Grand Island Diocese Vision

The parishes of Grand Island Diocese of the Catholic Church will be recognized as Christ's hands on earth, growing in faithfulness to God's invitation, inflaming existing members and attracting new members.

A parish is a Eucharistic people present in a faith-filled community proclaiming and living the Gospel through a shared ministry of clergy and laity.

Catholics in the Grand Island Diocese live our Baptismal call by calling forth the gifts of everyone, nurturing good and positive relationships, working for justice, providing energizing activity for youth, reaching out to the marginalized, and providing multi-generational faith formation.

The Grand Island Diocese is rural in nature. As we make decisions about the future, the rural context must be honored. Honoring regions that are less populated, tied to simple lifestyles, and economically stressed is not easy. Our U.S. culture places value on material wealth and contends that bigger is better. In contrast, our faith base contends that bigger comes with responsibility to honor small places. Christ came to serve those who were seen as powerless. As we make judgments about vitality and allocation of resources, bigger isn't necessarily better and depending upon the measurement tool used, may not even be more vital. Urban centers in our diocese are also called to "new vision of parish". We have a great opportunity to revitalize the diocese through this process. Care needs to be exercised that we do not forget our call to evangelize and assist parish growth in the understanding of what it means to be Catholic. Leadership for this process will best be received from the priests and religious with support from trained laity.