About – Fishhook Project

Coaching Diocesan Priests to Integrate Spiritual Accompaniment of Discerners as a Tool for Vocational Discernment to the Diocesan Priesthood

Identification of an Issue in Ministry and Background Information

The Bishops of the United States in their recently revised Program of Priestly Formation affirm that the entire Church receives and accompanies the gift of vocations from God and, therefore, the whole Church is responsible for promoting and helping others to discern their vocation. They recognize that all the priests united with the diocesan bishop share the responsibility for seeking and fostering priestly vocations, “by inviting men to consider the priesthood as a possible vocation. For those who are discerning the call, priests can nurture their sense of vocation and be invaluable mentors, accompanying them along the path of discernment.” (Program of Priestly Formation, no. 50)

Pope Francis understands the importance of vocational accompaniment as a fundamental part of the priestly ministry. However, many priests do not feel able to accompany, either because they are not comfortable with this kind of ministry, or because they think they do not have the time or skills to successfully accomplish it. The sense of unpreparedness can be even stronger when they are asked to accompany discerners. Many diocesan priests need coaching to better accompany discerners.

Over the last few years, several discernment groups in the United States appeared to try to fill the gap in the vocational discernment process, groups such as Melchizedek Project, Priesthood 101, and other diocesan-led groups. These groups bring an important communal dimension to the process. But the accompaniment, one-on-one done by a priest, is also essential. Pope Francis reminds priests “… you are the ones principally responsible for Christian and priestly vocations, and this task cannot be relegated to a bureaucratic office. You too have experienced an encounter that changed your life, when another priest – a parish priest, a confessor, a spiritual director – helped you experience the beauty of God’s love. Thus, you too: going out, listening to young people – it takes patience! – you can help them understand the movements of their heart and guide their steps.” (Pope Francis, Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Participants in the International Conference on Pastoral Work for Vocations Sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy, Oct. 21, 2016)

In recent years spiritual accompaniment has been the theme of many Church documents, e.g., Christus Vivit, Evangelii Gaudium, Living as Missionary Disciples: A Resource for Evangelization, Final Document for the XV Extraordinary General Assembly: Young People, The Faith and Vocational Discernment, The Document of Aparecida and the Program of Priestly Formation. These documentsexpress the urgent need to change and adapt the way ministry is carried out in the Church.

Discerners entering into the vocational discernment to the diocesan priesthood need priests who will “walk the walk” with them. These priests need to be better coached in a wide range of skills to help discerners in their discernment process.

Purpose of the Project in Ministry

The purpose of this project is to develop a coaching program to aid participant priests to integrate spiritual accompaniment as an effective tool for ministry with discerners during their vocational discernment. This will be done by giving the participants the tools and skills necessary to be more open to the art of accompaniment. The participants will be challenged to embrace spiritual accompaniment as a method to help discerners to discover their vocation.

Project Design and Implementation

The project will adopt an adult learning methodology model and will draw on the art of spiritual accompaniment in developing the coaching program. Any priest who wants to grow in the knowledge of the art of accompaniment can participate in this project. A minimum of twenty-five priests from different dioceses will be involved in the program. What defines their participation in the project will be their passion for vocational work and need for better understanding of spiritual accompaniment of discerners. The participants will be recruited from different databases of vocation ministries, such as Serra Clubs, Melchizedek Projects, the priests in the Doctor of Ministry program at The Catholic University of America, as well as by personal invitation.

The coaching sessions will be conducted once a week for four consecutive weeks. Participants will attend online synchronous sessions through Zoom. The online live sessions were chosen as an opportunity to bring together priests from different dioceses. The meetings will consist of four training sessions of 60 to 75 minutes each. These sessions will give the tools and skills necessary for the priests to use accompaniment as an important part of their ministry, especially with discerners.

The first session will focus on introducing participants to the concept of accompanying, the reality of discernment groups, and Church documents. The second session will provide the guidelines and principles to implement the art of accompaniment. These principles include the following: definition of accompaniment; the participants involved in the accompaniment process; and God as the primary accompanier. The third session will focus on helping the participants to integrate theological reflection with the ministry of accompaniment. The last session aims to foster relevant skills regarding active listening, empathy, verbal and non-verbal communications; the journey with the discerners; and the more practical guidelines for accompaniment.

