Catholic diocese reveals timeline
Parish downsizing will be phased in over five-year period, officials say
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said Friday that it plans to phase in all parish downsizing over a period of five years.
According to a new statement from the On Mission project, the mergers will take place at various rates depending on circumstances.
The groupings of new parishes will be put in one of three categories: Category A will include parishes that need to come together immediately, either due to serious financial or demographic issues or because they have indicated they’re ready to proceed; Category B, which will include most of the parishes, will involve mergers within one to three years; and Category C involves several larger parishes, which will have time frames of from three to five years to complete their mergers.
Bishop David Zubik is expected to announce which category each parish falls into, along with new priest and deacon assignments, by March. Those pastors then will be given instructions regarding such things as merger timelines, Mass schedules, staffing needs and procedures for merging parish and financial councils.
“Once those pastors get put into place … then they’ll be able to work with those blueprints,” said diocesan spokesman Bob DeWitt. “Every parish is different.”
Since 2000, the Catholic population is down 16 percent in the diocese’s counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington. Mass attendance, first communions, confirmations, infant baptisms,
church marriages and K8 school enrollment are down from 40 percent to 50 percent.
And the number of active priests, 216, is expected to drop by half within 10 years. Half of parishes have operational deficits.
Robert Knecht, 44, a member of Saint Raphael Parish in Morningside, said he has heard rumors that his parish could merge with two others in the East End. He has confidence in the future of his church and its school because they have a healthy attendance, but he has heard complaints from members at the other parishes.
“It’s going to ruffle some people’s feathers,” Mr. Knecht said Friday evening at the parish’s final fish fry of the Lenten season. “You can’t please everybody. There’s always going to be a disapproval factor.”
But Mr. Knecht said he realizes the deteriorating financial situation the diocese faces.
“I understand why it needs to be done,” he said. “Economically, it makes sense. Am I extremely happy it has to happen? No. But I understand why it has to happen.” Laurie Mudge, 46, serves lunch to students at Saint Raphael Parish School and has been a parishioner there for about seven years. She said she began attending the parish after Saint John Neumann Regional School in Lawrenceville closed and she sent her daughters to Saint Raphael’s school.
She said she had such good experiences sending her daughters to the school that she decided to move her membership from Our Lady of the Angels Parish to Saint Raphael.
“We were welcomed with open arms even prior to the decision of [Saint John Neumann] being closed,” she said. “They said, ‘Why don’t you come and tour?’ That way we weren’t shocked.”
The diocese announced last year that it will dramatically reduce its number of parishes as a result of the declines, under a plan known as “On Mission for the Church Alive!” The diocese has been studying for months how best to consolidate more than 200 churches and parishes, hosting hundreds of meetings for thousands of parishioners.
The “On Mission commission,” which is leading these meetings, will make recommendations to the bishop by the end of this year so he can make the final decisions.