Auxiliary Bishop Joe Vasquez addressed the 210 guests at the annual
Bay Area Serra Club Christmas Banquet honoring priests and religious
that was held at Mary Queen Church in Friendswood on December 19th.
The bishop thanked the Serrans for their
work in fostering vocations, and then explained his concept of a "collaborative
ministry". He said that priests should not be the solitary source of every
parish decision. Bishop Vasquez reminisced that when he was first ordained, he
considered himself a "super priest" who was able to handle everything
himself. He quickly realized that this was well off the mark, and although he
was important, not everything depended on him. "Good advice is necessary",
he said, and the best way to run a parish is to involve the parishioners in
parish decisions. Good advice involves finding true solutions, rather than
listening
to those who say what they think you want to hear. Bishop Vasquez said that
if parishioners maintain a vital role in church business, the church would
be successful.
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