THE PASTORAL PLAN FOR PARISH RENEWAL AND RESTRUCTURING February 8, 2013 St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin Diocese of Belleville Official Statement The Pastoral Plan for Parish Renewal and Restructuring In a MEMORANDUM sent today to all of the parishes of the Diocese of Belleville, the Vicar General, Msgr. John W. McEvilly, provided an update for the Catholic community of southern Illinois on the status of The Pastoral Plan for Parish Renewal and Restructuring announced by the Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton on August 6, 2011. The MEMORANDUM provided an outline of the work of The Parish Renewal and Restructuring Committee, chaired by Monsignor McEvilly, and the recommendations that the Committee has made to the Bishop. The document stresses several important points. 1. The restructuring will not only impact individual parishes and schools. It will also have an impact on Diocesan structures at the Chancery and Pastoral Center and the current organization of Deaneries and clusters. 2. The process of implementing the restructuring will not take place all at once on the same day. Instead, the process will be gradual and dynamic following a timetable dictated by the particular circumstances of individual parishes and clusters of parishes. In some cases, the new parish arrangements could begin within six months after they are announced. In other cases, the new parish arrangements may not be in place for two years or more. 3. Because of the complexity and time consuming nature of the work of the Committee and Bishop Braxton s follow-up on its recommendations, the Bishop s formal response may not be issued by February 28, 2013, as he had anticipated. It may be delayed until mid or late March. 4. The Bishop will spend part of the intervening time in dialogue with the leadership of individual parishes in order to help them to appreciate better the very real challenges the Diocese will be facing in the next ten years. His hope is that, to the extent that it is possible, the Christian Faithful themselves will embrace the difficult decisions that may lead to merging or closing parishes. In situations where this does not happen, the Bishop will make the decision in conversation with the parish in question. 5. Individual parish and school communities will be informed of changes affecting them, before any public announcements are made. 6. The Vicar General s statement concludes by saying the Catholic people must all think of themselves as members of one Diocesan family. They must be concerned not only about the good of their particular parish community but also about the good of the whole Church community in southern Illinois. He urges the people to pray about these important matters during the coming days of Lent. (The entire memorandum will appear in coming issues of The Messenger.)
MEMORANDUM: Important Update The Diocese of Belleville Office of the Vicar General From: Monsignor John W. McEvilly, V.G. & Chairman of the Committee To: Priests, Deacons, Parish Life Coordinators, and Department Directors Re: Update on The Pastoral Plan for Parish Renewal and Restructuring Date: February 8, 2013, St. Josephine Bakhita The Parish Renewal and Restructuring Committee membership: The Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, chair, ex officio; the Vicars Forane: The Very Reverend C. Raymond Schultz, V.F., vice-chair; The Reverend Monsignor John T. Myler, V.F.; The Reverend Monsignor Daniel J. Jurek, V.F.; The Very Reverend Henry Fischer V.F.; The Very Reverend Robert B. Flannery, V.F.; The Very Reverend John C. Iffert, V.F.; The Reverend Kenneth J. York, J.C.L., Chancellor for Canonical Affairs; Deacon Robert Lanter; Sister Catherine Wellinghoff, A.S.C.; Mr. Thomas Posnanski; Mr. James V. Mroczkowski; and Mrs. Kathy Mulvin. Please read this entire MEMORANDUM carefully. Distribute it to your Parish and School Leadership. Discuss it carefully with your trustees and Parish Pastoral Council. Discuss it at your next Deanery and cluster meetings. Make it available to your parishioners in whatever ways are possible (e.g., by e-mail, parish website, putting copies in the back of the church, printing it in sections in your bulletin, directing them to the Diocesan website www.diobelle.org). It is important that as many of the faithful as possible are apprised of this update. They should be made aware that the changes that the Bishop will announce in his formal response will be flexible, gradual, and dynamic rather than taking effect all at once.
