Vision, Mission and Values Statement

Our VISION

We are a Catholic organisation that works and prays for the Word of God, alive and active, to transform the world. In serving the Church, we strive for a community founded on truth and justice. As co-workers of the Conference, we support and look to the Bishops as teachers, pastors and leaders.

Our MISSION

The Secretariat's mission is to:

Listen to the whole Church and to the world.
Discern with the Bishops the issues of the day and to engage in them.

Work with the Bishops in the task of evangelisation.

Promote the teaching of the Church for the common good.

With the Bishops, further ecumenical co-operation and inter-religious dialogue

Serve the Dioceses, associated Conference bodies and Catholic networks in a spirit of subsidiarity and collaboration.

Assist the Bishops in representing the Catholic Church to Government and society as a whole.

Value staff members and promote their professional development.

Continually develop, according to Catholic principles, effective patterns of work, best possible employment practice and careful stewardship of resources

Our VALUES - Inclusivity, Service, Solidarity, Spirituality, Stewardship

Catholic values come from the Word of God revealed in Scripture and Tradition. They are objective and given, but they have to be lived out and practised. The differing degrees to which Catholic values are present in our work and structures reflect their eschatological nature. By this we mean that Gospel values are already present but not yet fully so. We are called both to recognise and to live, deepen and extend these values. We need more and more to become what our faith reveals us already to be.

Values are more than words, but they need to be expressed in words, stories and images. They apply to us as individuals and as an organisation.

Inclusivity

By Inclusivity we mean that we respect and seek to restore the God-given dignity of each person and honour their variety and difference. We recognise and strive to develop each one's potential for the benefit of the Church and themselves. We aim for work-patterns which promote a balance between work and home-life. We seek to involve everybody at the appropriate level in planning and decision-making (subsidiarity). In all this we aim to be an example of best practice.

Service
We take the Lord Jesus as our model of Service. We recall that He came to serve rather than to be served, and that He no longer calls us servants but friends. We see our mission as primarily to enable the Bishops to serve the people of God. We aim to achieve this by teamwork involving lay and clergy alike. We celebrate each other's sense of vocation and seek to discern how best to exert ourselves for the benefit of the Church and of others.

Solidarity

By Solidarity we recognise and seek to extend and deepen the bonds of communion (in faith, hope and love) which unite us in the Body of Christ, the Church. We believe that the actions and experiences of each one of us affect us all. We seek to support one another in our work-patterns. We aim to communicate more effectively in a spirit of mutual understanding and respect and to share appropriate information as widely as possible while respecting confidentiality.

Spirituality

The Holy Spirit is active throughout creation. We strive to discern the presence and gifts of the Spirit in individuals and in the structures of the Church. By Spirituality we mean that the Kingdom of God is present in our working, praying and being together and that these contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church, and the furtherance of its mission. We encourage each other to recognise that in our professional co-operation and our staff celebrations the Holy Spirit can reveal the deeper reality of what we are and do.

Stewardship

Jesus has entrusted the Church with His mission and the means of salvation for all people. By Stewardship we mean that we strive to be faithful to Christ and the Church in treasuring, developing, sharing and handing on what we have received. We recognise that the resources we use have come from the people of God and been entrusted to us by the Bishops. We seek to use them as wisely and effectively as possible, especially to benefit those most in need, and to be accountable for their use.