July 16, 2014

By Deacon Kevin Mastellon
Staff writer

Numbers have always intrigued me. I am not a savant, not even a numerologist. I just like counting things.
In my broadcasting days I wrote computer programs to track the votes on election nights from all the wards and towns and villages. 

Then there was the program I wrote to track our bowling team's progress over the season. It became a more elaborate, more sophisticated program each week of the season...a subtle change in a report here, a new stat there.

Not an obsession; just an exercise in counting.

Which logically brings me to the upcoming diocesan census. I could not resist the opportunity to be involved in counting all the Catholics in my parish, in our diocese, so I find myself on the committee formed to give substance to our Envisioning Teams' call for a diocesan-wide Find Your Home in Christ Census.

Since I also regularly contribute to the North Country Catholic I felt obliged to report on the work of the committee.  That felt awkward.  So my editor, Mary Lou, agreed to allow me to treat this story in the first person; a kind of chronicle of our work as it progresses as a way to report on the activity.

So where do we begin?

Just how elaborate, how demanding of the pastors and the parish volunteers should this census be? 
We are working on these and many other issues. "We" is the committee St. Joseph Sister Shirley Ann Brown has been given the privilege of leading.

This is the committee charged with, among other things, developing the form to be used by all volunteers, writing a manual for census volunteers and training the parish volunteers to do the work.
This volunteer committee will oversee what could easily prove to be one of the most challenging, if not most commented upon, committee born of the Envisioning process.

Joining Sister Shirley Anne on the committee are Claudia Fennell, Saranac Lake; Anita Soltero, Plattsburgh; Lorraine Turgeon, Westport; Cheryl Learned, Malone; Sean Curry, Blue Mountain Lake; Phyllis Conley, Adams; Michele Rosteck, Lowville, Ron Romano, Ogdensburg; Doug Premo, Massena; Anne Marie Wiseman, Malone and me.

We gathered for our first meeting in Lake Clear in mid-June and have monthly meetings planned through October.  Those meetings will eventually be augmented by deanery meetings to train parish volunteers.  Pastors have already received some preliminary information and direction from Sister Shirley Anne. 
Committee members have already developed a draft census form. We hope to approve the final form at the July meeting.

The Find Your Home in Christ Census is one goal of the Diocesan Vision. This pillar is focused on Building Parishes with Living Stones.  Perhaps you never thought of yourself as a stone but the reality is that parishes are not brick and mortar, they are us. 

This census will identify us and our pastoral needs and through the seemingly mundane task of counting heads, promote parishes that are alive and responsive.

It will be a formidable task but it is much more interesting than keeping track of bowling scores.

St. Joseph Sister Shirley Anne Brown, left, is the point person charged with meeting  the newly established  diocesan goal to complete a diocesan-wide Find Your Home in Christ Census of all households between Oct. 1, 2014 and Aug., 2015. Sister Shirley Ann met with committee members - including Anne Marie Wiseman of Malone, right - in Lake Clear in June. Another committee member, Deacon Kevin Mastellon of Watertown, shares personal reflections on the work of the committee in this article.

Bringing Vision to life
The pastoral vision for the Diocese of Ogdensburg,  delivered  by Bishop laValley at this year’s Chrism Mass included three priorities with two goals each.  This is the first in a series of articles describing the work towards realizing each of the goals.