The comments about parish sacramental celebrations come from Palmerston North's Bishop emeritus, Peter Cullinane, in an article published in Tui Motu.

Citing examples of the Church's mistakes, Cullinane says the lack of training for diocesan priests in ministry to Maori combined with the Church entrusting the ‘Maori Mission' to specialist groups ensures that most Maori do not feel 'at home' in our parish church celebrations of Eucharist.

He says that developing a sense of inclusiveness does not come about by running parallel Maori and European churches.

"The Church in our country is greatly indebted to the Religious Orders to whom the ‘Maori Mission' was entrusted," he writes.

Cullinane mentions the Society of Mary, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, the Mill Hill Missionaries and the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions in particular.

"Their work continues to bear fruit, and any alterations to pastoral practices need to safeguard the right of Maori to continue to experience life and worship in the Church in ways that are natural to them."

Nevertheless, Cullinane says, running a Maori Mission parallel to parishes had serious unintended side effects.

He writes it is against that background that introducing te reo into parish Eucharists seems a tiny gesture - but it is about recognition of tangata whenua, inclusion and belonging.

"Of course, it would be mere tokenism if it were not to follow through in all the ways required by respect for the rights of Maori in wider society and Te Tiriti o Waitangi."

Our celebrations of the Eucharist are meant to feed into our daily lives, Cullinane points out.

"Eucharistic life involves the rejection of racial prejudice and discrimination wherever these occur.

"In this way, the use of te reo in parish Eucharists should whet our appetites for the kind of hospitality, listening, sense of community and inclusiveness we have been talking about on the synodal journey."

He suggests that the next step is to experience Eucharist on a marae and recognise Maori's warm and welcoming ways.

"This way, people can see how these properly belong to the gathering stage of coming together for Eucharist.

"Respect for the rights of the home people can be only a first step in our reaching out to the many others in our society who suffer from inequalities …

"It also involves our support for other ethnic groups who can be victims of racial prejudice. Anything less than a prophetic stand for all these is less than Eucharistic."

Failure to address prejudice or help people disadvantaged by personal, social or economic conditions, proves the Second Vatican Council's claim:

"The split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age," writes Cullinane.

Source

• Tui Motu

At present, the engine running parishes is running low - at about five per cent capacity.

That's what Canada's Fr James Mallon, author of "Divine Renovation — From Maintenance to a Missional Church" and member of the Global Catholic Alpha Board, told around 100 participants at October's Divine Renovation (DR) Aotearoa conference.

At the Hamilton diocese-facilitated Zoom conference, Mallon challenged listeners to dream big - to imagine a parish were running at 60 per cent engine capacity or better.

The ability to unleash the full potential in the Church is found in the People of God, but it doesn't often happen Mallon said.

He then set out a broad overview of the DR framework for turning parishes from "maintenance" to mission. Now operating in 75 countries, Mallon introduced DR to New Zealand at a national priests' assembly in 2018.

DR is not a programme, but a model of parish operation, he said. It is a concrete way of implementing Pope Francis's vision for his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

"Some of our best churches do a really good job of saying to people on the outside, you can come in, whereas really what we need to do to be a missionary church is, we have to say to people on the inside, you should go out."

If a parish adopts a missionary posture and allows it to be normalised into its culture, eventually that parish's identity is transformed and becomes a missionary.

Mallon said the three "keys" for Divine Renovation are represented in its new logo.

The first is being open to and utilizing the power of the Holy Spirit.

The second is the "primacy" of evangelization. Mallon said for many parishes, if they address evangelisation at all, they "mush it together with catechesis.

"Guess what happens? Eighty per cent of the energy gets put into catechesis and 20 per cent into evangelization.

"If you want to turn a parish missionary, you have got to over-invest, you have to go to disproportionately invest in evangelization, in adult evangelization". The DR approach encourages parishes to use a tool of adult evangelization, such as Alpha courses adapted for use in the Catholic Church.

"What matters is that you have a tool that is accessible for adults, that is directed at adults, and is accessible to people who don't go to Church, who don't believe."

The third key is developing leadership and training people for it.

"Someone once said that leadership is the gift that unleashes all the other gifts," Mallon said. "And yet we don't train leadership, we don't train priests to be leaders. And we have to offer some leadership..."

These three keys make all the difference, he said.

The Eucharist is the "keyring" in this imagery, linking all the others, being the source and summit of the Christian life. But the Eucharist itself is not the 'locus of evangelization'.

"The Eucharist is not the Church evangelizing," Mallon said.

"The Eucharist is the Church at worship.

"If you actually use the Eucharist successfully to really be a front-line evangelizing tool, you have probably squeezed it to the point where it is not recognizable. That is my conviction.

"The Eucharist is built on a presumption that you believe certain things, that you belong. There are a lot of presumptions there that simply don't apply to your average non-Churchgoer, non-believer person."

Summarising his talk, Mallon said DR is a framework: it's about taking the values inherent in that and putting them to use.

• Michael Otto is the editor of NZ Catholic. First published in NZ Catholic. Republished with permission.
• Image: YouTube

The pope is asking Bishops to overcome "nostalgia for the past" and take bold steps to be a consoling presence in places where hardship is abound.

Parishes, he added, should become training centres for Christian life and "schools of service to others," in such a way that humility and tenderness shine forth.

In concluding his message, Francis expressed his appreciation for the initiative, which should help Bishops create projects and attitudes to help people discover "the love of the encounter with Jesus."

Bishops from dioceses in Piedmont, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, and Calabria are holding a two-day meeting in the city of Benevento.

Source: Vatican News

Also, throughout New Zealand and Australia, parishes are being combined or merged with other parishes. Major questions arise concerning leadership and the role of priests. Church buildings are sometimes being sold for profane use or used as educational facilities, rather than as places of worship.

These changes in parishes raise a number of pastoral and canonical issues concerning leadership, ownership of property, consultation and the procedures required. In fact, suppressions and alterations to parishes elsewhere in the world have been successfully challenged by recourse to the Holy See.

Scripture

The early Christian community is described in Acts 2:42: "... they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers". This text expresses four key elements of Christian communities at any time in the history of the church: (1) education, (2) community life, (3) Eucharist, and (4) prayer. Besides being a compendium of the principal norms of church life, they express basic constitutive elements of parish life today.

Origins of Parishes

Parishes came into existence in the history of the church in the fourth century. Christianity spread rapidly once the Emperor Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration of Christianity in 313. By 380 the Emperor Theodosius recognised Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The spread of Christianity into rural communities necessitated the appointment of priests to look after these communities and to serve the faithful. This development led to what we know now as parishes.

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent encouraged the establishment of parishes. When people could not receive the sacraments because of distance or inaccessibility, the council encouraged the establishment of new parishes even if the priests involved were opposed to this.³

1917 Code

Parishes became an established church structure in canon law. The 1917 Code required that, for the care of souls, the diocese should be divided into distinct territorial parts called parishes.⁴ However, parishes that were not territorial, such as ethnicity- or language-based groupings, required the special approval of the Apostolic See.⁵

Vatican II

While the Second Vatican Council did not provide a precise definition of a parish, it frequently expressed its insights in a variety of documents. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy spoke of:

... groupings of the faithful. Among these the parishes, set up locally under a pastor who takes the place of the bishop, are the most important: for in some manner they represent the visible Church constituted throughout the world ... Efforts also must be made to encourage a sense of community within the parish, above all in the common celebration of the Sunday Mass.⁶

This council document recognises the importance of the parish in the life of the church. It is the parish where most people experience what it is to be church, and it is from the Sunday liturgy that the sense of community flows.

Parishes are envisioned as basically Eucharistic communities. The Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church stated: "In carrying out their work of sanctification parish priests should ensure that the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the centre and culmination of the entire life of the Christian community".⁷

The church is experienced most of all in the Sunday Eucharist celebrated in the local community. That has always been the case. Even when the church has been persecuted behind the Iron Curtain and in all kinds of circumstances in history, Christians have continued to meet, in the catacombs and other similar places, for the celebration of the Eucharist. If Christians stopped gathering to celebrate the Eucharist, they might have been safer since they would have been more difficult to apprehend. However, it is an essential part of being Christian that Christians gather together to celebrate the Eucharist united with Christ.

Role of Priests

Vatican II reminded parish priests of their duties within the parish. These duties included leading the people to have a wider sense of church life, something which goes beyond the parish:

... parish priests and their assistants should carry out their work of teaching, sanctifying and governing in such a way that the faithful and the parish communities may feel that they are truly members both of the diocese and of the universal Church. They should therefore collaborate both with other parish priests and with those priests who are exercising a pastoral function in the district.⁸

Thus, the council fathers highlighted the interconnectedness of the communities of the faithful in parishes. Since "Parish priests are in a special sense collaborators with the bishop",⁹ there is an essential relationship between the parish communities and the diocesan community.

Parishes in some manner "represent the visible Church constituted throughout the world".¹⁰ Parishes are in some ways images of the church. Through these often small and scattered local communities which are part of the diocesan and universal Church, "Christ is present through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is constituted".¹¹

Priests "gather the family of God ... and lead it in Christ".¹² The whole purpose of their authority is to build up the body of Christ. The building up of the Christian community is essentially through the Eucharist because "no Christian community is built up which does not grow from and hinge on the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist".¹³ This is particularly true of Sunday celebrations of the Eucharist.

Collaborative ministry by priests and lay faithful is an essential part of parish life. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity stated: "The laity should develop the habit of working in the parish in close union with their priests ... The laity will continuously cultivate the `feeling of the diocese', of which the parish is a kind of cell; they will be always ready on the invitation of their bishop to make their own contribution to diocesan undertakings".¹⁴

Rationale for Parishes

The Decree on the Life and Ministry of Bishops pointed out that "the parish exists solely for the good of souls".¹⁵ Logically, Vatican II taught that "the same concern for the salvation of souls should be the motive for determining or reconsidering the erection or suppression of parishes and other changes of this kind".¹⁶ Clearly the council fathers appreciated the need for changes to existing parishes forty years ago.

Pope Paul VI issued the apostolic letter, motu proprio, Ecclesiae Sanctae, on August 6, 1966, to implement some of the decisions and decrees of the Second Vatican Council. He stated in number 21, concerning the erection, suppression and changes of parishes:

§1 Every effort should be made that parishes in which, because of an excessive number of the faithful, or too large a territory, or for any other reason, apostolic work can be done only with difficulty or less effectively, be divided or dismembered in the way best suited to the circumstances. Likewise, parishes which are too small should be united insofar as the situation demands and circumstances permit ...

§3 A diocesan Bishop can on his own authority erect or suppress parishes or change them in any way, after hearing from the Council of Priests.¹⁷

Both the Vatican II and the post—Vatican II documents consistently taught that the "good of souls" is the principle for making decisions about parishes. These souls, that the bishop is concerned with, are not just the souls of parishioners in a parish, but include all those in the diocese.

1983 Code

A parish is described in canon 515 §1 as "a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church". A decree of the diocesan bishop formally constitutes a community as a parish.

The parish is a public juridical person from the law itself.¹⁹

This means that the parish is recognised in canon law as having legal standing; it is a subject of rights and obligations. The parish owns its own property which it administers in its own name. In a parallel way, corporations are recognised in the secular law as legal systems.

The parish property is not owned by the individual parishioners, or even by them and the parish priest.

A parallel is the Trust Fund for the Remuneration and Sustentation of Clergy, which is not owned by the priests of the diocese.

The diocese does not own the parish property either, even if it is vested in the name of the bishop as corporation sole, or by some other similar instrument of secular law.

Of its nature a public juridical person is perpetual.²⁰

Hence, once established, the parish has a right to permanent existence.

It is an artificial, legal construct that continues to exist when individual parishioners die, or when the parish priest is appointed to another parish. Parish property is owned by the parish as a juridical person according to the basic principle of church ownership expressed in canon 1256. ²¹

Parishes acquire, retain, administer and alienate property on their own authority. ²²

A parish is a public, non-collegial juridical person made up of an aggregate of persons. ²³

It is `public' because, having been constituted by competent ecclesiastical authority, it acts officially in the name of the church.²⁴ The parish priest acts in the name of the parish, representing the parish in all legal matters, so it is non-collegia1.²⁵

Each parish has its own finance committee to assist the parish priest in administering the assets of the parish.²⁶

The Congregation for the Clergy has outlined four possible parish modifications:

i extinctive union (sometimes known as merger): A and B unite to form C, only C remains (cf can. 121)

ii extinctive union (sometimes also known as merger, or as amalgamation): A is subsumed into B, only B remains (by analogy to can. 121)

iii total division: A is divided into B and C, only B and C remain (cf. can. 122)

iv suppression: A is extinguished ... nothing remains (cf. can. 123).²⁷

Any modification of a parish requires a just cause: "A parish is a community of the faithful which, being a juridic person ipso iure, is perpetual by its nature (cf. can. 120 §1, and can. 515 §§1, 3). It cannot be extinguished or even notably altered without just cause".²⁸

The congregation also reminds everyone that "the principal motivation for modifying a parish is a concern for souls (Christus Dominus, no. 32) and this modification should be undertaken when the good of the faithful requires it (Apostolorum Successores, no. 214)".²⁹

So that any decision is not pastorally damaging or ineffective, there needs to be full and genuine consultation with parishioners. Pastorally effective consultation is far more demanding than merely fulfilling the minimal requirements of canon law. Lawrence Di Nardo gives the example of someone on an administrative board:

... who said that canon 515 §2 of the Code of Canon Law permits the bishops to "erect, suppress or alter parishes" provided he "has heard the presbyteral council." This simple action would seem to make the process very efficient. Just gather a list of the parishes to be suppressed, present them to the priests' council, elicit their counsel and then issue decrees suppressing those parishes and the issue is resolved.³⁰

But Di Nardo raised the issue of the rights of the parishes and parishioners in the parishes to be closed, and how they could vindicate their rights. Subsequently the Pittsburgh diocese embarked on a five-year process of parish reorganisation. This process involved wide consultation with priests and parishioners. Pittsburgh diocese would claim that the faithful were informed and participated effectively in the decisions affecting them and had an opportunity to defend their rights as parishes were restructured.³¹

James Coriden likewise asserts the rights of parishioners to know about matters that will affect their community whether they originate from within or outside the parish.³²

Furthermore, the canon law on financial matters needs to be observed, because, for one thing, non-observance of canon law can impact on collections. Another factor is that, if parishioners become disillusioned, there is always the risk that people will cease going to Mass if they have to travel some distance to a church. Secular law requirements also need to be kept in mind in relation to trust funds and intentions of donors.

However, when circumstances require it, a diocesan bishop can suppress an existing, public juridical person.³³

When a diocesan bishop suppresses a parish, the parish assets then belong to the next highest juridical entity, which would be the diocese.

However, the diocesan bishop could only take this course of action if there were no more parishioners living within the parish. If a new parish acquires the parishioners, it acquires the assets. The intentions of the donors have to be respected.'

Usually, the diocesan bishop is combining or merging parishes in a diocesan restructuring. When the diocesan bishop merges a parish with another parish to form a new parish, a new juridical person is created.³⁵ This new juridical person acquires the assets and debts of both former parishes. Then the parishioners, as well as the assets and debts of both parishes, belong to a new juridical person that has been constituted.

Another possibility is for the diocesan bishop to divide the parish, and either join the parts to other parishes, or make the parts of the original parish into new parishes.³⁶ In such a situation, the diocesan bishop must be careful to see that the intentions of donors and founders are faithfully fulfilled. All acquired rights have to be observed.

Parish Priest and His Role

The parish priest ³⁷ is the spiritual head of the parish and so canon 519 states:

The parish priest is the proper pastor of the parish entrusted to him. He exercises the pastoral care of the community entrusted to him under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, whose ministry of Christ he is called to share, so that for this community he may carry out the offices of teaching, sanctifying and ruling with the cooperation of other priests or deacons and with the assistance of lay members of Christ's faithful, in accordance with the law.

The duties and responsibilities of his offices are spelt out in detail in canons 528-530 and 534.

The parish priest is the centre of a parish community and he leads the community in Christian living most of all by his example. Therefore, a parish priest normally resides among his people and serves them.³⁸ The same provision applies to assistant priests who work with the parish priest and share his duties.³⁹

Parishes Entrusted to a Clerical Religious Institute or a Clerical Society of Apostolic Life
When a parish is entrusted to a clerical religious institute (such as the Society of Mary) or to a society of apostolic life (such as the Columbans), the diocesan bishop must appoint one of the priests as the parish priest or as the moderator.⁴⁰

The parish may be entrusted to the religious institute or the society of apostolic life in perpetuity or for a determined period of time. In either case, there should be a written agreement between the diocesan bishop and the competent superior defining the work to be accomplished, the persons to be assigned and the financial arrangements.'"

Team Ministry in a Parish

Priests can be assigned to care for a parish or a number of parishes in what is often called a "team ministry". Canon 517 §1 states: "Where circumstances so require, the pastoral care of a parish, or of a number of parishes together, can be entrusted to several priests jointly, but with the stipulation that one of the priests is to be the moderator of the pastoral care to be exercised. This moderator is to direct the joint action and to be responsible for it to the Bishop".

The whole group of priests is responsible for what happens in the parish or parishes. However, one priest must be appointed by the diocesan bishop as the moderator to coordinate the activities of all the priests. Edward Sweeney argues that "the term in solidum usually means that each member of a group operating in solidum is personally responsible to see to it that all of the obligations of the group are fulfilled and has personally all of the rights arising from the obligations of the group and from membership of the group".⁴² The priests have stability in office and must have all the qualities to be a parish priest. Each is bound by the obligation of residence according to canon 543. If the moderator ceases from office, by taking up a new appointment, or if he dies, the parish does not become vacant. In such a case, the most senior priest, by appointment to the parish or parishes, fulfils the moderator's function until a new moderator is appointed.⁴³

There is no mention in canon 517 of a shortage of clergy being a reason for this approach to pastoral care. 'Ihe "circumstances" mentioned could well include shortage of clergy, but they could also include other reasons such as priests being involved in other ministries such as being teachers or tribunal judges.

Only one priest can be the "moderator"." He alone takes possession of the parish.⁴⁵ Canon 543 §2, 3° makes it clear that in all legal matters, it is the moderator alone who represents a parish."

Pastoral Care of a Parish by a Deacon, Lay Religious Community or Layperson

Because of a shortage of priests, canon 517 §2 allows for the appointment of a person or persons who are not priests to participate in the exercise of pastoral care in a parish:

If, because of a shortage of priests, the diocesan Bishop has judged that a deacon, or some other person who is not a priest, or a community of persons, should be entrusted with a share in the exercise of the pastoral care of a parish, he is to appoint some priest who, with the powers and faculties of a parish priest, will direct the pastoral care.

This canon, while still allowing great flexibility, requires that every parish has a priest with the powers and faculties of a parish priest.

The 1997 instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests pointed out that non-ordained people could not have the title of "parish priest" or "moderator" as these persons always had to be priests or bishops.47 Nor could these laypersons be called "community leader".⁴⁸

The appointment of a priest with the powers and faculties of a parish priest implements canon 526 §1: "A parish priest is to have the parochial care of one parish only. However, because of a shortage of priests or other circumstances, the care of a number of neighbouring parishes can be entrusted to the one parish priest". The second paragraph of canon 526 demands that there be only one parish priest or moderator in each parish.49

The canon speaks of a "shortage of priests".

This shortage could be because of a general shortage of priests, or it could be because priests are unavailable for appointment as parish priest because of appointments to other ministries and responsibilities such as a seminary position.

It is possible for the priest to be fulfilling duties in more than one parish because there are not many parishioners and the parishes are relatively close to one another. The priest appointed can certainly rely on lay people to do many things with and for him.

However, when a priest becomes available, canon 151 requires the bishop to make an appointment as soon as reasonably possible.⁵⁰

Canon 517 §2 is dealing with an extraordinary situation.

Although it might have become common practice in some dioceses, it is not considered to be the norm.

However, it is in accord with the Directory on the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, number 198, which speaks of how the bishop in relation to all members of the faithful "shares the apostolic mission and to them he entrusts responsibilities, according to the norms of prudent pastoral cooperation".

Accordingly, the layperson, deacon or lay religious community sharing in the pastoral care of the parish should not limit the involvement and activity of all the parishioners in the life of the parish.

James Provost, writing about "Canon 517: Priest as Moderator of Parish", sums up the situation:

... the priest moderator in a canon 517 §2 situation may be the pastor of the parish who is aided by deacons and others in a "pastoral team" arrangement. He may be the pastor of a neighbouring parish who has been entrusted with the pastoral care of this other parish, and who is aided in this additional parish by a deacon or others; or he may not be a pastor at all, but moderates the participation in pastoral care provided by a deacon or others for a parish without its own pastor. In the first two situations, the priest is indeed the "proper pastor" of the parish in question In the third situation, however, there is a priest who moderates the pastoral care given by a deacon or others.⁵¹

This priest in the third situation is provided with the powers and faculties of a parish priest, and is the priest who directs the pastoral care. John Renken points out that such a priest is the community leader but is not technically the parish priest.⁵²

Any deacons, lay religious, or laity collaborating in the pastoral care do not have the full care of souls, which can only be exercised by a priest.⁵³

While a certain degree of authority can be delegated to them, the responsibility for pastoral care remains with the priest directing the pastoral care in the parish.

