REMARKS OF
MOST REVEREND JOSEPH A. GALANTE,
D.D., J.C.D.
Good Afternoon.
Soon after I was installed as bishop of the diocese, I visited every parish in the diocese to meet directly with the people to hear their concerns and hopes for our Church. They spoke and I listened. I took to heart their obvious love for the Church, how important it is in their lives, and their hope that it will continue to be a transforming presence in their families and communities.
I also heard a real longing in our people for the Church to help them grow more deeply in their faith; to do much more to reach out to our youth and young adults; to call on the gifts of the laity to assume their rights and responsibilities in the Church; to reach out with compassion to those in need, as well as to Catholics who have been away from the Church; to call forth new vocations to priesthood and religious life; and to nurture our people with well-celebrated liturgies. These are the pastoral priorities that the people of the diocese told me are most important.
Yet, these pastoral priorities do not exist in a void. We know that our church is undergoing change, presenting us with new realities and challenges. While the total Catholic population in the diocese has increased in every decade since its founding—we serve more than 500,000 Catholics today—surveys indicate a dramatic decline in religious observance. Five decades ago, weekly Mass attendance was 74 percent. Today it is less than 24 percent. Increasingly, meanwhile, Catholics brought up in the faith are leaving it for other faith traditions or none at all.
While the Catholic population is increasing overall, this is due in large measure to newly arriving Latino, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese and other Catholics finding a home here. This diversity is greatly enriching our Church, but these groups also require our care and attention.
While Catholic population is increasing overall, in many instances it has shifted out of former Catholic population centers into other parts of the diocese, leaving behind parish facilities that are in close proximity to each other, but are now under-utilized and aging.
This, combined with the decline in Mass attendance I described earlier, has made it increasingly difficult for some parishes to have the financial and human resources to carry on the programs and ministries that will serve the needs of the people, the needs the people themselves have said are most important.
Finally, many of our priests will be retiring, but are not being replaced in the same numbers with new priests. In 2005 we had 171 diocesan priests in active ministry. We expect that by 2015 there will be half that number. Given our present number of parishes—124—and the number of priests that will be available for ministry—85 or fewer—it is obvious that it no longer will be possible to maintain the number of parishes we have today or to maintain present parish configurations.
These are the realities we face. But I see in these realities not only challenges, but also great opportunities to revitalize and renew our church. As we consider these realities, what is not acceptable is complacency or indifference. What is not possible is to continue to do what we’ve always done, hoping for a different result. What is possible, with God’s grace and the collaboration of laity, religious and clergy—who are the Church—is the revitalization of our Church. That is my fervent desire for this diocese and that is why we are here today.
Fifteen months ago, in this very room, I announced a major planning initiative designed to advance the pastoral priorities the people told me were important at Speak Ups, to address the realities facing the Church and, most importantly, to strengthen parish life in every area of the diocese.
I called on the men and women of this diocese to take responsibility for the future of our church through a collaborative planning process. Planning teams were formed for each geographic region or deanery of our diocese. Planners made recommendations to me on how to strengthen parish life—not parish by parish—but in each area or region of the diocese. Planners in their recommendations provided for the hiring of new, paid professionals to carry out critical ministries to all age groups. Planners also considered new models of parish configuration, including the merging or clustering of parishes, placing parishes under the care of a team of priests, and other parish configurations[1].
I profoundly thank the more than 400 planners, our chairpersons, our deans and our pastors, who have given so freely of their time and who have given me the benefit of their wisdom and experience. Their input has been extremely important as I have weighed what is best for this diocese and common good of our people.
After having consulted extensively with parish planners, after having consulted with the Diocesan Planning Commission in February and the Presbyteral Council in March, after prayerful deliberation and much study, I intend to reconfigure parishes in the diocese in the following manner:
In Deanery I, it is my intention to:
In Deanery II, it is my intention to:
In Deanery III, it is my intention to:
In Deanery IV, it is my intention to:
In Deanery V, it is my intention to:
In Deanery VI, it is my intention to:
In Deanery VII, it is my intention to:
In Deanery VIII, it is my intention to:
In Deanery IX, where we have so many of our
shore parishes, shore worship sites will remain in order to continue to serve
large summer populations. However, it is
my intention to:
In Deanery X, it is my intention to:
In Deanery XI, it is my intention to:
In Deanery XII, it is my intention to:
As a result of the reconfiguration I have just described, there will be 38 merged parishes, three clustered parishes (involving six parishes) and 22 stand-alone parishes, resulting in an overall reduction from the current 124 parishes to 66 parishes. I have tried to honor the intentions of the deanery planners where possible. While in some cases precise configurations may differ from their recommendations, I would note that deanery planners themselves recommended a significant reduction in the number of parishes in the diocese through mergers.
While the number of parishes will decrease, my prayerful hope is that we will have an increase in energy and in enthusiasm as we work to carry out the Church’s mission in today’s time and place. While we will have fewer parishes, by joining parishes together we will have more resources and increased opportunities to serve our people better.
We know that Church is a much deeper reality than the buildings and physical structures where we gather. The Church is the people of God, who share a bond through baptism that transcends parish boundaries, worship space and all other considerations. Even so, I realize that the hope that we feel at this time in our Church’s history will be mingled with apprehension and feelings of loss over what was. For this reason, we will be reaching out with the assistance of over 100 trained facilitators in a multi-phased process to help parishes and parishioners deal with the sense of loss these changes inevitably will bring and to help pastors respond to the needs of their parishioners in this regard. As we move forward now, I thank our parishioners for their courage and patience as we work together to bring about these necessary and beneficial changes.
Of course, it will take time to implement these changes and every parish situation will be different. However, we expect that these changes will be accomplished within one to two years. We will work closely with parishes to guide them through the transition to new models of configuration and to respond to questions that will arise. We will also be working in the months ahead to ensure a timely process for the naming of new pastors for the new parishes created through mergers, as well as in other open parishes.
In my announcement to the people of the diocese, which is
being made today through a webcast on our diocesan website, I noted the
comments made by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United
States, when he announced last November that Pope Benedict XVI would visit the
It is my prayer and desire that by continuing to work
closely with the people of the diocese, we will together bring about a new
springtime in the
Thank you.
[1] In a merger, two or more nearby
parishes join together to form one larger parish. Both the assets and
liabilities of participating parishes are united and become the responsibility
of the merged parish. Since the merger results in a new parish, one pastor is
assigned. One budget is created with
one new pastoral council and one new finance council, with representation from
each of the parishes involved in the merger.
The diocese itself does not benefit from the sale of property or real
estate, since all assets and liabilities belong to the merged parish. When
parishes are clustered, a pastor is given the responsibility for
two or three parishes. Existing parish pastoral and finance
councils, worship sites and budgets are retained, but there is increased
collaboration between the parishes in the cluster, with parish organizations
and activities of the cluster combined to the extent possible.
Under a priest-team, the pastoral care of multiple
parishes is entrusted to a team of priests, with one priest assigned as
pastor/moderator of the team.