On Mission for the Church Alive in New Castle - II

It's funny how my memory works, or doesn't.  There are days I can't remember what I had for supper the previous night. Other times I remember remarks from decades ago.

One saying I remember is from then-Bishop Donald Wuerl, when he was announcing the reorganization plan of the diocese in the early 1990s.  During that process the number of parishes was reduced from 333 to 215 over a period of five years.  Many of you remember the challenges of mergers here in Lawrence County.  But it wasn't just consolidation.  He opened several new parishes in areas where there was population growth.  Bishop Wuerl said, "When you gain weight, you let out the seam in your suit coat.  When you lose weight, you take it in a little.  This is what we are doing in the diocese, adjusting the number of parishes to our communities."

Bishop Zubik has announced On Mission for the Church Alive, a pastoral, evangelical and planning process for every parish and community in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  The first objective of On Mission is to strengthen our parish efforts to evangelize, in other words, to invite more people to know Jesus Christ, love him, and follow him in and through the Catholic church.  This is a great and worthy challenge, and very consistent with the missionary vision of Pope Francis and his predecessors.  But On Mission is also realistic.  Most of our parishes have declined in active members.  The number of available priests is going down.  It is important that we have the right number of parishes (and church buildings) to allow us to carry out our evangelical and apostolic mission.

Here are a few statistics to ponder.  The six counties of the Diocese of Pittsburgh (Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington) in southwest Pennsylvania reached their peak of Catholic population about 1960, one million souls.  Twenty years ago, there were about 800,000 Catholics.  The most recent edition of the Pittsburgh Catholic directory states there are today 633,117 Catholics.  This is a decline of 37% over two generations.  Back in 1960 there were three times as many baptisms as funerals.  Last year (2014) there were many more funerals (7,279) than baptisms (4,662) across all the parishes of the diocese.  As I mentioned, the number of parishes has also declined, from 333 to 200 today.

Similarly the number of active priests has declined.  When Bishop Vincent Leonard ordained our class in 1978, there were 525 diocesan priests.  Twenty years ago there were 380.  Today there are 233 priests in active ministry.  But the large ordination classes of the early 1970s are now approaching the retirement age of 70.  Among the 233 active priests, 40 are over 70 years old and eligible for retirement, but continue to minister.  Another 40 are in the age group of 65-69.  And another 40 of us (including yours truly) are in the age group 60-64.  In other words, within ten years, our current 200 parishes might only have around 100 priest who are available to minister to them.

There is good news.  Men continue to hear the call to serve as priests, respond by entering the seminary, and be ordained.  Bishop Zubik will ordain six men to the priesthood on the last Saturday in June, and probably three in 2016.  There are about 35 seminarians studying for the priesthood for our diocese (over eight years).  We have 100 permanent deacons assisting the priests and parishes, with a new class of 20 just announced (for ordination in 2020).  We have tens of thousands of energetic lay ecclesial ministers and volunteers, which we did not have back in 1960.

The temptation when I recite these numbers is to focus on the negatives.  But that is a temptation I resist.  God's presence and love endures, in our hears, in our church, and in our world.  Whatever our numbers, we are blessed with the faith that Jesus Christ never abandons us, and that the Spirit is there to give us energy and courage.  Whatever our memories of the past, Christ challenges us to move forward in hope and confidence.