On April 28 Bishop David A. Zubik announced plans to reduce the diocese's 188 parishes to 57 by 2023.

The parish closings follow years of falling Mass attendance—the diocese reports it is down by more than 40 percent since 2000—and decreased participation in the sacraments.

The number of priests in the diocese is also expected to fall from 200 today to 112 in 2025.

This situation is not unique to Pittsburgh.

The Archdiocese of Hartford is in the process of merging dozens of parishes and expects its 212 parishes to be consolidated into 85 over the next decade.

Last year, the Archdiocese of Chicago, where an estimated 240 priests will be available to serve as pastors in 2030, launched "Renew My Church," a major consolidation and renewal initiative for its 351 parishes.

Parish closures and mergers are painful, as anyone knows who has seen the doors close on the church where they were married or were baptized as a child.

Parishioners feel they have lost their spiritual homes.

But too often, coverage of these plans fails to recognize the severe constraints dioceses confront.

Many of these churches were built at a time when seminaries were full or when it made sense to have clusters of ethnic parishes serving waves of new immigrants.

Today, the church does not have the personnel to staff these parishes or the resources to maintain their properties.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, in 1965 there were 1,289 parishioners per priest; that ratio is now 2,600 to 1; 20 percent of parishes lack a resident pastor, compared with 5 percent 50 years ago. (The priest shortage is playing out rather differently in the South and West, where church construction can hardly keep up with growing Catholic populations.)

There is no way to meet the present challenge without a significant degree of real loss.

But that does not mean these decisions have to be pitched as zero-sum battles. Continue reading

• Image: Church Militant

The Holy Family parish was formed in 2012 by combining two Timaru parishes, Timaru North and Sacred Heart

There are two churches in what was formally Timaru North, St Thomas the Apostle and St Joseph's.

St Joseph's, was built in 1938 and has not been used since 2009

"We haven't used that building for a Sunday Mass in five years. It's surplus to requirements," Father Brian Fennessy said.

If the decision is approved by the diocese, Father Fennessy said it would likely go on the market later in the year.

There are about 600 Holy Family parishioners attending each week.

Father Fennessey said that the two "great facilities" - St Thomas Church and the Sacred Heart Basilica - which were still being used were sustainable and served the needs of the parish very well.

Other possible changes, including that offices be consolidated at St Thomas' church administration area and that potential buyers be sought for the Sacred Heart centre and carpark section in Napier St, were still just proposals, said Father Fennessy.

Source

• Timaru Herald
• Image: rootsweb.ancestry.com

"New and wider parish boundaries will now include previously separate parish communities, making possible a sharing of resources, both human and material. These changes will cause some sorrow and sadness, but also present new opportunities. For many priests it will mean spending less time on administration and more on undertaking their priestly duties and advancing the mission of the Church," says Bishop Jones.

"Sunday Mass is at the heart of the life of the church. It, and parish life, requires the foundational ministry of the ordained priest. Because we now have a reducing number of priests, parish amalgamations will see the formation of larger parishes, fewer in number", he says.

• 18 new parishes have been formed.
• Six of these will have a parish priest and an assistant priest, the others only a parish priest.
• The priest will live in the presbytery beside what will become the main church of the new parish.
• New enlarged parishes may have more than one school under their care.

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Image: The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch