Parishes submit recommendations for their futures

BY KATE BLAIN
ASSISTANT EDITOR

John Manning of the diocesan Office of Pastoral Planning is the first to admit that the "Called to be Church" process has been "a long, arduous task."

However, he added, by the June 30 deadline, all 39 Local Planning Groups (LPGs) had turned in their recommendations for the future of every one of the Albany Diocese's more than 160 parishes.

Leaders of each of the Diocese's 17 deaneries, covering all the parishes in a specific area, also turned in reports.

The stacks of binders now filling a bookcase in the Pastoral Planning Office include information on all parish ministries from faith formation to evangelization; on staffing and Mass schedules; and on the reconfiguration of parishes.

More than 1,000 parish leaders -- laity, religious and clergy -- across the Diocese were involved in creating the plans.

"The LPGs have done an extraordinary job in reflecting on the mission, ministry and stewardship of [parish] resources, including reconfiguration," Mr. Manning told The Evangelist. "Some had more struggles than others; merging or closing is always difficult to contemplate."

Minority reports

It's the latter issue that has left Catholics in the Diocese nervous and impatient to hear about their parishes' futures. Not all parish groups were unanimous in recommending which parishes in their LPGs should close or merge, Mr. Manning noted; several of the thick binders of recommendations contain minority reports protesting a group's decision.

In addition, two specific groups in the Diocese made their own recommendations: Polish and Hispanic Catholics, who each have a presence in multiple parishes, met as subcommittees to discuss how best to serve each ethnic group in the future.

While there are many other ethnic groups in the Diocese, Mr. Manning explained that only those two requested the opportunity to meet "as a group of leaders." The subcommittee of Polish Catholics was headed by Rev. Carl Urban, pastor of St. Adalbert's parish in Schenectady; Rev. Joseph Angelini, OFM Conv., of Holy Family parish in Albany led the Hispanic group.

Now, a "reading room" will be set up in the diocesan Pastoral Center in Albany for the next stage of the process: For the rest of the summer, diocesan department heads with expertise in specific areas will review the information in the binders and add their comments.

Diocesan input

Among those officials will be:

* Richard Farrell, the Diocese's chief financial officer, who will check on whether the information submitted meets financial criteria for each parish's viability;

* Sister Mary Jane Herb, superintendent of schools, who will note what's been recommended by parishes with Catholic schools in their LPGs;

* Rev. Ronald Menty, administrative advocate for priests, who will look at issues related to clergy;

* Elizabeth Simcoe, chancellor for pastoral services, who will examine issues like prayer and worship; and

* Jeanne Schrempf, director of the Office of Evangelization, Catechesis and Family Life, who will scan recommendations on sacramental preparation, evangelization and the like.

With all of this information to wade through, the final decisions on parish closures or mergers that Catholics are waiting to hear won't be announced until January.

Mr. Manning told The Evangelist that the Diocese will not be releasing any summaries of the LPGs' recommendations, since not all of them will necessarily be accepted.

"We don't want to put them out, because people will just [look] for numbers," he stated. Even if such a list were available, he said, "the closings and mergers will not all happen at once: Some will occur upon the retirement of a priest; some parishes will become oratories, [used for weddings and funerals]. That will not be counted as a closure. It's not all black-and-white."

Commission is next

Besides, he said, assuming that the plans are final now would negate the work of the next group to evaluate them: the Called to be Church Review Commission.

A group of 24 commission members are now being recruited to review the recommendations during September and October. The commission will be split into four groups, each concentrating on a single area: large city parishes, small city parishes, suburban parishes and rural parishes.

"We're asking 24 local people to come in and give tremendous service to the Diocese," Mr. Manning put in, gesturing at the 39-plus binders the commission will have to pore over.

First, the commission will go through a basic checklist to make sure the LPGs followed the criteria for pastoral planning. They will pay particular attention to whether parishes have presented concrete plans to implement starting in 2009.

If necessary, commission members will meet with LPG leaders to further discuss their plans and flesh out specific areas. One projected area of concern, said Mr. Manning, is whether parishes have planned far enough into the future: He said that some LPGs, particularly in cities likely to lose some parishes, got so bogged down in discussing immediate reconfigurations that they didn't have time to look further ahead than that.

"We're not going to get into a big appeal process," cautioned Mr. Manning. "When you're dealing with mergers or closures, you're going to automatically have disagreement."

Variations

He also noted that not all LPGs will see closures or even mergers: In some suburban areas, for example, parishes are viable and well-supported; in some rural areas, the Diocese must "maintain a presence" for Catholics who could not travel to the next closest parish, which might be 30 miles away.

By mid-November, the review commission will have submitted a summary of the recommendations to Bishop Howard J. Hubbard. He will in turn get input from the Presbyteral Council, which represents clergy of the Diocese.

In December, the Bishop will make his final decisions. Mr. Manning said that parishes should receive word about their futures so they can then make public announcements to their parishioners "no later than Jan. 15."

Mr. Manning asked that Catholics across the Diocese not look at Called to be Church as simply a countdown to parish closures.

"It's not all about closings," he said emphatically. "That's a distortion of what this whole process was about. It's about how we work together going forward in a way we've never worked together before. Yes, you may have some parishes merging or closing, but the story is about mission and ministry."

SIDEBAR

Examples of parish recommendations

Many parishes have published their recommendations in weekly bulletins to keep parishioners updated on the Called to be Church process. For example:

* the LPG made up of St. Mary's parish in Coxsackie, St. Patrick's in Athens, St. Patrick's in Catskill and St. Patrick's in Ravena has stated that their population is growing, so they recommend no mergers or closures;

* one Schenectady group has recommended that St. Anthony's and St. John the Evangelist parishes link (remaining separate parishes, but possibly sharing some services) and that St. Mary's and St. John the Baptist parishes become oratories;

* a Troy LPG recommends closing St. William's parish in Troy and linking Sacred Heart and St. Michael the Archangel in Troy and St. Jude's in Wynantskill;

 * Southern Rensselaer County's LPG has recommended no closures or mergers for Sacred Heart in Castleton, St. Mary's in Clinton Heights, Holy Spirit in East Greenbush and St. John's/St. Joseph's in Rensselaer; and

* a Montgomery County LPG has recommended several mergers: Sacred Heart in Tribes Hill and St. Cecilia's in Fonda, St. John's and St. Stanislaus in Amsterdam, and St. Mary's and St. Casimir's in Amsterdam. In addition, they recommend that St. Stephen's in Hagaman remain open, and that the pre-existing merger of St. Michael's and Our Lady of Mount Carmel use only the Mount Carmel church as a worship site. (KB)

(07/10/08)