ID of a Comboni Priest (3)

Leadership in Collaboration

* The service of presiding, typical of the ministry of the priest, is seen not so much as the centre of decision and authority, but rather as the task of making sure that every ministry has its own space and its own responsibility, and functions in good articulation with all the other ministries present in a particular setting. Some of the characteristics of service in a collaborative way are:

a) Common discernment of situations and the concrete needs of the community (parish, institution, area of pastoral service...), pastoral planning and definition of concrete priorities.

b) The priest, in open dialogue with all concerned, discovers and promotes the particular charisms that God is raising in a specific pastoral context so that God's salvation may be received by people in meaningful ways.

c) It is the priest's responsibility to keep alive in his community a sense of communion with the whole Church: establishing and cultivating active channels of communication and mutual exchange with other areas of the Catholic Church. What is happening in the rest of the Church is somehow part of the life of each community.

* As a member of the Comboni Family, the priest will sensitize his community to pay particular attention to the poorest and most abandoned of the parish.

* Being part of an international community keeps the Comboni in continuous contact with the life and the challenges of many other churches. this will allow him to offer his own church opportune prophetic reminders of areas and values of Christian life which he sees very much active in other communities and may have been forgotten by his own.

True leadership creates space for others to flourish, weaving diverse gifts into a tapestry of shared mission.