PLAN TO RESTRUCTURE
                                               VICARIATE ANNOUNCE

          With a goal of improving its services to parishes and clusters of parishes in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Vicariate for Evangelization and Pastoral Life will merge three of its components into a new entity to be named the Office of Faith Formation, according to an announcement made last week by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.                              

          Effective May 1, the Office of Religious Education, the Office of Family Life/Respect Life and the Francis X. McDermott Diocesan Library will be subsumed into the new organizational structure, which will have eight units, each headed by an associate director. A search for a director has begun, said Msgr. Francis J. Caggiano, the Vicar for Evangelization and Pastoral Life.

          The mission of the consolidated office will be to “provide a comprehensive set of programs and resources” to assist parishes and clusters and to “address every aspect of ongoing faith formation for all the lay faithful, from birth to elder years,” he said.

          Msgr. Caggiano said implementation of the merger was the first step toward restructuring the vicariate.

          The eight constituent groups making up the Office of Faith Formation will be childhood faith formation, adolescent faith formation, adult faith formation, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), Catholic school curriculum and catechist certification, marriage ministry, pastoral resource center and respect life education.

          Msgr. Caggiano said he will seek candidates to fill the associate directorships of the childhood faith formation, pastoral resource center and respect life education units. The adolescent faith formation post will also be open, as Ellen Rhatigan, the director of young adult ministry, has been named associate director of the diocesan Office of Pastoral Planning.

          Adult faith formation will be headed by Richard Pipchinski, the RCIA program by Sister Alice Michael, SUSC, Catholic school curriculum by Nancy Azzaro and marriage ministry by Ana Puente. They hold those positions in the current structure.

          Msgr. Caggiano said the individuals whose positions are being lost through the restructuring can apply for the Office of Faith Formation director’s post or for the open associate director positions. “Every effort will be made to assist them,” he said.

          The diocesan resource center will evolve from the current library, located at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston.  It will provide audio-visual materials, DVDs, texts, magazines and other materials on pastoral ministry for use by parish leaders.

          Msgr. Caggiano said he anticipates that the open positions will be filled by May 1, in advance of a comprehensive planning process the vicariate will launch in late spring and complete by September to create shared annual goals and objectives among the offices of the vicariate “as part of a pastoral plan to serve the needs of the parishes.”

          “Faith formation is ongoing in the life of every Christian individual,” he said. “We’re looking to create an organizational structure that reflects that vision.”

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3/21/06