Archdiocese of San Francisco

Priest Convocation Planning Committee

Report to Presbyteral Council
Thursday, October 10, 2019

The archdiocesan convocation of priests met from Monday, September 30 through

Thursday, October 3. Approximately 145 priests were in attendance, an increase over
recent prior years.

The theme for the convocation was entitled, Getting Better Together: A Path to
Organizational Health.

Consultants from the Evangelium Consulting Group helped the group of priests to
understand and work towards greater unity and well-being within the presbyterate. Based
on the model of organizational health developed by Patrick Lencioni, co-founder of the
Amazing Parish movement, Fortune 500 consultant, and author of ten best-selling
business books on organizational health, Evangelium Consulting led us through inspiring
talks, table-top discussions, team-building exercises, and other activities designed to
build trust through the development of cohesive leadership teams in the Archdiocese.

The priests sat together in small groups arranged according to deaneries. We asked that
the deans serve as small group facilitators, as well as other priests from the same deanery
to lead the discussions in overflow groups when the number of participants from a
deanery was large enough to warrant them.

We had a total of 25 groups of 6-8 priests each, including a group from the chancery that
included the Archbishop.

The chair of the convocation planning committee, Father Roger Gustafson, shared a few
opening comments, followed by the Archbishop who also welcomed the priests and
shared his desire for a closer, more unified presbyterate.

Keith Borchers from Evangelium Consulting then began the convocation. At the
beginning of each of the convocation sessions, the Archbishop shared his responses to the
team-building exercises with the larger group before the small groups discussed their
responses.

On Tuesday evening, the group seemed to come to a near consensus that the priests
of the Archdiocese desire greater communication and collaboration with the
Archbishop in making key decisions.

The Archbishop responded to these concerns at a session on Wednesday morning and

expressed his wish that greater understanding and discussion be fostered between the
priests and himself. To that end, he suggested an ongoing structure to ensure regular,
ongoing communication with small groups of priests. The Archbishop suggested dinners
to be held at his residence.
The next afternoon and morning, the priests collaborated on how best to put in place such
a structure. At the final session, the consultants suggested a pilot program in which one
deanery be selected to meet regularly with the Archbishop to provide advice and counsel
and this mechanism seemed to receive widespread approval. Father Gustafson will follow
up with the consultants by the end of October to solidify next steps.