User:Daniel Fusting

The following biographical sketch is from the book The Catholic Church in the Third Millennium.



After the conclusion of Vatican II, the archbishop reassigned the associate pastor of Dan’s parish. The archbishop then informed his parish’s pastor that he was not able to provide a replacement. The pastor informed Dan of this change and began to explain the new Vatican II challenges that confronted the parish. He concluded by telling Dan, “Since the archbishop is not going to furnish me a new associate, I am making you my associate - part time, unpaid!” Dan’s responsibilities included assisting with the formation of the new ministries and, on occasion, substituting for the pastor at his committee meetings.

In time, Dan, Mary his wife and their children moved. The pastor of his new parish was also the president of the newly formed Priests Senate in the Archdiocese. He met with Dan and asked him to investigate what the parish might be able to do for the teenagers. Dan learned that several parishes sponsored sock hops and occasional dances. A few offered weekly ‘drop-in’s - a time for teens to get together, listen to music and hang out. Dan also learned that the adult “chaperones” were tiring of the hassles and the problems, especially with dances and sock hops. These circumstances caused Dan to decline his pastor’s graceful invitation to reach the teens of the parish. When the pastor asked why, Dan explained that he was not interested in organizing and chaperoning dances, sock hops and drop-ins. His pastor understood and acknowledged the problems and went on to explain that that this was exactly why he was approaching Dan. He asked Dan to investigate other possibilities for teens.

Dan had two high school teenagers and three other children approaching their teens. For this reason, he became keenly interested and intrigued about the possibilities and accepted the pastor’s invitation. Dan began his research by writing to several dioceses to find out what they were doing in the area of youth ministry. He learned most everyone was experiencing similar difficulties. Except for occasional retreats, there were no models for youth ministry.

This caused Dan to rethink the whole concept of ministry to teens. He reasoned that the teenage years were really the years of learning how to become an adult. Therefore, it would be best to treat the teenagers as adults and allow them to assume the roles and responsibilities of adults. After considerable planning, he developed a “total youth ministry” concept in which he modeled the youth’s organization and its ministries in line with the parish’s adult organization and ministries. The only changes were in titles. For example, instead of a parish council, the youth would have a youth planning team and instead of chaperones, the parents and other adults who became involved would assume the role of “adult friends” and mentors.

Once youth ministry became a reality in his own parish, other pastors and parish ministers asked Dan to assist them in adopting the “total youth ministry” concept. Three years later the archdiocese established an Office of Youth Ministry and Louisville’s Bellarmine University hosted a youth ministry conference. Presentations at other regional and national youth ministry meetings followed. Dan’s wife Mary succeeded Dan as their parish’s youth minister and continued the development process. The total youth ministry concept became the recognized standard throughout the country.

Shortly thereafter, the Priests Council of the Louisville Archdiocese commissioned Dan to develop a leadership development program to assist pastors and their parishes in making the transition in becoming Vatican II parishes. This resulted in a continuing series of weekend workshops over a three-year period. Three neighboring dioceses in Kentucky and Indiana invited Dan to conduct this program for their priests as well. Soon thereafter, he developed and presented ministry formation programs, retreats and workshops for lay pastoral ministers and served as a consultant to diocesan offices, agencies, parishes and schools. These ministries were in addition to his full time profession as founder and president of a national management-consulting firm. Meanwhile, Mary’s pastor asked her to be his pastoral associate. She accepted and became one of the first lay pastoral associates in the Louisville archdiocese. After retiring from his management consulting career, Dan was asked to research the changes in the Church in this new millennium” and furnish his perspective. This book is the result.