In his August 6, 2011 Pastoral Letter, Embracing the Future with Hope introducing The Plan, Bishop Braxton wrote: The Pastoral Plan will require parishes to make difficult decisions that may be painful. However, the PLAN will be more fruitful if most of the decisions are made at the parish and cluster levels and then recommended to me for implementation. The challenges of the future are so great that real and difficult decisions must be made. I urge the parishes and clusters to face forthrightly and address these hard decisions. If this does not happen, the Committee for Parish Restructuring will try to assist the parishes in their decision-making in order to make recommendations to me. It is preferable that our communities of faith make the difficult decisions at the local level. However, if they are not made, these decisions will need to be made at the level of the Vicar General and the Bishop. We must be attentive to the desires of individual communities while making hard decisions for the long-term good of the whole Diocese. This requires an unselfish spirit that looks beyond individual parish boundaries. All parishes are required to participate in the Pastoral Plan for Parish Renewal and Restructuring without exception. Some of our parishes may be able to go forward making internal restructuring that will improve pastoral effectiveness. However, some parishes may be asked to open their arms and welcome a neighboring parish. Still others may gain a new identity through the consolidation and merging of several faith communities. Over time, every parish in the Diocese will be affected in some way by this undertaking. Nevertheless, while it is not possible to predetermine the results of this process, we may need to reduce the number of parishes by fifteen or twenty. The Timetable for the Pastoral Plan states: The Bishop s response to the recommendations of the parishes, schools, and the Committee for Pastoral Renewal and Restructuring are scheduled to be announced in February, 2013. This MEMORANDUM is intended to give you an update on the work of the Committee and its recommendations in anticipation of the Bishop s response. I. The following recommendations of the Committee have been accepted by the Bishop and his Cabinet. A.) As the Committee and the Cabinet reviewed the overall needs of the Diocese in the present and in the years ahead, it became clear that a certain amount of reorganization was needed at the Diocesan level. This included a restructuring of the Diocesan offices at the Chancery and at the Pastoral Center. The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. B.) The Committee also concluded and recommended a restructuring of the present arrangement of Deaneries, which entails a regrouping of the counties that constitute Deaneries and reducing the number of Deaneries, now to be called Vicariates. The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. C.) The Committee further concluded and recommended that the present configuration of clusters needed restructuring, putting parishes together in partnerships that can ultimately be served by one Priest. This structure will take on a greater importance in the years ahead. The Bishop has accepted this recommendation.
D.) The Committee examined the new Vicariates and partnership arrangements and proposed a specific number of Priests that the Diocese can realistically expect to have available in the years ahead to serve the parishes in each Vicariate. The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. E.) The Committee discussed the significant assistance that the Diocese has received because of the ministry of fidei donum missionary Priests that the Bishop has brought to the Diocese. However, the Bishop informed them that their Bishops or Religious Superiors could call them home at any time. Since it is not possible to presume that we will have the service of more, or even as many, missionary Priests in the future, the Committee recommended to the Bishop that the implementation of the Plan must be done without counting fidei donum Priests as a guaranteed presence. The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. F.) The Committee, after reviewing the self-evaluations of the parishes, recommended that the Bishop or Vicar General enter into dialogue with the leadership of each of the parishes which, in the Committee s judgment, should review its analysis of long-term viability. (See II.D. below.) The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. II. The process of making recommendations to the Bishop concerning the future of the parishes and elementary schools has been particularly challenging for a number of reasons. A general summary of the current status is given below. A.) A number of parishes have been late in sending to the Diocese their responses to the consultation. (Some have turned in partial responses or NO response at all. This has necessitated repeated calls to obtain the data, which is still not fully accumulated.) If your parish has