Achieving a happy match between the person and the job is a well-known principle to practitioners and students of Human Resource Development and Management. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao subscribes to the same principle as it consults the laity in the forthcoming transfer of parish assignments of the Diocesan clergy in January 2012. The innovation is attributed to Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, who, in the interest of empowerment of the laity, initiated the practice since 2005. However, this is the very first time that the process is being conducted systematically. Rev Msgr Antonio SJ Mortillero, Head of the Diocesan Personnel Board, has engaged the services of Mr Jojo Sumpaico, an established HRD Consultant and his wife, Ms Ditsy Sumpaico, a retired school administrator of the Loyola Schools of Ateneo de Manila University to conduct the consultation.
The Sumpaicos met the members of the Parish Pastoral Council executive committee on Sunday morning, 26 September 2010.
The Sumpaico couple has the unenviable task of visiting (and submitting their report within 6 weeks) 36 parishes, interviewing members of the parish pastoral councils to “validate” their responses to a set of questionnaires. Ten questions probed into the situation of the parish by gathering demographic data like the Catholic population, the number of families, zones and BECs, chapels, ministries and organizations, and number of children attending catechetical classes and sacramental data on number and schedule of masses, number of baptisms and number of first communicants in the past 5 years. The questionnaire further sought the PPC members’ perceptions of the parish situation, what were its strengths and what needed improvement, their opinion of the parish priest’s role as pastor, what type of parish is recommended for his next assignment, and, finally, what type of priest is deemed most suitable to replace him.
Indeed, this new practice seems to be without precedent with regard to the assignment of priests. There was a time when parish priests served for more than a decade, or some served less than a year. The new system of periodic consultations with the laity is expected to produce a rational basis for rotating priests within the diocese, prescribing a term of three years (minimum) and six years (maximum) beginning 2012.
The current consultation is also deemed to be an improvement of past practice, wherein after questionnaires are sent out and answered, a parish is suddenly assigned a new priest. The new feature of validation assures the laity that their sentiments reach the Personnel Board and the Bishop. Most important, they played an important role in the selection of their parish priest.
- Nestor Pilar
