Advancing the Mission
Case Statement

St. Norbert Parish–Old St. Joseph Church–has the unique characteristic of being a diocesan parish situated in the midst of a Roman Catholic college campus rooted in the Norbertine tradition. In 1969, the parish was founded on the deep foundation of the Norbertine campus ministry which had served the college from its inception.

At the time of its establishment, Old St. Joseph Church–St. Norbert Parish became the first ‘college parish’ in the United States.  Its membership reflects and is dependent on this heritage being grounded in the long-standing commitment of its permanent members, a majority of whom have a direct link to the college as alumni, staff and faculty, and given a unique life force by a continuous flow of students on a four year journey through its doorways.

The Advancing the Mission campaign gives St. Norbert College Parish–as a ‘teaching parish’–an opportunity to mold these resources into a clear sense of mission, vision and values which will serve to nurture a greater sense of Catholic conscience for generations to come.

We believe the mission of Roman Catholic education is the formation of character and faith in young adults. It is out of this mission that we derive our vision for our Case Statement. This vision is not driven by parish enrollment, service projects, robust extra-curricular activities, graduation rates, job placements or graduate school acceptance. While these factors are important, we do not believe they are sufficient to justify a Roman Catholic College’s existence.

Rather, we believe our vision needs to be rooted in outcomes found outside the horizons of the students’ current lives. Towards that end, we envision multiple opportunities whereby year rounder parishioners and students will be able to discover the grace that is found by working together, teaching each other and learning from each other as we attempt to advance the mission of the Catholic Church through the extension of Christian service to peoples of marginalized populations.

These outcomes would include the number of St. Norbert College graduates who volunteer for post-college graduation service experiences such as Americorp, Peace Corp, Teach For America, Amate House and the Jesuit Volunteer Corp; the number of SNC students who by the age of thirty are active members of their parish and regular contributors to their community volunteer/service organizations; the number of SNC students who remain successfully married after the first ten years of their marriage;  the number of SNC graduates who are serving their community as ordained ministers of the Church.

If we cannot have a measurable effect in outcomes like these, then we are simply an expensive private college. We believe that as a teaching parish situated on the campus of St. Norbert College, we are called to be partners with the college and its students in this mission of formation.  We call this partnership “The Commission of Conscious.”

“The Commission of Conscious” is a program where St. Norbert College Parish will develop an on-going process of educating the membership of the parish on the social justice issues facing our community, state, nation and peoples of the world, and as an outcome of this education and awareness, raise an increasing number of SNC students upon graduation that will be commissioned by the parish to contribute to seeking solutions to these issues through one- or two-year commitments to volunteer and service organizations such as Americorp, The Peace Corp, the Jesuit Volunteers, and Maryknoll to name just a few.

As part of this commission, the students would present a “commission request” outlining the organization they hope to serve, the issues that will be addressed, what kind of support they are asking for from the parish and how their formation of a faith-based conscious has contributed to their decision to make this commitment. The parish, based on resources available, will set an annual goal for number of graduating students commissioned.

In return, the commissioned students will become “social justice ambassadors and advocates” for the College and the parish. As part of their commission, students will be required to make regular reports to the College and parish on their work and experiences via e-mail or other electronic means. In addition, they will be asked to return to the St. Norbert College campus once a year to provide education to the College and parish community on the social justice issues with which they are involved, and advocate for current members of the student body to “request a commission” upon graduation.

The role of the permanent members of the parish–in this regard–will be to actively participate in the education processes so that they can make informed decisions in selecting the students for commissioning. As the body of knowledge increases within the membership, we will begin to educate the local community and its elected officials on the social justice issues being addressed by the commissioned students. Finally, the parish will properly manage and grow the “Commission of Conscious” endowment which will initially be funded by the parish’s portion of the Advancing the Mission campaign.

We realize that not everyone may have an opportunity to dedicate a one to two year commitment to such a venerable cause. As such, scholarship monies will be available to support our students and year rounders who would like to spend time during Christmas, spring or summer break to have a similar service experience, albeit for a shorter duration of time. Building upon the successes of our parish’s F-Cubed program, we envision a similar unity created between our two parish populations by the offering of time, talent and treasure to people in need.

We do not underestimate the positive effect our parishioners will receive from the people we serve, nor do we take for granted the bonds of unity that will be established among our year rounders and our students when they engage in such a activities as a common body. It is our expectation that the experience our parishioners receive will be shared with the larger parish body upon the completion of the service extended.

And finally, those college-aged members of our parish who attend colleges and universities apart from St. Norbert College will be extended the same scholarship assistance as they seek to serve local communities of need in similar ways. As a means of accountability, the application process and the follow-up catechesis to the larger parish community would mirror the expectations articulated for our commissioned St. Norbert graduates.

In summary the St. Norbert College Parish intends to use their portion of the proceeds (goal $150,000) from the Advancing the Mission campaign to endow the “Commission of Conscious” program. Monies raised from the endowment fund will be used to provide financial and material support to our parishioners–year rounders and students alike–and/or the organization they serve. The goal of the parish will be to make this a primary mission of the life of the parish and continually seek ways to grow the endowment and improve the education and advocacy process so that the number of commissioned parishioners grows on an annual basis.