ASSUMPTION COUNCIL OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

Assumption Council 4473
Progress Boulevard 
Louisville, Kentucky 


Last night, I was invited to address a dinner meeting of the Knights of Columbus on my work in the Caribbean Missions. 

I told them about how I got involved as part of my retirement planning, especially my founding of the Catholic Second Wind Guild for retired priests, bishops and lay professionals who want to donate their time, talent and treasure in building up the Church in a struggling area of the world. 

I was able to report on the vision, the accomplishments and the dreams of Catholic Second Wind to date in its two Chapters: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados. 

Father John Deitrich, long-time Chaplain, and myself. 

A partnership of the local bishop, retired U.S. priests, retired/active executive level business leaders and their associates

who want to share their time, talents, resources and connections doing shared ministry in creative new ways

that are both life-giving for them in their retirement years and beneficial to the mission of the Church by tackling targeted mission needs and projects.

A SECOND WIND - a phenomenon in distance running whereby an athlete who is too out of breath and tired to continue suddenly finds the strength to press on at top performance.  

A GUILD –  Traditionally, a guild was a group of artisans and craftsmen engaged in the same occupation who would associate themselves together for protection, mutual aid and service. These guilds performed other services for their members as well as the community at large. Medieval guilds:

•      provided funeral expenses for poorer members and aid to survivors;

•      provided dowries for poor girls;

•      covered members with a type of health insurance and provisions for care of the sick;

•      built chapels;

•      donated windows to local churches or cathedrals;

•      frequently helped in the actual construction of the churches;

•      watched over the morals of the members; • were important for their contribution to emergence of lay education.

THE ORIGINAL VISION DOCUMENT

THE CATHOLIC SECOND WIND GUILD

✦    … would be headquartered in the R C Pastoral Centre of the Diocese of Kingstown, SVG, the renovation of which being its first project. 

✦    … would require that the Pastoral Centre be renovated so that The Second Wind Guild would have a workable and comfortable headquarters from which to plan and implement its future projects.

✦    … would, to this end, unleash a team of retired specialists to design a new layout and implementation plan based on present uses and identified new uses for the future to present to the bishop for approval and implementation.  Special attention would be given to plumbing, electricity, cooling systems, kitchen lay-out, chapel, furniture and bedding. Once the Centre is renovated, it would be a simple, attractive, useful, workable, efficient, clean and comfortable diocesan headquarters for the chancery, bishop’s residence, guest rooms, diocesan meeting spaces for ministry development and spiritual retreats.

✦    … would be coordinated initially by Father Ronald Knott, retired priest of Louisville, Kentucky, under the leadership of Bishop County. In the renovation, Father Knott would be designated a small office/room in the renovated Pastoral Centre out of which to operate. Even though designated for this purpose, it could serve as the bishop’s guestroom when not in use. 

✦    … could be a source of part-time ministry by specific retired priests and bishops looking for such opportunities. After initial contact with The Second Wind Guild and a preliminary screening, retired priests or bishops willing to volunteer would be introduced to the bishop for further screening and assignment by the Bishop of Kingstown. They could serve as formation specialists, relief for priests needing vacations or time off, temporal pastoral assignments, retreat masters and the like. The Catholic Second Wind Guild could organize an orientation program for volunteers to better help them understand and acclimate to island culture. These orientation programs would be conducted by the Bishop and local clergy in the newly renovated Pastoral Centre itself. The Second Wind Guild could also arrange periodic support meetings, short retreats or prayer days for volunteer and local clergy.  

✦    … would consider targeted projects identified by Bishop County and his advisors for exploration, feasibility and possible implementation. After studying the feasibility, assembling the right team, raising the resources and being accepted by the Catholic Second Wind Guild, the implementation could start under the auspices of Bishop County and in partnership with local personnel. 

✦    … would move slowly but deliberately from one project to the next. Each project could possibly require assembling a different Second Wind Guild team, depending on its nature and scope. Nothing would prevent two small projects from being worked on at the same time. 

✦    … could, in the future, include the “soup kitchen project,” away from the Cathedral, on property already purchased or even the big project of a Community Center, previously imagined by the Diocese of Kingstown. Success breeds confidence and more success.  

✦    … would not be a legal entity or hold accounts of its own. All gifts would go directly to the Diocese of Kingstown through St. Bartholomew Church in Florida or any other arrangement made by the Diocese of Kingstown for receiving tax-deductible gifts.

✦    … would, with the approval of Bishop County, begin immediately recruiting a team of experts to come down together to do a study of the Pastoral Centre and its needs, as well as a study of the availability of local talent and resources to implement such a renovation.  Once a study has been completed, the team would come down again to make a presentation to the Diocese of Kingstown that could lead to implementation. 

✦    … could, in the future if this model is successful, pick and train other retired leaders and experts to start additional Chapters of the Catholic Second Wind Guild in other dioceses recommended by the Antilles Episcopal Conference.