"Grounding" and "growth" - - that's what I want to speak to you about this beautiful autumn morning along the shores of Lake Michigan - - "grounding" and "growth."

Not long after I arrived as Archbishop of Milwaukee 13 months ago, I was visiting with a particularly energetic and talented priest of the archdiocese. As I do with all of our great priests these days, I asked him, in light of all the scandals and tensions and fears of the present moment in the Church, "how are you doing?" "Actually," he replies, "I have become more grounded." I asked him to elaborate on that strange concept of being grounded.

Well, for one, he explained, I have been literally grounded as I more often fall to my knees in prayer. Two, I have become more grounded in that I have grown in humility, which, he reminded me, comes from the Latin word for soil, earth, ground. He had progressed, he told me, in that he was more aware of his own sin, weakness, limits, his own unredeemed side, and that had humbled him. And, finally, he concluded, he had been grounded in a rediscovery of what was essential, basic, earthy in his life, the foundation, the grounding of his life, and that was Jesus, His faith for and love in Jesus, his prayer, his priestly vocation, his people, and the Eucharist. He wrapped it all up by observing, "I've been struck by lightening, Archbishop, but, don't worry: I'm grounded!"

Grounding and growth: that's what I want to discuss with you this morning. Our gospel selection from St. John, our patron, speaks of "the vine and branches." Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Rooted in Him, grounded in Him, we have life, we can grow.

Thank you for your presence here today. A demanding, beautiful autumn day, and here you are sacrificing it to be part of our archdiocesan planning process. Thank you! I look out with immense admiration upon priests, deacons, religious women, pastoral associates, parish council presidents and members, our archdiocesan pastoral council, district, cluster, and parish leaders and delegates . . . God's holy people, and I am grounded, humbled, moved, so grateful for your love for Jesus and His Church.

Thank you, Planning Commission Members: Bishop Sklba, right now preparing to ordain two young men deacons next door at St. Francis Seminary, men, please God, whom I will ordain priests eight months from now - - Bishop Sklba will be here right after the ordination; Maureen Gallagher, Noreen Welte, Father Bill Kohler, and Father Bill Stanfield, Jan Ruidl and Deacon Chuck Kustner - - thank you, Archdiocesan Planning Commissioners, for your leadership and efforts.

I am most of all bolstered by the presence of Jesus. He promised us that, where two or three gather in His name, He is with us! And we do gather in His name, and if we don't believe that He is really here, we might as well all go back home and rake leaves, because it's all a waste of time.

I look out and acknowledge that I am beholding the grounding of this great archdiocese: men and women chosen by pastors and parish councils, known for commitment, organization, and imagination, united in a strong Catholic faith in Jesus and His presence in His Church that we so love. As Pope John Paul II repeats, "Love for Jesus and His Church must be the passion of your lives."

I also acknowledge that this is plain hard work: it can be tedious, time- consuming, frustrating, and intense. We are reluctant warriors: we all see the need for ongoing, careful, prudent, prayerful planning, but we dread it at times.

Some are frustrated because it seems like we just completed a planning process - - they're right, we did!

Some are frustrated because we even have to plan: let's just keep things as they are and respond to crisis as they come. All this "planning" is too bureaucratic, too much like business.

Some are frustrated because they feel Church leaders don't listen anyway, and if we could just have married priests or women priests all our problems would be solved.

Some are frustrated because the same problems we feared a decade ago, when the planning processing began, still seem to loom, and we don't seem to be getting any better at confronting them.

It is frustrating, my brothers and sisters in Christ, but it is fruitful;

It is hard work, but it is holy work;

It is time consuming, but it is life giving.

. . . and it is your perseverance perhaps that gives me most hope,

My strategy is to speak first of grounding, then of growth.

I. Grounding
My grandma loved to garden, and I can remember her often taking me by the hand and saying, "Come on, Tim, let's go look at the garden." We'd look to see if there were weeds or rocks, if the rabbits and birds were wrecking the plants, if it needed water or fertilizer. We'll, let's take a look at the garden.

For one, we know that the soil, the earth, the grounding is Jesus. There is our faith. Yesterday, I celebrated Mass with the students at St. Catherine High School in Racine. The gospel was from Mark and the passage was where Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am." I proposed to them that Jesus was still looking us in the eye and asking us that most pivotal question in life: "Who do you say that I am?" I proposed to them that their Catholic school, their parish, their family, their Church, all existed to teach them the answer to that question, and to answer it personally, freely, maturely. "Who do you say that I am?" Nice guy? Good teacher? Good friend? Great example? Effective leader? - - yeah, but much more: You are the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior, my Savior, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Alpha and the Omega, my beginning and my end, my destiny, my friend, the most important person in my life without whom nothing is possible with whom everything is possible; you are the answer to the question every human life poses . . . that's who you are, Jesus.

