In the end, won’t the Bishop and the Pastoral Center staff do what they want regardless of what we plan?
This question comes up in a number of different forms. At its base is a perception or a concern that a plan already exists and that no matter how well a Planning Group follows the process, if it deviates from that plan, the Bishop will not accept the Planning Group recommendations. There is no plan. Pastoral Planning for the New Millennium describes a set of policies used to guide the planning process but it does not make final decisions about planning issues. It is the local planning group leadership who coordinates the effort to devise the particular configurations, Mass schedules, staffing patterns, etc. that will best suit the needs of the particular planning group given the circumstances that they face.