Evaluation

This project will use three participant self-report evaluation instruments. A questionnaire survey will be conducted pre- and post-project to measure any changes in the participants’ perception of their skills in relationship with spiritual accompaniment. There will be a program sessions evaluation after the last session. Finally, there will be a longitudinal follow-up survey sent a few weeks after the final session to gauge the impact the sessions had in the participants’ capacity to understand the art of accompaniment. Google Forms will be used to complete anonymous surveys. The evaluation will determine if the participants were now aware of the skills and were able to effectively engage in the art of accompaniment. This is needed to ascertain if the project was effective or at least was helpful to those accompanying discerners.

Contribution to Ministry

Through coaching diocesan priests, this project will develop a method and model to help priests become more comfortable with the art of accompaniment, especially while accompanying discerners. The project also expects an improvement in the way ministry is pursued in the Catholic Church for priests who are willing to “walk the walk” with the discerners through spiritual accompaniment.

Overall Goal of Project in Ministry

The goal of this project is to coach diocesan priests to integrate the practice of spiritual accompaniment of discerners as a tool for vocational discernment to the diocesan priesthood. A good image to illustrate this project is the fishhook and the fisherman. This image was inspired by a conversation with Gerald Cyprien Cardinal Lacroix, the Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada. Cardinal Lacroix wears a fishhook in his suit jacket. “The hook is a symbol of the function of the ‘fisher of men’ which characterizes the life of every disciple of Christ. The hook, not the net, represents the personal dimension of evangelization, the personal contact and attention to each person encountered.”^[1] Cardinal Lacroix states: “I wear a hook because I am a full-time fisherman. I love to fish. I am in the business of fishing one man at a time. It is not net fishing. I am called to fish one at a time and accompany them.”

For fishing to be successful, any experienced fisherman would say it is necessary to more than just hook the fish. While having the fish hooked, a fisherman will sometimes let the line go loose for a bit. The fish is restless and needs to swim away. The fisherman needs to be patient and wait for the fish to return. The fish is still hooked. This is the art of fishing: knowing the exact time to bring the fish back and how to proceed so that the fish does not get loose.

This is a good image for the art of spiritual accompaniment. Sometimes the accompanier needs to let the “line go loose” for awhile. After waiting patiently, he can, little by little, bring the discerner back. The accompanier’s ability, skills, and expertise will tell him the next steps to guide the discerner to where he should go.

This project will help each priest participant to see himself as a skillful fisherman, fishing one man at a time, accompanying, and guiding them to their vocation. The project will provide the priests with the skills necessary to help the discerner to seek and find their vocation.

Objectives

Action: The series of four sessions will coach diocesan priests on the meaning, understanding, and techniques of the art of spiritual accompaniment.

Change: Diocesan priests participating in this project will have a better understanding and skill set for the practice of accompaniment and be able to serve as an accompanier of discerners to the diocesan priesthood.

Specifics: The priests participating in this project will have presentations focusing on the need to use accompaniment as an instrument for ministry. They will be given an overview of recent Church documents on the art of accompaniment, as well as the skills and techniques necessary to use accompaniment as an active part of their ministry. They will have opportunity for reflection and prayer time as well as small group discussions. Each priest will be able to learn how to accompany the discerners in their own vocational discernment knowing that his role as an accompanier is to walk with the discerner.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes expected with this project are the following:

To increase the participants’ comfort with the art of accompaniment.
To challenge the way accompaniment is viewed and pursued by the participants.
To expand the use of accompaniment by participants in their ministry.
To improve the awareness of the necessity of communication skills for the accompaniment in participants’ ministry.
To help the participants recognize themselves as an accompaniment resource in the discernment process.

[1] https://www.ecdq.org/diocese-de-quebec/eveques/gerald-cyprien-lacroix/#1559140221037-6a1213ca-09fd