The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has completed a comprehensive envisioning process which led to the development of a new Evangelization Plan that leads our diocesan vision of commitment to Christ’s Great Commission to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Using our core values of faith, hope, and charity, this plan has three priorities:

  • Formation defined as the intentional and ongoing process of educating, equipping, and spiritually developing individuals — both clergy and laity — who can effectively live out, effectively witness to, and proclaim the Gospel.
  • Infrastructure which means to equip the entire Diocese including the chancery, priests, deacons, parishes, and faithful with the tools they need to spread the Gospel.
  • Parish renewal which is to maintain the Church’s relevance in an increasingly secular society through vision and strategy to revitalize our Parish Community.

Each priority has two goals that will be a guide for living out the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston’s purpose:

Empowered by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Diocesan purpose is to serve and evangelize, transforming us and our world into one joyful, united people who share divine communion.

Most Rev. Mark E. Brennan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As we approach Pentecost, I wish to reflect with you on the profound connection between evangelization and the Holy Spirit, a connection that lies at the very heart of our mission as Catholics. Pentecost marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, an event that transformed them from fearful disciples into bold proclaimers of the Gospel. This same Spirit empowers us today as we continue to bear witness to Christ in our world.

In this regard, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston entered into a partnership last year with the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI), a distinguished national apostolate that has dedicated more than 30 years to nurturing and supporting the Church’s leaders. The goal of this collaboration is to create a three-year evangelization plan for our diocese.

Catholic Leadership Institute has engaged our Diocese in a number of ways, from the Disciple Maker Index survey that thousands of our parishioners completed during the winter months and also a Priest Leadership Inventory. Catholic Leadership Institute also gathered additional insights through one-on-one interviews with a small number of parishioners and led convened numerous focus groups from around the Diocese.

The results and information gleaned from these touchpoints were provided to an Envisioning Team, a group of representatives from all walks of Catholic life in West Virginia. The Envisioning Team recently completed several months of work to create, or “envision,” what Evangelization priorities we should focus on in our Diocese. I’m pleased to announce that the results of this work are provided in the attached Evangelization Plan.

I call on our Diocesan Church to now unite and answer our call to evangelize all people. Let us strive to grow as a vibrant and active community of disciples, living out our call to evangelize and serve our world.

May God bless you abundantly.

Sincerely in Christ,

+Mark E. Brennan
Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston