Priests of the diocese pushed back on the plan, arguing that they had not been consulted, and eventually, a planned USCCB vote on the prospective merger was scrapped.

But the possibility that Steubenville will be merged into Columbus is still real, and the diocese is now facing an audit meant to gauge its financial viability.

Some of Steubenville's diocesan challenges are specific to its recent financial history.

During the summer of 2020, both former diocesan comptroller David Franklin and former diocesan vicar general Monsignor Kurt Kemo admitted in court that they had embezzled large sums from the financially struggling diocese.

But Steubenville is a small diocese with a declining population and limited resources. It faces demographic and financial challenges that a number of small dioceses in the Midwest and Northeast will face in the coming decades.

Some priests of the Steubenville diocese have urged that the diocese could have a positive future — they point to its vocations numbers and the prospect of both stabilized finances and growth by a renewed focus on evangelization.

But other analysts have argued that the diocese is too small to remain sustainable despite those positive points.

If that's true, it raises questions about other U.S. dioceses.

Steubenville is not the smallest diocese in the country. If a merger is going to happen there, what other U.S. dioceses might be candidates for the same future? And where does Steubenville stand among them?

Dioceses great and small

Since the early Church, the Catholic diocese has been the local geographical expression of the Church's nature as a hierarchical and sacramental communion.

A diocese has set geographical boundaries that usually align with civil governmental boundaries.

In the U.S., most diocesan boundaries follow the borders of counties and states.

The Holy See has generally tried to see that the geographic territory of a diocese is not so large that a bishop can't effectively govern the entirety or travel to all parts within reasonable amounts of time.

But the Vatican has also been attentive to population: When the Catholic population of a region grows, dioceses sometimes need to split if they become just too populous to be governed by a single bishop.

In fact, the Diocese of Steubenville is the product of one such split — it was carved from the Diocese of Columbus in 1944.

When those dioceses were split, both local churches were of relatively similar size, and both were growing.

In 1950 the Steubenville diocese contained 62,000 Catholics, while the Columbus diocese contained 106,000.

But since then, the Diocese of Columbus has grown to almost 300,000 Catholics while the Diocese of Steubenville has shrunk to 30,000.

Of course, the Holy See does not apply consistent standards around the globe about the "right" size of dioceses, either in terms of Catholic population or geographic area. And mergers and splits are often initiated by local bishops, who sense that particular situations have become unmanageable. Continue reading

Under the new ruling, a diocese has to seek agreement from the Beijing-based BCCCC and religious affairs bureau to begin the process of electing and ordaining a new bishop.

It also stipulates that bishops must support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and its socialist system.

Continue reading

During the meeting members are elected to various bodies such as the Council of Priests. This meets a number of times each year to advise the bishop on the many pastoral and administrative matters that arise.

Reports are tabled and discussed on matters such as the Antarctic Chaplaincy, the Diocesan Vocations Director's Report, Pontifical Mission Societies, the Bishop's Pastoral Office Report and the Financial Administrator's Report.

The diocese is experiencing times of great change, not least in response to the earthquakes and their consequences. Churches, schools, parish houses and other properties have been destroyed or badly damaged, and it is still not clear what the response should be in some cases. New parishes have been formed as former ones have been amalgamated. Some schools are facing a major rebuilding programme, and are carrying on under difficult circumstances.

However, the priests are in good heart, determined to have a positive attitude towards the future. Various pastoral initiatives such as the possibility of perpetual adoration in one of the churches in Christchurch are being examined, as is the distribution of a personal Catholic wallet card, credit-card sized, which would identify the possessor as a Catholic in a situation of emergency.

A beautiful icon of Mary, Mother of the Church, commissioned by the diocese and made by St. John the Baptist Studio in Auckland has begun its journey through the parishes.

Extensive discussion was held on how to respond in a dynamic way on a parish level to the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict. All are conscious of the importance of a pastoral approach that gives priority to evangelization, so necessary in the secular world we live in, where our Faith is not well understood.

Photo: Fr. Joselito Quimones

The diocese says the decision, by two out of three judges in the Court of Appeal, has "far-reaching implications" for faith and other voluntary organisations.

The judges upheld a High Court decision in favour of a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted as a child by the late Father Wilfred Baldwin at a children's home.

The priest was never convicted of any abuse and the diocese says it does not accept the allegation.

The High Court ruled that a priest is not an employee of a bishop, but should be treated by the law as "akin to an employee".

The three Court of Appeal judges all commented on the difficulty of reaching a decision. They also referred to the wide-reaching ramifications of the decision, not just for the Church but for other organisations, both charitable and commercial.

But Lord Justice Ward wrote: "Father Baldwin is more like an employee than an independent contractor. He is in a relationship with his bishop, which is close enough, and so akin to employer/employee as to make it just and fair to impose vicarious liability . . . ."

He said a similar case is due to be heard by the Court of Appeal this month.

The diocese found liable said it took the appeal "to achieve clarity as to the nature and extent of the bishop's liability for the actions of diocesan priests", not to avoid or delay paying compensation to victims with valid claims.

"This case is about fundamental legal principles involving the very nature of civil society and religious freedom," the diocese said. "It would be disastrous if, in seeking to provide redress for victims of harm, the law put intolerable new pressures on the voluntary sector."

The Guardian

Birmingham Mail

Diocese of Portsmouth

Image: The Guardian

The changes aim to save money in the parishes, which are "in a spiral of financial distress," church officials say in confidential minutes of meetings where the plan was discussed, AP reports.

Under the plan, more church closings would be possible, but they would be initiated by the new parish groups, not the archdiocese, as they were during the recent, painful round of closings.

The minutes also reveal Cardinal Sean O'Malley's regret about how the archdiocese handled the closings that started in 2004, reducing the number of parishes from 357 to 291.

At the time, parishioners charged the archdiocese with shutting down healthy parishes without warning or reason. Some have since occupied their parish churches in round-the-clock protests.

Monsignor William Fay, head of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission, emphasized the current restructuring plan is a work in progress. He said there's no set timeline to complete it, and changes will come only after extensive consultation with local Catholics.

"We've got to move forward aggressively, but in a very thoughtful way," he said. "We should be able to take the time we need to take to make sure this is done right."

The archdiocese has cited numerous statistics to show it must run differently. Among them: 40 percent of its parishes won't be able to pay their bills this year; the number of available priests will plummet from 316 today to 178 in a decade; only 17 percent of local Catholics now attend Mass.

In theory, the streamlined parish would run cheaper, even as it's being strengthened spiritually and numerically by an ongoing evangelization push, including the "Catholics Come Home" advertising campaign that aimed to draw lapsed Catholics back to church.

American Catholics are traditionally loyal to their congregations and pastor, but not the hierarchy, and that makes it tough when archdioceses try to lead change, said David O'Brien, a church historian at the University of Dayton.

It's also clear, though, that the current structure must be altered, O'Brien said.

Source

• CBS Boston
• Image: Boston Archdiocese