February 20, 2010
Mentoring program aims to help new pastors, build fraternity
Father Mervin Concepcion, parochial administrator of Holy Family Parish in Weed and Holy Cross Parish in Tulelake, says participating in the Mantle of Elijah mentoring program will help him meet the challenges of his first pastorate. Herald file photo
By Julie Sly
Herald editor
When Father Mervin Concepcion was ordained a priest in 2003, like any new priest he faced a sharp learning curve as he began his ministry. While studies at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park had given him a solid foundation of theological knowledge about the church and its ministry, he still had much to learn.
As parochial vicar of St. John the Baptist Parish in Folsom for two years and Good Shepherd Parish in Elk Grove for two years, he had supervising pastors who could help him to learn the day-to-day work of pastoral ministry.
Now, as parochial administrator of Holy Family Parish in Weed and Holy Cross Parish in Tulelake, he is on his own in his first pastorate, with all of its joys, struggles and challenges. But he now has something more to help in his ministry: a mentor in the diocese’s new Mantle of Elijah program, who will accompany him on his journey as a new pastor.
The program started in late 2009 and now includes 17 diocesan priests — seven mentors and 10 mentees — as participants.
As envisioned by Mantle of Elijah, the mentor is neither a spiritual adviser nor supervisor, but helps the newly-appointed pastor integrate the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral dimensions of his new role.
“It’s invaluable to have a mentor,” said Concepcion, a native of the Philippines. “I’ll be able to talk about things I might not have discussed with previous pastors with whom I served. This is a different type of relationship, where my mentor can give me a more objective point of view than someone who is immersed in the situation.”
Concepcion, who began as parochial administrator of the two parishes on July 1 last year, noted that “being a new pastor isn’t just about saying Mass or celebrating the sacraments. You have to be a leader and administrator. In learning these roles it’s helpful to have somebody to share your struggles and give you input.”
He hopes the mentoring program will “help me overcome the challenges of being a new pastor and help me feel that I’m not alone, but walking together with someone who has met these challenges before.”
Father Keith Canterbury, a retired priest of the diocese who served for 12 years as pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Weaverville and is mentoring three new pastors, said he expects to benefit from the mentoring relationship. He will meet monthly with each of the mentees.
“I think it will be a great experience for many reasons,” he said. “Mentoring can help connect and unite the priests. These young pastors are working with their parish communities for the first time and it’s sometimes hard to handle the stresses that are part of that experience. It will help me better understand the younger priests and help us to have mutual respect for each other’s generation of priests.”
Father Canterbury described the mentoring relationship as “close enough so that the new pastor can call on me at any time. It’s more about listening to what he needs to talk about. It’s just lending a hand and sharing your own experiences when it is appropriate.”
Another mentor in the program, Father Blaise Berg, a priest for 12 years and pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish and the Newman Catholic Community in Chico, said good mentoring grows out of and reinforces good priesthood.
“I hope I can offer my experience and act as a sounding board for my mentee with any situations he will encounter,” he said. “I’ll also be praying for him and walking with him in any difficulties.”
Father Matthew Blank, a mentee in Mantle of Elijah who became parochial administrator of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Truckee last July, hopes one of the benefits of the program will be to help him deal with “practical pastoral situations” that face a new pastor. “It will be good to have a priest mentor who can offer his experience on many questions of pastoral practice,” he said.
Sulpician Father James Myers, director of the Vatican II Institute of St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, which offers Mantle of Elijah to dioceses, presented an orientation to the mentoring program last fall to diocesan priests who are participants.
The program seeks to empower priest mentors to pass on their wisdom to a new generation of priests, he said. He noted that the mentor does not replace the spiritual director or other coaches that the priest may have in his personal or professional life, but he works alongside those to help integrate the pastor’s new experiences into his priestly identity.
Bishops across the United States recognize they must do more to support three groups of priests in their respective dioceses — the newly-ordained, the newly-arrived and newly-appointed pastors, Father Myers said. Mantle of Elijah has been adapting to meet the needs of these three groups of priests within dioceses, he added.
“Priests in the U.S. have more demands on them now than perhaps any other era in our country’s history,” he said. “But we have to ask, what do we want for them, rather than just asking what we want from them. We’re living in a changing church landscape that calls priests and pastors into new collaborative ministerial relationships and new systems of delivery.”
Father Myers characterized the context of priestly ministry today as “fewer and fewer priests doing more work and more alone, in a culturally-diverse setting where we don’t know each other as well as in previous decades.” He said dioceses on the West Coast face significantly different circumstances than East Coast dioceses because of the scarcity of priests, the distances between parishes served by one priest, and the multicultural makeup of the presbyterates of dioceses.
“The support systems that priests used to have just aren’t there anymore,” he said. “The question is how to develop relationships so priests can thrive and the life of a priest can be more joyfully lived.”
Mantle of Elijah encourages bishops and diocesan leaders to consider mentoring as a crucial component to a priest’s ongoing formation, Father Myers said. “It’s hoped that mentoring will affect higher rates of stability and satisfaction for priests in transition, such as newly-ordained priests, newly-appointed pastors, and recently-arrived international priests.”
Father Michael Hebda, vicar for clergy for the diocese who is overseeing the mentoring program, said that two mentors, Father Philip Wells, parochial vicar of St. James Parish in Davis, and Father Humberto Gomez, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Vacaville, both experienced priests, recently attended a five-day training session in Mantle of Elijah at the Vatican II Institute. They will serve as mentors to newly-ordained and newly-arrived priests in the diocese as well as newly-appointed pastors.
Father Hebda said the advantage of Mantle of Elijah is “there is no evaluation of the mentee involved from the mentor.”
The mentors are responsible “for making sure that the new pastors are seeing their spiritual directors regularly, are part of a priests’ support group, are involved in continuing education, and are taking care of themselves physically, emotionally and spiritually,” he said. “The key word for the mentors is support — that’s what they are giving the new pastor in every way.”
For both the new pastors and their mentors, Mantle of Elijah aims to help them live a life that is healthy and holy, Father Hebda said.
“It is solely a program so that new pastors can work with an experienced pastor and express their needs, experiences and questions, without any fear of retribution,” he noted. “The sole focus is to help the new pastor be the best pastor he can be.”