not responded, please do so immediately. B.) Some parishes and schools did NOT use the forms that were sent to them as Attachments, making it difficult to tabulate accurately and evaluate responses. C.) In many Dioceses, when a project of this scale has been undertaken, the Diocese has appointed one or more priests, deacons, religious, or laypersons to work on assembling and studying the data more or less full-time. They have then summarized the findings and made recommendations to the Committee. Unfortunately, we have not been able to do that. This is a key reason why the process has been more time consuming than expected. D.) Not surprisingly, the most serious challenge faced by the Committee is the fact that parish members and parish leadership have found it very difficult to recommend anything but the status quo for their parish. This has happened even when the evidence in their responses and information already known by the Diocese would strongly suggest a given parish is facing serious challenges that will only become greater in the next five years. This has made it necessary for the Committee to recommend to the Bishop that he should speak to the leadership of a number of parishes and call their attention to certain key factors in Attachment C, listing the ten Criteria for Determining Parish Viability. (To view the attachments, go to www.diobelle.org and click on resources on the left side of the page.) The Committee has further recommended that the Bishop should ask the
leadership to review Attachment D: Parish Evaluation Instrument more closely, giving careful consideration to choices C, D, and E. He should remind them of the Bishop s instruction, The Pastoral Plan will require parishes to make difficult decisions that may be painful. However, The Plan will be more fruitful if most of the decisions are made at the parish and cluster levels and then recommended to me for implementation. It is preferable that our communities of faith make the difficult decisions at the local level. However, if they are not made, these decisions will need to be made at the level of the Vicar General and the Bishop. The Committee also recommended that it may be necessary for the Bishop, Vicar General, or the Vicar Forane to meet with a representative group of the parishioners and listen to their concerns and their reasons for not considering the difficult decisions that almost certainly need to be made. The Committee stressed the need for the Bishop to explain the big picture to the Faithful and give the reasons why some parishes may need to consider merging with a neighboring parish, or possibly closing. The Committee agreed with the Bishop s desire to persuade parishioners to embrace a change in the status of their parish. However, the Committee recommended that, if there is no other way, the Bishop must change the status of some parishes for the good of the Diocese. (See I.F. above.) The Bishop has accepted this recommendation. E.) After studying the diverse parish situations in the Diocese, the Committee concluded that it may not be pastorally necessary or wise for the realignment of parishes to take place all at once and on a uniform timetable. The Committee suggests that a flexible, gradual, and dynamic process would be the best approach. 1.) It may be that several parishes are in a situation that indicates that they should move in the direction of merging or closing within six months to a year. 2.) It may be that several additional parishes are in situations that put them on a time- table of one to three years. For example, in a given cluster or partnership where there are three parishes currently served by three priests, there will need to be an acceptance of the fact that, in the future, only one priest will be available to serve the three parishes. This may mean that two of the parish churches would need to become chapels, with all regularly scheduled Masses celebrated in the one remaining parish church. The chapels might be used for funerals or weddings for the time being. Eventually, the chapels might need to close, be sold, or demolished. 3.) All of these arrangements would need to be discussed with the parishioners of the parishes involved. In doing so, it will be imperative to communicate the very real challenges the Diocese will be facing in the next ten years. These include: the impact of declining numbers of parishioners and declining financial support in many parishes during the past 20 years; the advanced age of many parishioners; declining number of elementary schools; the age and condition of parish facilities; the proximity of one declining parish to another; the need for a critical mass of parishioners to sustain viability; the long term uncertainty of the availability of fidei donum priests; the number of priests soon to be eligible for retirement; the failing health of several priests; the small number of seminarians; and the unreasonableness of asking priests to serve three or more parishes for an extended period of time.
