In Portland on Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dominican Father Gerald Albert Buckley died. It was 62 years to the day after he professed vows in his religious community. 

“Blessed are the nice.”

Many well-intentioned people who serve the church insert this ninth beatitude into their work — to the detriment of their ministry. Effective leadership instead is based on radical love, which is grounded in trust, does not eschew conflict and allows for commitment, accountability and, ultimately, results. 

With this column I begin a closer look at the six pastoral priorities for the Archdiocese of Portland that flow from our pastoral assembly held last fall. As you will recall, the pastoral assembly gathered the priests and pastoral council representatives from the parishes of the archdiocese in order to discuss and settle upon these priorities for the next three years. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council has discussed the input received at the assembly and has fine-tuned these priorities at our last two meetings.

The first pastoral priority is catechesis and faith formation. As with all of the pastoral priorities, five specific initiatives have been identified based on the input received at the pastoral assembly.