Restructuring committee responds

Group implementing parish restructuring plan reacts to parishioners' suggestions

By WCR
Edmonton

It is now four months since the transformation of parishes' report, Faithful Into The Future, was released by the archbishop to the pastors, parishioners and general public. A good deal of input and reaction has been received and a good deal of dialogue has taken place and continues to take place across the archdiocese regarding the implications of the pastoral plan.

This submission to the Western Catholic Reporter is designed to respond to some of the input received, to answer some of the questions that have been raised, to clarify the nature of the report, and to thank those individuals and those parish pastoral councils who have taken the time to provide their suggestions and reactions.

The letter is also designed to express appreciation to all the faithful in all the parishes of the archdiocese who are working cooperatively with the archbishop and with the pastors in restructuring the parishes of the archdioceses and by extension the archdiocese itself.

Terms of Reference of the Pastoral Plan

Many critically important issues surfaced as a result of the pastoral plan. In a number of cases however these issues, such as that of vocations, were much beyond the terms of reference under which the plan was developed. A number of these issues have been referred to other groups in the archdiocese for consideration and possible action.

It is important that all appreciate the limited terms of reference under which the pastoral plan was prepared. Essentially the task was to continue the work of the Transformation of Parishes task group by developing an organizational plan for the merging, twinning, and clustering of the parishes of the archdiocese.

The need for restructuring the parishes of the archdiocese was based on a variety of societal realities one of which was the fact there is a continuing decline in the number of priests available to work in the parishes. One of the major guiding principles to be followed was that all 300,000 Catholics in the archdiocese should be treated as equitably as possible.

Further, every effort was made to organize the parishes such that the great majority of the faithful would be within one half-hour drive of the Sunday Eucharist.

Response to the Pastoral Plan

It can be stated initially that essentially all respondents to the pastoral plan acknowledged that changes are necessary and that the archdiocese has little option but to proceed with reorganizing the parishes. There was however little consensus as to how that reorganization should proceed.

The input received has been organized into seven general categories. Hopefully, this categorization, along with some preliminary responses from the archbishop's coordinating committee, will be helpful in clarifying the pastoral plan and will be useful in advancing the dialogue that remains a critical component of the transformation process.

      1. Number of Priests

Many of the respondents to the pastoral plan suggested that the problems facing the archdiocese could be easily solved by promoting vocations, by ordaining married men, by ordaining women, or by using laicized priests. Another group of parishioners has suggested that the archdiocese should simply import priests and/or seminarians from outside Canada.

The simple response to these suggestions, regardless of their merit, is to point out that these options were not available to the report's author as solutions or alternatives -- they were placed outside his frame of reference.

Another response is that there is a great deal of conflicting opinion among the faithful as to the merits of these alternatives -- notwithstanding the official position of the Church. Thus, to respond in one direction, even if these were viable alternatives, would not be acceptable to those taking the opposite position.

In regard to importing priests it is to be noted that at the present time there are at least 15 pastors from outside Canada plus a number from Eastern Canada working in the archdiocese. It can be seen from this that the archbishop has been very open to accepting priests from other areas.

The question must be asked however as to why we are not producing our own priests here in Alberta? Why do we remain a missionary Church?

A final point to be made to the suggestion regarding the recruitment of priests from outside Canada is to note that Canada has a much better ratio of priests to Catholics than most other countries in the world. For example, Canada has one priest for approximately 1,250 Catholics while the Philippines has one to approximately 8,600 Catholics. Brazil has one to approximately 8,700. Poland has one to approximately 1,400. These examples show that other areas of the world do not have a surplus of priests to share with us here in the Edmonton Archdiocese.

      2. Major Issues in the Church

A number have pointed out that the pastoral plan does not deal with the major issues in the Church such as evangelization, liturgy, social justice, the nature of the priesthood, vocations, the power structures of the Church, etc.

These observations are very correct but we are reminded again that the pastoral plan was not designed to address these issues. The pastoral plan is a functional document whose recommendations deal only with the merging, twinning, and clustering of parishes. It is a plan that hopefully will be of use to the archdiocese for the coming three to five years.

The foregoing raises a related concern of some of the respondents. That is, the pastoral plan is a very short-term solution to the problems facing the parishes and the Church.

This is, again, a legitimate and accurate observation. The long-term issues were not addressed because it was not to be part of the report, Faithful Into The Future.

However, the author was cognizant of the long-term question and addressed this on page 6 of the report when he makes reference to the major operational and organizational changes that will occur in the Church and again on page 20 of the report when he points out that in the future, "Very different models of Church organization will have to be developed and put in place."

The "Future Church" is also a major component of many of the dialogue sessions that have been organized throughout the archdiocese since the release of the report.

      3. Future of Local Communities

A good deal of concern has been expressed regarding the future of the local communities that are going to be significantly affected by restructuring. While essentially every parish in the archdiocese will be affected by restructuring, it must be pointed out that the pastoral plan does not call for the specific closure of any church.

If the local group wishes to maintain their church as a centre of a small Christian community they are free to do so. There are a number of obvious positives to keeping the small communities active and alive.

There is one less obvious reason and that is we may need these communities in the future; in the future when there are even fewer priests or a different kind of priest these small communities may serve as the fundamental unit of the archdiocesan Church.