4.) Maintaining the status quo will only mean even more difficult and painful decisions in the future. The Committee is still discussing these recommendations with the Bishop. F.) The Committee has examined the challenges facing our Catholic Elementary Schools with the Bishop and with Mr. Thomas Posnanski, Director of the Office of Education. While some of our schools are strong, a number of schools are facing serious challenges that may not allow them to continue to exist in their present form. A few may not be able to continue at all. Mr. Posnanski has been in conversation with the leadership of the schools in question. The Bishop has also been meeting with some of them. It is imperative for every school to accurately and honestly complete Attachment E: Parishes with Catholic Schools (School Evaluation Instrument). The Committee is currently examining proposed possible minimum requirements for a school to continue with academic and fiscal viability. These requirements may include: 1.) The need for all Catholic Elementary Schools in the Diocese of Belleville to be able to sustain a minimum enrollment of 50 students in grades K-8. If they do not currently have that minimum number, they will be given one year to reach that number in order to continue operating. 2.) Parishes in the Diocese of Belleville with Catholic Elementary schools and those that send students to neighboring Catholic Elementary Schools are to provide a maximum level of financial support to their parish schools of not more than 40% of parish income. The 40% of parish income is to include all types of support including utilities and maintenance. Those parishes that are currently supporting their Catholic Elementary School at a higher level of financial support will have two years to make the adjustments necessary to comply with this requirement. 3.) This requirement, consistent with national requirements, is deemed necessary to prevent a parish from devoting so much of its income to the support of the school that the parish is not able to provide funds for other important activities that are essential for a viable parish to be a parish. These three recommendations are still being discussed by the Committee. They have not yet been formally recommended to the Bishop. III. Important concluding observations The purpose of this MEMORANDUM is to inform you about the progress the Committee has made so far and to introduce to you the direction of the Committee s thoughts and recommendations to the Bishop. In this way, the Bishop s formal response will not come to you as a complete surprise. Some of these ideas are still being refined. They are subject to change. You should feel free to contact me, in writing, addressed to the Office of the Vicar General, if you have questions or observations about the contents of this MEMORANDUM.
Please note that no announcements concerning significant changes affecting a specific parish or school will be made until appropriate conversations have taken place between representatives of the parish or school in question and the Bishop or his representative (e.g., The Vicar General or a Vicar Forane). Bishop Braxton hopes that his formal response will be available by February 28, 2013. However, for the reasons that have been explained above and the advent of Lent and Holy Week, this may not be possible. The completion of his response will be influenced by the time needed for individual conversations with parish leadership and parish representatives. If his response is delayed, it could be delayed until mid-march or April 1, 2013 at the latest (prior to the busy Confirmation season). And, as you have read above, his response will contain specific changes and decisions as well as a process that will lead to further decisions and changes on a flexible timetable based upon pastoral needs and practical realities. At various meetings, the Bishop has stressed that it remains his desire for the key decisions to be made at thelocal LEVEL. He would prefer not to impose decisions that the Christian Faithful will find difficult to accept. Therefore, if he is forced to make such decisions, he would like to have sufficient time to visit with the parishes involved so that they will at least understand a decision, which they wish could be otherwise. As you know, the process we are undertaking has been going on for more than twenty-five years in parishes around the country and around the world. (In some cases this has taken place with little or no consultation.) Several commentators have suggested that the Catholic Church of the future may well be smaller, but stronger and better. We must all think like members of one Diocesan family. We must be looking out not only for the good of our particular parish community but for the good of the whole Church community in southern Illinois. What we are doing is long overdue and rather modest when compared to other Dioceses. (The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for example, has recently announced that it is in the process of moving from 203 parishes to 100 parishes.) In his Pastoral Letter: Embracing the Future with Hope introducing The Pastoral Plan, Bishop Braxton stresses that prayer must be at the heart of this process if it is to bear fruit. Only in this way will we be able to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and dispose ourselves to the sacrifices we may be called upon to make for the good of our parish communities and the good of the Church in southern Illinois. Please continue to pray for everyone in our Diocese during this time of decision and transition. During Lent, we enter into a season of grace. We open our hearts to the Holy Spirit s call to conversion, repentance for our sins, and spiritual renewal. You are encouraged to return to Attachment G: Prayer Resources for the Planning Gatherings, where you will find a variety of prayers that were made available to you. Mindful that every parish will ultimately be affected by The Pastoral Plan, the prayer below seems particularly appropriate. We in the Diocese of Belleville, like Simon Peter in Sunday s Gospel, are being called to obey the command of Christ to embrace the unknown future: Put out into the deep!
The Prayer of Thomas Merton (Fr. Louis, O.C.S.O.) My Lord God: We have no idea where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us. We cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so. But we believe that our desire to please you does in fact please you. And we hope that we have that desire in all that we are doing. We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire. And we know that if we do this you will lead us by the right road though we may know nothing about it. Therefore will we trust you always though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. We will not fear, for you are ever with us, and you will never leave us to face our perils alone. Hear our prayer in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN