This week's editorial, "A Spirit-Led Future," has already sparked some good conversation in the comments boxes. The editors argue that "With priestly and religious vocations and Mass attendance in decline, the church can no longer do all it once did. This may seem obvious, but its corollary still provokes resistance and controversy: Still more institutions will have to close—not just parishes and parochial schools, but colleges and hospitals, soup kitchens and retreat centers."
Shortly after we went to press the Archdiocese of Boston announced a parish reorganization plan that seeks a creative solution to this new reality of church life. Here are the details:
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is proposing to reorganize the management of its 290 parishes by creating teams to oversee multiple parishes under a single pastor, in a search for efficiencies that would save money and allow staff to concentrate on the growth of the church.
The plan, to be unveiled Monday at a priest-only meeting with Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, does not call for the closing of more churches. The archdiocese proposes to create about 125 pastoral service teams that, once created, would be free to merge programs among churches and make recommendations to the cardinal about closing and selling churches, rectories, or other buildings.
“This would be something that comes up from the ground, not something imposed’’ by church leaders, said Monsignor William P. Fay, pastor of St. Columbkille in Brighton and cochairman of the Archdiocesan Planning Commission.
The exact number of teams and the way parishes are to be grouped together have not been announced, but most teams would oversee two or three parishes. Each parish would retain its own name and identity, though parishes within a group would probably share some staff members, as well as their pastor.
Meanwhile, a lay advisory panel in Detroit has recommended the closing of four parishes. Read more here.
Tim Reidy
Would be good for some bostonians might post about this as they are directly affected and on the scene.
But God calls us forward, not backward. Good Pope John called the Council because he feared that the Church was becoming a museum, and he called upon all of us to "open the windows and look out at the world ... and let the world look at us." Are we not called, as the Living Body of Christ in the world to reach out to the world will welcoming arms and to proclaim anew for our time that Jesus is Lord? It seems like, institutionally, we've lost our way. Fifty years after Vatican II, the Church is more a museum than ever!