By Dan Russo
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — Since the results of a diocesan-wide survey on Baptismal Identity and Lay Ministry were made public last year, local Catholics have been absorbing the data and forming action plans based on key findings.
“Bishop (Dennis) Walsh has asked pastors to take the report to their parish council and for the parish council to talk about the results and from there parishes might prioritize working on a specific insight or issue they discover as particularly relevant for them and that’s in the emerging stage right now,” said Evangelization Director Patrick Schmadeke.
Corrine Winter, a member of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport, is a retired professor who taught at St. Ambrose University in Davenport for 23 years. She was tapped to author the 19-page report, titled “Living Out Our Baptism,” based on the survey results and discussions that followed.
“The results certainly call for reflection and for growth as a diocesan community,” reflected Winter. “It has been clear to many of us for a long time that we lay people must step up and take responsibility in the Church. That is a key part of the message of Vatican II. Yes, we need more priests. I am also convinced that one important way to encourage people to consider a call to priesthood or vowed religious life is for all of us to live joyfully and faithfully the call to service, to participation in the mission of the Church, and to bearing witness by sharing our faith journey with others.”
Bishop Walsh and the diocesan Synergy Committee, composed of chancery office leaders, created the anonymous, 10-minute online survey in 2025 in an effort to learn what lay Catholics understand about their baptismal identity and how it guides them in living out their faith. About 3,684 lay respondents completed the survey in English or Spanish between July 30 and Sept. 30. The survey was undertaken after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops asked for a nation-wide consultation.
Three important findings were identified in the document. First, a low level of respondents, both lay and clergy, felt their gifts (charisms) were being recognized and actively used. (31% among lay people and 55% percent among clergy). Second, according to the report there is significant hesitancy regarding faith sharing. Approximately 38% of lay respondents expressed confidence in sharing their faith journey, and only 36% felt comfortable sharing their faith with fellow parishioners. Finally, Bishop Walsh explained in his summary that the survey “suggests that lay leaders could benefit from more intentional and sophisticated formation,”
Identifying Charisms
As part of the questions, the survey identified roughly 20 charisms and asked respondents to select all that apply. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines charisms as “graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world” (Article 799).
“We’ve done some work in developing a charisms inventory that parishes can use that might be more applicable to our setting,” said Schmadeke. “It’s an inventory where three or four or five different gifts rise to the top … What’s critical is for someone to pick one gift at the top and try it out in your parish and personal life and bring it back to the small group. We notice strengths in one another that we don’t always recognize in ourselves.”
The survey results, including the section on how to use gifts, were discussed at a recent St. Paul the Apostle School Board meeting in Davenport. This has prompted officials there to re-start a Catholic Identity Committee.
“There was a lot of good information that came from the (diocesan-wide) survey,” said St. Paul the Apostle Principal Ethan Connors. “We created our own Catholic Identity Survey that we completed as a staff. We’re looking for a baseline. It’s something we’re going to discuss in our meetings.”
The Catholic Identity Committee was first implemented at the beginning of last year to help the school grow the faith in their community, according to Connors. Although they are still in the beginning phases, Connors hopes the effort will lead the identity committee to discover practical ways to help people have “the courage to evangelize others” and increase “knowledge of use of charisms.”
Evangelization
The Go Evangelize Members (GEM) committee at All Saints Parish in Keokuk has been breaking new ground on the evangelization front. About two years ago, parishioners concerned about a lack of engagement among the community’s approximately 400 families started reaching out.
John Runge is on the GEM committee and became parish council president last year. He took the survey and said it is no surprise some people were hesitant to share their faith.
“A lot of people are afraid of what they don’t know,” he said. “They believe they have to have a lot of head knowledge. It’s not about head knowledge. It’s about the heart.”
The GEM program contacted about 75% of the parish community, many of whom don’t regularly go to Mass, according to Mark Heston and his wife Marie. The couple also took the survey. GEM members began by sending letters. They then made phone calls and had in person appointments. “The whole goal was to steer people back into the pews,” said Mark Heston. “At Christmas and Easter, (attendance) peaks way up and then the rest of the year, it’s pretty flat. We were trying to stimulate (inactive Catholics) and hear their stories.”
In the wake of the survey, GEM is planning another round of engagement. Runge, a veteran of the Cursillo movement, said he’s seen lots of evangelization programs come and go in the Davenport Diocese. He recommended trying ideas from other dioceses, even if they are not locally created.
“If a good thing is going on in another place, you need to try it,” he said. “I think a lot of it is getting people to realize the gift that they are and to realize they’re loved.”
The Hestons also volunteer in faith formation programs and are currently helping prepare four adults to join the Church.
“I think the reason people are leaving the Church is because they don’t know what’s going on at Mass,” said Heston. “Once they start to understand what’s going on, it becomes absolutely obvious this is the one true religion. They want to be a part of it.”
Lay Formation
The need for lay formation is a top priority for Schmadeke and other diocesan personnel. He and Father James Flattery plan to visit priests at different deanery meetings in the coming months. Father Flattery is pastor of St. Mary Parish in Mechanicsville, St. Mary Parish in Tipton and St. Bernadette Parish in West Branch.
“We’re currently at the chancery developing a formation program for lay ministers,” said Schmadeke. “There used to be a program before the pandemic and with the pandemic it fell out of use. Bishop Walsh has prioritized getting that up and running again and we’re currently developing that in light of insights from the survey and insights from pastors about what their greatest needs are at their parish for formation. We’re building this formation program to meet those specific needs.”
The results report acknowledges that “any survey and the data it yields has certain weaknesses,” such as not providing the “reasoning behind responses” (Page 6). Nonetheless, Schmadeke encouraged people to read it.
“One of the primary complaints about reports in general, not necessarily about this one, is that nobody likes to see a report put on a shelf and left alone,” said Schmadeke. “If we don’t want that to happen, we’re going to get as much out of it as we put into it. I would invite people to view the report and talk about it with friends in their parish community. Take it to leadership groups, whether it’s the parish council or the stewardship committee or the Knights of Columbus or whoever it might be, reflect on how we might evangelize differently as a result of this or relate to your fellow parishioners differently … The more people that are reflecting on the insights gained by the data, the more fruit will come from it.”
(The diocesan survey report can be viewed online at: https://issuu.com/diodav/docs/diocese_of_davenport_-_usccb_baptism_consultation_ )
