sullivan-rgb.jpgThe arrival of autumn means different things to different people. To Jonathan Sullivan, new director of Catechetical Ministries for the Springfield diocese, fall is bringing his first opportunities to get out among the people who benefit from ministries of the diocesan Curia.
"I'm still discovering what this job is all about," says Sullivan, who spent the summer months getting acquainted with the people who work in the Curia, as well as their ministries. "My job here is a new position that was part of the (recent) restructuring of the Curia. With that restructuring, Bishop (George J.) Lucas decided to take some of these offices that were doing ministry out in the diocese and put them together under the Department of Catechetical Ministries."
That department includes the offices for Catechesis (the former Office for Catholic Education), Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Campus Ministry, Missions, Social Concerns, Marriage and Family Life, Worship and the Catechumenate, and Ministry Formation. "The idea for putting them all together is to help us as a department to understand these ministries as being primarily catechetical in nature," Sullivan says. "These are primarily teaching ministries.
"Our role is to go out into the parishes and to talk to Catholics in the diocese about how they are called to work with, support and give to these various ministries of the church - because obviously we can't do these things alone," he says. "Our primary job is to go out to talk to others about this and get them excited and involved.
"All of these missions are specifically Catholic. Catholics aren't the only people who do marriage ministry or pro-life ministries, for instance," Sullivan says. "But what is it about those ministries within the church that is uniquely Catholic? What is it that our faith tradition brings to the table? All these are things that Christians should be doing, but they take on a special flavor or character within the Catholic context."
Sullivan is relying on his background that has prepared him for the upcoming challenges of his new job. A graduate of Quincy University with a bachelor's in theology and pastoral ministry, he went on to earn his master's degree in theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology. He has spent his last two years in a hospital setting as part of a Mission Fellowship with Trinity Health.
Still, this has been quite a summer of change, Sullivan admits. In addition to getting acclimated to the diocese, he and his wife Bethany have been settling their young family (Isaac, 7; Joshua, 3; and Adeline, 1) into life in Springfield and at Cathedral Parish. Moreover, this fall he will be leading one of Cathedral's Why Catholic? groups.
"Working for the diocese, you get exposed to Springfield ... as well as some of the more rural communities. That is one of the challenges of a position such as this. We have such a diverse sort of diocese in terms of what kinds of parishes and what sizes of parishes, what local communities are like.
"(This will be) one of my major projects," Sullivan says. "I can't imagine that it will take less than two or three years to get to know the individual parishes and schools and to understand what is particular to their local situations.
"I also have some visits set up to go around to some of the schools and to meet the principals," concludes Sullivan. "Obviously they are all going to have different concerns, and we have to be able to go out there and address them. But it also exciting. I like a good challenge like that."