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| July 2004 |
| Three parishes in the diocese closing
or in transition |
Gene Young
Managing Editor |
Two parishes in the diocese have closed
and another is in the process of transitioning from a parish
to a small Catholic community.
Bishop Robert J. Carlson recently announced that Ss. Cyrillus
and Methodius Parish, Vodnany and Sacred Heart Parish, Chelsea
would close effective July 1.
Ss. Cyrillus and Methodius served as a parish of the diocese
of 118 years while Sacred Heart served for 94 years as a parish
of the diocese.
“It is always a very, very painful process because something
that was alive is dying,” the bishop said.
“I know this is a very sad thing,” the bishop said.
“It’s a death. Sometimes it is more than 100 years
of faith...I find very few people who would disagree with the
process except when it is their parish.”
The bishop also announced that St. Catherine Parish, Oldham,
is exploring and considering the possibility of becoming a small
Catholic community. That means the parish no longer has the
celebration of Mass and the members of the parish will decide
over the next several months what they want to do...turn their
parish into a small Catholic community or close.
The bishop said that other diocesan parishes also face similar
decisions down the road. In several cases, two diocesan parishes
will merge and become one.
Bishop Carlson said he saw some surprises this spring in some
places that were facing transition. “In a few places where
they have chosen to become small Catholic communities, the experience
has not always been positive,” he said. “Some people
have suggested it might have been better if the parish just
closed because they have exhausted all their resources and still
face questions of how to care for their cemetery and things
like that.”
The bishop added that in a small Catholic community there is
not a priest necessarily looking after them and people can fall
through the cracks. If a parish closes, the congregation is
transferred to another priest and is spiritually cared for that
way.
The moves help the diocese avoid creating an undue burden for
people in traveling to church. They strengthen existing parishes
and foster those congregations that had a strong experience
of parish community.
The bishop said the diocese will continue to examine all of
the diocese’s parishes, especially where populations are
declining and the community and the parish congregation are
shrinking. “If a parish is declining, and we are looking
at all the parishes with 50 or fewer families, we have to ask,
what can we realistically staff with the number of priests we
have available and how can we have the strongest parishes possible?,”
the bishop said.
Members of the diocesan personnel board met with the parish
communities that are declining.
The parish closings are part of a process that began back in
1994 when the diocese began looking at parish life. “We
said at that time, if we experience the ordination of four priests
a year, on average, we could keep even the smallest community
open, but that is not happening,” the bishop said. “At
the same time, we have the second youngest average age of priests
of all ten dioceses in the province.”
“As you talk to the priests, they all agree that something
has to happen but when you go to a particular parish, it is
sometimes very difficult for them to see that they might be
the one,” the bishop said.
He added the process is likely to be with us for the next several
years.
The process of parish closings, though, is not new to the Diocese
of Sioux Falls. In the history of the diocese, 147 parishes
have already closed. They closed because “the railroad
stopped going there or the people moved or there was a loss
of jobs,” he added.
In some places in the diocese, the community is actually seeing
job growth. Bishop Carlson pointed to Huron where new processing
plants are opening up and attracting new residents. The diocese
is sensitive to that kind of development and asks itself how
will it serve the new residents of a community and their faith
needs.
The bishop said the diocese continues to have a good number
of priests for a diocese of 125,000 people. “We have 88
diocesan priests and several order priests,” he said.
But he added that the orders and religious communities who have
sent priests to serve in our diocese are seeing declining numbers
and are not able to staff parishes here the way they once did.
The Franciscans are no longer able to staff a priest in four
diocesan parishes and the priests of Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin,
will only staff two parishes in the year ahead. |
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