Our planning process is, yes, about buildings and budgets, about personnel and pastoral projects, about demographics and designs, about numbers and new parishes, about structures and strategies, about consolidations and maybe closings . . . but it is first and foremost about a Person, who happens to be the second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, our Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Thirteen months ago tomorrow, I was installed at our Cathedral. The part of my sermon that got most attention was my accounting of the reply I gave to Tammy Elliot, the news reporter on TV, when she asked me, "Well, you are now an archbishop of one of the larger and most important dioceses in the country. I guess you have reached your goal in life. "No," I replied. "My goal is to be a saint, and my job is to help you be one, too."

That "universal call to holiness," to use the vocabulary of the Second Vatican Council, that drive to be rooted in Christ as branches on a vine, that's what this is all about. Jesus: preaching Him, serving Him, being united to Him now and in eternity.

Two, we are grounded in the Church. Speaking of Jesus and His Church, the great French theologian de Lubac commented, "For what would I know of Him without her." Jesus and His Church, for us as Catholics, is a package deal. Christ and His Church are one.

The Church is not mine, the Church is not Pope John Paul's, the Church is not yours; the Church is His; the Church is He. So, its future is not ours to plan, but His, with us as His unworthy instruments.

An occasion like this reminds us of what it means to be Catholic: we are one, united in faith; we are holy, striving to be united to Jesus as saints; we are Catholic, universal, all- embracing; we are apostolic, with me as your bishop, a successor of the apostles.

Do not forget in our planning that we are Catholic: near the essence of our faith is that we are constantly "called beyond." Our faith is not a tidy, convenient, personal possession, but always beyond us, embracing others. The motto "Eucharist without walls" drives this home. Our planning process reminds us that we are "Catholic." We are not just members of a family with a back yard, nor just of a parish, nor even of a cluster or a district; we are members of a diocese, a Church in a nation, the Church universal, with no concern, from Africa to the Mideast, alien to us, all presided over in charity by the successor of St. Peter, the bishop of Rome, our Holy Father. We do not act in isolation; we do not plan alone; we are not Congregationalists who believe the Church is synonymous with our local congregation; we are Roman Catholics, and we are grounded in His Church.

Third, we are grounded in our history. Catholics have deep roots, and our process of planning is not some new plot to push an agenda. The fringes characterize it this way: those on the conservative side are tempted to view pastoral planning as one of those hair brained ideas that left-wing Archbishop Weakland had to dismantle the traditional Church, while those on the liberal side are tempted to dismiss pastoral planning as another effort of that right-wing Dolan to dodge the real urgent issues of the day and set the Church back to the 1950's.

Well, the effort at planning did not begin with Weakland, Sklba, or Dolan; it began with Jesus, who developed an elementary strategy when He commanded His first disciples two-by-two with some essential marching orders, it is evident in the New Testament and throughout our history as a Church, and it commenced in this corner of the Lord's vineyard, these ten counties of southeastern Wisconsin, when John Martin Henri, our first bishop, started here 160 years ago and had to ask tough questions about numbers and distribution of clergy, health care, and giving an effective infrastructure to a Church that was starting from scratch. That planning got a new boost eleven years ago when my predecessor launched cycle one, intended to go on for five years; cycle two took over, and in concluding as we speak, and now, welcome to Cycle III. Is this it? I doubt it, as planning has been with the Church since 30 AD, with this Church in southeastern Wisconsin since 1843. When you think about it, there are only three options:

Door #1: be passive, forget about planning, taking emergencies as they come - - that does not sound like sound stewardship to me.

Door #2: Just let the Archbishop decide and we'll trust him - - sorry, not too collegial but rather authoritarian; and besides, you wouldn't trust me anyway - - you'd criticize me.

Door #3: Keep a watchful, vigilant posture, attentive to the developing needs and movements of God's people, prudently, prayerfully planning so that, "From age to age, He may continue to draw a people to Himself, so that a perfect offering may be made to the glory of His Holy Name."

Come through Door #3 with me, for we are grounded in history.

Three, we are grounded in people. That's been the major conclusion of my first year as your archbishop: the deep, vibrant, resilient faith of the people of this archdiocese. Thursday evening, I'm in Kenosha to visit with pro-life workers; yesterday in Racine with 500 students, the family, parents and benefactors of St. Catherine High School; this morning I arrive here at 6:30 to see four of our Knights of Columbus ready to direct traffic, and moms and dads here to cheer on their kids at soccer matches between our parish grade schools; now I look out at 600 devoted leaders giving up a Saturday; tonight I'm in Waukesha for Eucharist at a parish still hurt over a good pastor who took some time away; tomorrow in Hales Corners to dedicate a new Church at a burgeoning, proud parish. I'm not bragging about me - - I'm bragging about you. That's just a microcosm of this resilient, deep, rich Catholic faith that I see in 700,000 people. Our people love Jesus and His Church; in spite of problems, worries, and frustrations, they know the Church will keep going; they find their Catholic faith their pearl of great price, and want it deepened and enriched through prayer and sacraments in cohesive, warm, active parishes; they want their marriages faithful and fruitful; they want their faith handed on to their children through our schools and religious education programs, and they want their Church in the forefront of service and outreach to those in need.

