Bishop Thomas John Paprocki delivered to priests at their annual convocation in September his reflections on some of the most important matters facing the diocese. He also recently shared with the curia at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Springfield his self-described "state of the diocese."

The bishop said he will continue to push his vision for the diocese to move forward, as outlined in his second pastoral letter, Ars crescendi in Dei gratia On Building a Culture of Growth in the Church.

"The goal as I've described is moving from maintenance mode to growth mode, or, as Cardinal [Thomas] Dolan puts it, from 'maintenance to mission,'" said Bishop Paprocki. "I use growth as a synonym for evangelization."

The bishop stressed, however, that it is not all about numbers. "We Catholics make up only 12 percent of the population of our diocese, and there's a lot of potential there. Growth should be our mantra."

With an eye to making good on his effort to foster growth, Bishop Paprocki is regularly joined by Father Brian Alford, director for Vocations, to invite and meet with those who may be called to the priesthood through a series of Andrew Dinners. A recent dinner in Effiingham drew eight invitees to share dinner and hear the stories from the bishop, Father Alford, other pastors and seminarians about how they answered the call to the priesthood.

"In the last five years, thanks be to God, we've seen our numbers more than double from 11 to 23 seminarians," said Bishop Paprocki. "That's a challenge to our budget but that's a good challenge to have."

The bishop said he is gratified with the continued growth evidenced in the Catholic Athletes for Christ programs in all seven Catholic high schools. Catholic Charities Legal Services, modeled after the legal services clinic for the poor he started in Chicago, continues its steady growth by taking on more cases and encouraging more attorneys to volunteer their services pro bono. Campus vocations such as at Eastern Illinois University are well-established and Bishop Paprocki has met with the burgeoning group of students at the University of Illinois Springfield, where he has broached the subject of a future Newman Center on campus.

Turning his periscope to the future of education, the bishop reminded his audiences that all citizens, including those with no children in public schools, pay for those schools through taxes levied on them by local or state governments. Catholics who choose Catholic schools knowingly take on the added burden of paying for the schools above and beyond their mandatory support of public schools.

"Catholic education is the shared responsibility of the whole faith community. Why? Because that's how we pass along our faith," the bishop said.

A troubling aspect the bishop pointed to was what he termed a "shocking" 30 percent drop in Mass attendance for the prior 15 years through 2010, and exceeded 30 percent in 2011. According to the Benedictine University survey he commissioned last year, a major reason cited by those who no longer attend Mass cited the lack of a welcoming attitude. He used a familiar Catholic metaphor: "We're planting seeds through stewardship and discipleship to address that perception." He noted that he and a team of diocesan leaders are working with dicipleship and evangelization models from the Diocese of Wichita and his appointment of Father Charles Edwards to work full-time on building "intentional disciples" in parishes across central Illinois to carry out the work of the Lord.