Parish Examen Series (3): The Questions Behind the Mirror

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The previous posts established something simple: a mirror, not a report card. And a discipline, not just a program.

But before walking through the disciplines one by one, it helps to look at what the Examen actually asked.

Most people who know the Parish Examen happened have a general sense of what it covered. Fewer have read the 17 questions carefully. That's worth fixing. Not because the questions are remarkable on their own, but because the way they're organized reveals something important about how the archdiocese understands what a parish is for.

The questions weren't random. They follow a deliberate sequence. And that sequence is itself a kind of theology.
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The 17 questions move through four areas.

The first three questions ask about worship, sacramental life, and confidence in the Gospel. Does the parish celebrate the Eucharist as the center of everything? Is the liturgy faithful and prayerful? Is Confession available and encouraged? Is there a real sense that the Gospel carries transforming power?

These questions come first because everything else depends on them. A parish that's lost its rootedness in Christ and his sacraments hasn't lost a program. It's lost its reason for existing. So the Examen begins here, at the ground floor.

Questions four and five ask about the pastor. Specifically: is he free to actually be a pastor? Is administrative weight being lifted so he can pray, evangelize, and care for people as a spiritual father? Can decisions be appropriately delegated?

This placement isn't accidental. A buried pastor can't lead renewal. And a parish that concentrates everything on the priest, without building the leadership structures that free him, has quietly undermined its own mission. These two questions are small in number and large in consequence.

Questions six through fourteen are the longest section by far. Nine questions covering evangelizing outreach, newcomer connection, faith formation for all ages, vocations, volunteer engagement, and the basic strategies that move people from the parking lot into genuine discipleship. This is where most of the weight sits, because this is where most parishes feel the strain. The fire is usually present. The pathways are often thin.

Questions fifteen through seventeen ask about works of mercy, financial sustainability, and facilities. In many parish conversations, these come up as problems to be managed rather than gifts to be stewarded. The Examen places them last, but not as afterthoughts. It's more like a reminder: buildings and budgets exist to serve the mission, not to consume it. When facilities and finances are struggling, they don't just create practical headaches. They quietly hollow out the capacity to worship, welcome, and serve.

Four areas. One organism.

That's the point worth sitting with.

These aren't four departments. They don't operate in separate lanes. Worship feeds the pastor's authority to lead. His freedom to lead enables discipleship pathways to function. Those pathways produce the people who serve, give, and steward the parish's resources. And faithful stewardship makes worship possible again.

When one area is weak, the others feel it. The Examen knew this. The compiled report said it plainly: what looks like a facilities problem can become an evangelization problem. What looks like a volunteer problem is often a discipleship problem.

The questions were designed to reveal that kind of hidden connection, to surface not just individual symptoms but the patterns beneath them.
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One caution before moving on.

The Examen relied on self-reporting. Pastors, staff, and parishioners answered the questions from inside their own experience. The compiled report acknowledged this directly: self-reporting is both a strength and a limit. People tend to rate themselves generously in areas they care about and overlook areas they've stopped noticing. That's not dishonesty. It's just the nature of looking at yourself in a mirror you've lived with for years.

Which is why the next several posts will move more slowly through each area, asking not just whether something exists but whether it's bearing fruit. The questions behind the mirror were good. The work of answering them honestly is harder and takes longer.

That work begins with the area the Examen placed first.

Next: spiritual life, and what it actually looks like when a parish is rooted there.

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