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Catholic Pastoral Sociology in the United States since Vatican II: Making a Path by Walking Bryan T. Froehle* P astoral sociology is the integration of social science methods, theory, and research findings with the theological language and self-understanding of church life and ministry. It is, in this sense, as much a branch of practical theology as of applied social science. From applied social science comes not only survey, demographic, and other methods, but also insights from psychology together with facilitation and planning methods used in organizational work, including industrial relations, business, and other fields. As a result, practitioners of pastoral sociology include academics, pastoral planners, facilitators, consultants, and leaders of all kinds. Pastoral sociology within the Catholic Church in the United States has developed in many new ways since the Second Vatican Council. In part this is precisely because parish and diocesan life have developed dramatically, along with many areas of the Church’s self-understanding. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than within pastoral planning. Spurred by the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the signs of the times, pastoral planners moved first from a time of initial experimentation and focus on “shared decision-making” toward routinization and professionalization. Parishes developed successful new structures for ministry and found new ways to foster a strong sense of community. Most significantly, they negotiated a profound staffing transition, moving from a near exclusive reliance on priests and women religious to depending on lay ecclesial ministers and parish leaders drawn from the growing supply of theologically educated laity. 85 *Grateful acknowledgment is given to all who have read and commented on previous versions, including Anthony Blasi, Robert Burke, Michael Cieslak, Louis Cameli, Robert Dixon, Eileen Enright, RSM, Joseph Harris, Michael Mason, CSsR, Timothy Matovina, Donald McCrabb, Robert Miller, Dominic Perri, Francis (Bud) Scheets, OSC, Bernard Stratman, SM, Victoria Tufano, and two anonymous reviewers. Acknowledgement is also owed to the diocesan pastoral planners who responded to a spring 2004 questionnaire and provided numerous examples of diocesan planning documents. This article is dedicated to the memory of Louis Luzbetak, SVD, the founding director of CARA who died in 2005. A new turn was taken by the 1990s when pastoral planning came to overwhelmingly focus on pastoral reconfiguration—clustering and closing parishes in an effort to provide effective ministry in a time of fewer priests and changing Catholic demographics . In recent years, the landscape has changed further as many diocesan level functions, including planning offices, have been eliminated or considerably reduced in staff. In general, the high levels of preparation and professional training that had earlier been found within diocesan offices are now increasingly located within external organizations, consultants, and others outside vertically oriented diocesan structures . As a result, the work of pastoral planning is becoming located more within lateral resourcing networks as parishes and parish leaders become increasingly responsible to identify and link organizations and consultants needed to resource parish planning needs. This is a reflection not only of trends within Catholicism in the United States but of those within other religious traditions and within other organizational contexts as well. This larger postmodern context brings us back to the bigger picture of pastoral sociology, which is connected to these same ecclesial and social trends. Pastoral sociology is growing within the academy as various mission-driven Catholic universities find increased interest in the ecclesial role they can play—and often have an increased desire to make such a contribution. Practical theology is developing a stronger voice among theologians as they find ways to link with social scientists. Many parishes are growing in size and looking to incorporate management and plan86 U.S. Catholic Historian Louis Luzbetak, SVD, founding director of CARA. Courtesy of Chicago Province Archives, Society of the Divine Word. ning principles in their work. Other Catholic institutions—including schools, hospitals , social services, and social justice advocacy organizations—find themselves looking for new ways to connect their pastoral mission with the social milieu. And so pastoral sociology continues to develop and transform. The Scope of Pastoral Sociology The forms of the apostolate should be duly adapted to the needs of the times, taking in account the human conditions, not merely spiritual and moral but...

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