Photo by Leon Bovenkerk
Texas in general is booming. We native Texans already knew how much God blessed the Lone Star State, but the past years showed that a lot of people have been convinced of it enough to move here too. The numbers are staggering. Here in the Austin metro area, there are approximately 150 people that move in every day.
You don’t have to look far until you see the impact our tremendous growth. The growing pains certainly mean big changes for the personality and the appearance of the city. We also have increasingly bad traffic and the constant development going on to keep up with the growth. I spend a lot of time downtown, and I’m amazed at all the cranes that keep popping up. Currently there at least 97 updates coming to this part of town alone in the near future.
There are many long time residents that are often unsettled by unrelenting speed of this change, and that is understandable. Although at this point, there is nothing we can do to stop people from moving to the Central Texas area.
We as a local church need to be ready and willing to welcome those that move here, especially those that come to our parishes. With so much general growth for the area, that also means plenty of growth for the Church in Central Texas. While we hear of parish consolidations in the North East, we are living in exciting, booming times here in Texas.
So how is the Diocese dealing with it, and how are things going for our local church?
A few weeks ago, Bishop Joe Vásquez gave a state of the Diocese address, but it seems to have been missed by many. I’ve included a few key pieces of data and the video for your convenience below.
Key information from the State of the Diocese 2013
Religious Life
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Bishop ordained 5 men to the Priesthood
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Bishop ordained 1 man to the Transitional Diaconate
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Bishop ordained 11 men to the Permanent Diaconate
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We currently have 40 seminarians from the diocese
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We have 53 Religious Congregations represented in the diocese
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The Dominican Sisters, Mary Mother of the Eucharist have built a new convent in Georgetown
Parishes and Catholic Schools
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Currently 36 parishes or schools have construction projects in different stages
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6 are under construction right now
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6 begin in the coming months
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24 are in the design and fundraising phase
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11 of these are Sanctuary projects – this includes the new project for St Mary’s College Station
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8,000 First Communions
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4,500 Confirmations
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1,700 went through RCIA
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5,200 students enrolled in the 2013-2014 school year
Bishop Joe Vásquez and the Diocese of Austin will be offering listening sessions in the near future in developing a new pastoral plan. This plan will also help to better address the growing needs of our Church. Look for more updates on that soon.
For the full address, please watch the video below.
ACP-92013 Vimeo from Diocese of Austin on Vimeo.