There's the what; the how is our task in pastoral planning.

We are grounded in our people.

II. Enough of looking at the ground of the garden; let's look at the growth.

For one, our growth comes through the Eucharist. Yes, Jesus is our grounding, but He is never static, never just in the past; He is alive and present in the Eucharist. That's why our access to the Eucharist is its totality, namely, Word, Sacrament, Service, and community at the core of our plans, and to ensure that becomes priority number one.

When I was rector of the North American College in Rome, we took all the pews out one summer to refinish them, and for the first time I stood in awe at the design of the chapel floor: the sanctuary was all green marble, then, the floor was in a design of the branches extending out of the sanctuary. The image was the sanctuary, the altar, the pulpit as the roots, and from these, life went out to the branches, all of us in the Church.

I once visited a parish in another state renowned for its vitality, numbers, stewardship, service, school, outreach, evangelization, promotion of justice - - you name it, they had it in spades. I asked the pastor the reason for the success. He replied:

"Sunday Eucharist is the key, the mission statement for everything we do: we want more people there, so we have the RCIA, evangelization, outreach to inactive Catholics (which, even in that great parish was 50% - - you realize the largest denomination in American is 'inactive Catholics'!); we want our people to understand God's Word at the Eucharist so we have a great school, youth ministry, religious ed, and adult faith formation; we want priests in the future for Eucharist, so we have two men in the seminary, and an aggressive vocations program; we know that the sick and poor are at home at the Eucharist, so we minister to them; we know the Eucharist has implications in our daily lives, so we have a strong commitment to pro-life and social justice; we know that the Eucharist flows into our prayer, so we have Bible study, devotions, Eucharistic adoration, rosary groups, and faith-sharing. But it all flows from the Sunday Eucharist."

So does our pastoral planning.

Two, our growth is really growth, not death! We cannot let our pastoral planning be looked upon as a euphemism for more closings, more backtracking, more cutbacks, more consolidations. We're not closing but moving. We Catholics are the second fastest growing Church in America, second only to the evangelicals . . . and, by the way, the experts tell us the more evangelical we are the more we attract people. Our planning is not the red light to stop, or a yellow light to slow down, but a green light to go. So, we need creativity; this is not about shrinking but expanding, not about famine but a feast, not about closing but opening.

That having been said - - that our growth is indeed growth - - our growth must also be prudent and careful, and that's our third point.

We are shrewd about our money, for instance, knowing that we are called to be stewards of God's gifts, and that tough economic times demand sound, careful economic measures;

We are judicious in our assignment of clergy, realistic that the numbers are not what they used to be, and that we must ask tough questions about assignment of our clergy, while continuing to work hard on vocations to the priesthood, religious life, deaconate, lay ecclesial ministry, and in calling forth and the duty and gift inherent in every baptized soul;

We are wise in our assessment of buildings and property, wondering and studying when we should build or when we should just improve, when we should move, when we should stay, when we should put up, when we should take down;

We are sensitive to demographic trends that show us that beloved, venerable neighborhoods no longer have large populations, and could be adequately served with fewer, stronger parishes, while mushrooming suburbs can't find enough rooms for the crowds.

We study the reported needs of our people, who speak candidly about their worries, their desire for strong, affordable, accessible schools, for programs of religious ed faithful to the Bible and Church teaching, for services to people we did not before notice: young adults, lonely elderly, single parents, disaffected Catholics, and an educated laity craving a religious knowledge consonant with their professional training.

And, fourth, our growth is interior, not just exterior. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," proclaims Jesus. And He, in giving His strategy, does not speak of structures, buildings, personnel, mergers, or closings . . . He powerfully reminds us that His Kingdom is not without; no - - "The Kingdom of God is within."

And here I close: He is without, He is within. The new bishop of Madison has as his episcopal motto, "The vision will not fail!" And it will not, my friends in Christ. Cardinal Bernardine often said, "Jesus promised that the 'Gates of hell would not prevail against His Church;' He did not promise they would not try."

Our vision is clear, and will be refined even further by the brave process we invest in today.

I saw our vision on a visit to one of our awesome country parishes - - I'd give anything if I could remember where it was, but I've been to so many - - built by your great-grandparents 125 years ago. The pulpit was hand- carved, tailor-made for me - - XXL! As I go up the steps, the saying jumped out at me; it was hand-carved at the top of the pulpit, so the preacher could not miss it; it is the mission statement of every homily; the mission statement of the Church; the vision of our planning; it was the request the Greek visitors made to the apostle; "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."