While there are positives associated with maintaining small local Christian communities there are a number of cautions that also must be considered. These include:

• The community must remain connected to the broader Church of the archdiocese.
• Because we are not a congregational Church there must be a pastoral presence associated with that community.
• There must be effective leadership in these communities to help ensure that they are vital and viable centres of faith development.
• These communities must seek out ways whereby they can participate in the full celebration of the Eucharist. The very important question is asked in the report as to what constitutes a legitimate effort to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday (or as anticipated on Saturday).

Given the foregoing considerations it is deemed to be possible to keep many of the churches open -- this will require a great deal of work on the part of the local parishioners.

      4. Concept of Parish and Concept of Church

Some of the input received suggests that perhaps we have loved our parishes too much and in doing so we have lost track of the fact we are part of the archdiocese.

We must remember that the parish is one piece of a single, essential, integrating reality which is the life and mission of the local Church, that is, the diocese. Each parish must operate for the common good of the diocese.

Parishioners in individual parishes do not fully live within the Church unless they are linked with the diocesan community. It is the diocesan community which is the Church and which in turn is in communion in a special way with the bishop of Rome.

It is therefore wrong for any of us to take the position that our parish is significantly more important than any other parish and it is wrong for anyone to take the position that they don't care about any other parish and it is wrong to suggest our parish is the only one in which there is meaningful community and meaningful celebrations.

      5. Maintaining Active Membership in the Church

It has been stated that some will leave the Church because of the pastoral plan. This would prove to be most unfortunate because the plan itself is simply a response to the realities facing the archdiocese and most dramatically the reality regarding the number of priests who will be available to serve in our parishes.

Because of these realities the restructuring of the parishes would take place -- with or without this plan. Archbishop MacNeil captured this when he stated that:

"For 50 years or more we have been merging, clustering and closing down parishes all over the Archdiocese. What is new that instead of making the decision on an ad hoc basis, the archdiocese has a plan developed."

Even though the pastoral plan is a source of discomfort to many the numerous faith-filled comments that have been made clearly point out that, no matter what happens, the people will continue to make every effort to gather each Sunday around the table of the Lord and celebrate the great meal with other members of the Catholic community.

This is what we are called to do -- this is the legacy Christ left us.

Very much related to this particular issue is our understanding of Sunday as the Lord's Day and of our tradition of making this day different from the other days of the week.

It is the Holy Father who points out that the celebration of Sunday remains an indispensable element of our Christian identity. While there are great and valuable celebrations that can take place during the week, including celebration of the Eucharist, these celebrations do not replace our responsibility to attend Mass each Sunday or through anticipation on Saturday.

      6. Clergy Oriented Report

A few believe that the pastoral plan is heavily oriented towards the needs of the clergy at the expense of the laity. People who say this have not read the report.

For example, essentially every pastor outside of Edmonton and St. Albert will have to travel further and will have a greater area to serve and will have more families to which he must minister. This, along with reference to the changing power structures of the Church, repudiates the assertion that Faithful Into The Future is a clergy oriented report.

Further to the above, there is a concern among some of the pastors that it is increasingly difficult to become "grounded" in and be part of a community or even a few communities because of the number of parishes they are asked to serve and because of the associated amount of travel.

In order to live out their vocation and in order to use their full range of charisms many would prefer to limit the number of "centres" for which they are responsible -- even if these centres are larger and/or further apart.

One of the objectives of the Pastoral Plan was to rationalize the workload of the pastors. To some extent this was achieved in terms of the 'regular' weekend schedule of Masses. However, the report does not address the workload as it relates to the rest of the week except in the call for the laity to assume an ever-greater responsibility in the ministerial and leadership life of the Church. The point has been made on a number of occasions throughout the past year that if we don't do this and if we don't change our expectations we will lose our priests at a rate faster than what we currently anticipate.

      7. Adjustments to the Pastoral Plan

The question has been asked as to whether or not any changes can be made to the pastoral plan. There is room for fine-tuning and indeed some changes have already been made.

Unfortunately there is not room for major adjustments because the realities which necessitated the preparation of the plan remain. The parishes and the regional pastoral councils are encouraged to continue to study the pastoral plan and to dialogue among themselves and with those with whom they are scheduled to be grouped.

This dialogue will help to identify areas in which the pastoral plan could be fine-tuned and it would facilitate the effective and necessary restructuring of our parishes. Further, any questions regarding the plan can be directed to Dr. John Acheson or to members of the archbishop's coordinating committee.

Acheson and members of the committee are prepared to meet with parishes or groups of parishes or with regional pastoral councils to further clarify the report and to hear additional suggestions on how the restructuring might proceed.

Implementation of the Pastoral Plan

It is appreciated that the changes impinging on our Church are in some cases painful and a source of discomfort. It is important however as we work through these difficult times that we not be discouraged.

The Holy Father points out that even though the Church is affected by adverse situations she is not overcome by them because the Holy Spirit will sustain her in her mission. We can be confident in knowing that we are all in a Spirit-led exercise and that, because of the Spirit, we will be successful in creating a new Church for a new time.

All 300,000 Catholics in the archdiocese are to be blessed and thanked for their efforts in creating this new Church.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter