[StBernard] Catholic Church reshaping parishes

[Westley Annis]

Catholic Church reshaping parishes
Parishioners work with archdiocese 
Saturday, January 26, 2008
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer 
When they're not at worship or consumed by the demands of their regular
jobs, scores of Catholic priests, parishioners and staffers at the
Archdiocese of New Orleans are immersed in plans to redefine Catholic life
in a smaller, poorer regional church wildly reshaped by the migration of
thousands of families since Hurricane Katrina. 

The new plan will decide which dormant, hollowed-out Catholic parishes will
have to close permanently, which have demonstrated enough vitality to
reopen, and which will continue to limp along under the wing of a healthier
nearby parish. 

The result, expected to emerge this spring, must strike dozens of difficult
post-Katrina compromises, said the Rev. Michael Jacques, a pastor who is
leading the planning process. 


Fewer priests 

The plan, he said, almost certainly will have to require the archdiocese to:


-- Close parishes in some struggling depopulated neighborhoods, while
supporting selected weak ones that might be catalysts for neighborhood
recovery. 

-- Shift priests to the burgeoning north shore to minister to thousands of
Catholics transplanted from shattered St. Bernard Parish, but not give up
its historic presence in the poor inner city, even if relatively few
Catholics live there. 

-- Follow dispassionate, empirical criteria for deciding when to order
struggling middle-class Catholic communities to give up their identities and
merge, while following Archbishop Alfred Hughes' mandate to provide special
assistance to struggling enclaves of African-Americans, Hispanics and
members of other ethnic groups. 

And it must do so, Jacques and others have said, constrained by a steadily
declining number of priests available for service -- a reality that is
shaping the future Catholic landscape almost as much as Katrina. 

Jacques said the church expects to lose five to 10 priests to retirement,
resignation, illness or death this year, as it has in recent years. It
expects just one newly ordained replacement in the spring, he said. 

The new plan will emerge in April as the church's second big step out of the
wreckage of Katrina. 

In February 2006, having absorbed nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in
damages to dozens of schools and churches, the archdiocese underwent a
forced, temporary reorganization of parish life. 

It announced the permanent closure of 10 of its 151 parishes or missions,
although it later reduced that number. It shut down all operations in 23
others in Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. 

Although the 23 church parishes remain technically open, members have been
assigned to neighboring parishes for worship, education and other ministries
until the archdiocese can sort out the future and develop a long-term plan
for recovery. 

That's what's under way now. 


Different community 

Physically, the New Orleans Catholic community is far different from what it
was the day before Katrina. 

According to archdiocesan figures, it has lost more than a fifth of its
former population of 491,000 Catholics in eight civil parishes around New
Orleans. 

Hughes estimated on Katrina's first anniversary that the archdiocese's
uninsured flood losses amounted to about $120 million. 

The archdiocese is not only different in size, but it is reshaped by the
migration of thousands of Catholic families to St. Tammany. 

Jacques said adjusting to the new regional reality may require changes far
from the flood zone. As a result, the planning process involves every parish
in the archdiocese. 

For months, Jacques and archdiocesan staffers have conducted night meetings
with New Orleanians drifting back into their damaged neighborhoods but
worshipping at a new parish. 

Jacques and others have answered questions about what it would take in terms
of population, leadership, finances and ministries to get their old parishes
going again. 

They encouraged returnees to form committees to locate missing parishioners
and begin rebuilding some semblance of their former communal life, even if
only once a month in a borrowed church. 

Some parishes even now have not collected enough members to form a lay
leadership committee. Those will not reopen soon, he said. 

Jacques said the plan is being built from the ground up, with significant
lay participation. The archdiocese has taken a lesson from its aborted
decision to close historic St. Augustine parish in the first reorganization
plan. That decision led to massive resistance and bitter feelings before the
archdiocese reversed course. 

Jacques said the church recognizes that St. Augustine parishioners felt
ambushed by the decision because they were not fully involved. 

This time "there's been a very concentrated effort to involve as many people
in the process as possible," he said. 

Neighboring pastors have been meeting in regional clusters called deaneries
to discuss their common futures. 


Criteria for survival 

The archdiocese has set criteria that parishes must meet to reopen or remain
open. Those include the presence of significant lay leadership, proof that
at least two-thirds of the pre-Katrina congregation are regularly back at
worship, financial self-sufficiency and sufficient vitality to run a range
of ministries. 

A parish must receive the votes of two-thirds of the pastors in its deanery
to be recommended for reopening, according to the plan. 

Those that do not reopen may remain "clustered" with a healthier parish, or
turned into a satellite mission, Jacques said. 

Even so, he said, the archdiocese is prepared to make exceptions for special
cases -- historic parishes, minority parishes or parishes that may bring a
flicker of life to surrounding neighborhoods. 

In mid-February, regional recommendations will begin working their way up an
internal review process. Hughes will make the final decisions and announce
them at a meeting of archdiocesan priests April 3, to take effect July 1. 

. . . . . . . 

Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3344