Listen to the Heartbeat of the Church

Revised Edition

Listen to the Heartbeat of the Church:

A Pathway to Parish Renewal – How to Create a More Dynamic Parish Community

Listen to the Heartbeat of the Church resurrects the concept of episcopal visitation, an age-old and rarely used practice in Catholic parishes and dioceses. Using information gleaned from a survey of 100 Benedictine monasteries along with a nine-month experience of facilitating a parish goal-setting process, Baroch describes how visitation can strengthen parishes and dioceses by closing the communication gap that sometimes exists between the laity and the hierarchy. Her fictional account of St. Anonymous Catholic Church, the heart of the book, shows how a struggling congregation can accomplish its goals when parishioners, the pastor, and their bishop engage in shared ministry.

It can happen—one parish, one diocese, at a time.

Listen to the Heartbeat of the Church offers ideas and procedures to advance communication between parishes and dioceses through the practice of visitation.

 This process, if well conducted, will result in the following:

• the opportunity to augment spirituality
• improved accountability
• transparency of parish communities and their pastoral staffs
• more communication and collaboration between laity and clergy
• more effective parishes and dioceses
• reduced workload for the clergy.