It was such a joy to have our Vacation Bible School (VBS) in session this week with over 125 children in attendance along with 60 counselors from 7th-8th grades and our high school core team. The buzz on campus was wonderful and they learned all about how to let Jesus’ light shine in their hearts and in their lives. You will see the love and light of the children shining in the photos in the e-bulletin. I am deeply grateful to Karen Moriera who led the VBS this year and her adult team of Monica, Laura, Angela, Tori and Deanne and to Kalena Moriera, Youth Minister who led the youth CORE team (Lily, Amanda, Diane, Rachel, Nikos, RJ, Joey, Tiffany & Victor). I am deeply grateful to them all – it was awesome to see them having so much fun while sharing their gifts and their faith. 

 

As I travel today, I ask for prayers for the missionaries to Tijuana, the advance team left Thursday and the rest of the group are traveling today and will be there July 1-8. May the Lord bless our ministry and may we encounter Christ in all the people we meet and share this week with there. We hope to build 3 new homes and we will send photos of before and after. Thank you for your support.

 

I also want to share a little more information about the project I have been working on at Santa Clara’s University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics for several years. About 4 years ago we formally established an initiative called  The Institute for Technology, Ethics, and Culture, or ITEC  which is a collaboration between the Markkula Center of Applied Ethics and the Vatican’s Dicastery of Culture & Education under Bishop Paul Tighe. I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it is one of the legacy projects that I remain active in from my previous role as Vicar General for Bishop PJ. However, Bishop Oscar asked me to continue at the request of the Vatican, and I wanted to continue my work on it. Over the last 3 years of COVID we worked solely on developing a handbook that will enable tech companies to operationalize ethics inside their companies.

 

On Wednesday of this week, we finally published our handbook called, “Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” or, more briefly, the “ITEC Handbook.”  This much-needed corporate primer offers a practical roadmap with specific recommendations to help organizations address the ethical complexities associated with disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, encryption, tracking, and others. 

  • ITEC Website here.
  • Press announcement published here.
  • The digital version of the handbook is downloadable from the webpage. You can see it here.

Please pray for the success of this project as the world needs more ethics in our technology especially with the advent of AI. 

 

Finally, I would like to share with you the latest update on the diocesan pastoral planning process. The diocese has held 11 consultation sessions with nearly 300 stakeholders on the first draft of the pastoral plan and also with 100 priests during their study week. The meetings included various stakeholder groups such as deacons and wives, principals of our elementary and high schools, parish business managers, parish catechetical leaders, youth and young adult ministers, campus ministers from our Catholic high schools, university campus ministers, Spanish and English youth and young adults, synod delegates, and representatives from the religious orders, Catholic movements, and Catholic organizations in our diocese. These listening sessions produced valuable insights and suggestions that will lead to the spiritual renewal of the Diocese.

 

The Pastoral Planning Commission met this week to review the feedback and looked at the questions raised. In addition, six planning action teams (one for each strategic priority) were created in May and are meeting frequently to create the SMART goals for their strategic priority. These will be included in the plan’s next draft to be released in early September. Stakeholder consultations on the second draft will take place in September and early October.

 

Bishop Cantu recently recorded a video giving an overview of the pastoral planning process, link here. Additionally, the priests are meeting monthly from June through October to unpack different aspects of the pastoral plan for their deeper understanding so that they can support and lead their parishes and schools through implementation. I will keep you updated as we develop specific plans for further feedback. Please pray for the success of this pastoral planning to guide our diocese for the next 10-20 years.

 

God bless,

 

Fr. Brendan