration of brotherhoods, movements and other diocesan realities in parish life.
The archbishop presents his pastoral plan for Seville: five years to continue evangelization