Altering Parishes, and the Consultation Involved

Canon 515 §2 states: "the diocesan bishop is not to erect, suppress,
or notably alter parishes without hearing the presbyteral council".
This is the only canon in the 1983 Code to use the word "notably".

Since the parish is essentially a community of Christ's faithful, what "notably" means is really about the number of parishioners involved in any change.⁵⁴

Many groups such as the diocesan pastoral council may advise the bishop, but the involvement of the council of priests, which aids the bishop in the governance of the diocese, is crucial. It would be a mistake if the task force or some other planning group completed a total package and then informed the council of priests of the result. The impression could be given that the council was being consulted too late for its advice to be significant.

The consultation with the council of priests must be genuine consultation. The bishop cannot simply tell them what he plans to do, or announce what is going to happen before the council meets.

The consultation has to take place prior to a decision being reached in the matter. Otherwise, instead of being consultation it would be a rubber-stamping of a decision that had already been made. Recourse against diocesan restructuring has been successful where there has not been genuine consultation. "Between 1985 and 1995, the Apostolic Signatura handled 22 cases of recourse involving parish closures and/ or relegation of a church to profane use."⁵⁵ Two of these cases of recourse were successful, and both times it was because a diocesan bishop had not properly consulted the council of priests. The recourse could be taken by a priest who disagrees with the decision, or even by an individual parishioner.

When a legal act calls for the advice or the consent of others, they must be convoked and polled according to legal requirements. The statutes for the council of priests might spell out how the consultation may take place. Some statutes allow for phone consultation to take place. But it is best that canon 127 be carefully followed, with the council of priests actually meeting, so that the consultation follows the letter and the spirit of the law:

Canon 127

§1. When the law prescribes that, in order to perform a juridical act, a Superior requires the consent or the advice of some college or group of persons, the college or group must be convened in accordance with Can. 166, unless, if there is question of seeking advice only, particular or proper law provides otherwise. For the validity of the act, it is required that the consent be obtained of an absolute majority of those present, or that the advice of all be sought.

§2 When the law prescribes that, in order to perform a juridical act, a Superior requires the consent or advice of certain persons as individuals:

1° if consent is required, the Superior's act is invalid if the Superior does not seek the consent of those persons, or acts against the vote of all or any of them;

2° if advice is required, the Superior's act is invalid if the Superior does not hear those persons. The Superior is not in any way bound to accept their vote, even it if it is unanimous; nevertheless, without what is, in his or her judgement, an overriding reason, the Superior is not to act against their vote, especially if it is a unanimous one.

§3 All whose consent or advice is required are obliged to give their opinions sincerely. If the seriousness of the matter requires it, they are obliged carefully to maintain secrecy, and the Superior can insist on this obligation.

When the council of priests is convened, the issue should be presented for advice, and each member of the council of priests should have the opportunity to give his advice. It is very important that accurate minutes be kept of that portion of the meeting so that the advice given by each member is clearly recorded. It should be recorded, as well, which members had no opinion about what should happen. These minutes can then clearly establish that true consultation has taken place. Finally, when a vote is taken it is important to record who voted for and against a proposal, who abstained and who the tellers were.

Respecting the Intentions of Donors

In altering parishes, bishops have to respect acquired rights of donors and founders and any acquired rights." In some instances people may have donated money to start a parish or build a church. They may have to be consulted to know their intentions prior to a major change being made to a parish. These donors are in a different situation to parishioners who, under canon 222, donate money to generally support the parish including maintaining the church building(s).

While people who can demonstrate a genuine involvement in the parish need to be involved, and while they may have acquired a right to pastoral care in the parish, the bishop is not subject to their veto because it is the bishop who has the final responsibility concerning parishes. Canon 122 requires the bishop to respect their acquired right to pastoral care in canons 213 and 214 in particular, but the bishop can amalgamate or alter a parish without their consent. A parallel to this whole situation is the consultation that happens when a diocese is divided or dioceses are amalgamated. The Apostolic See does not give each individual member of Christ's faithful in the diocese, who has donated money to the diocese, a determining say about the decision."

A parish is part of the broader community of the church.⁵⁸ The Catholic Church is a communion of local Eucharistic communities, not a federation of community churches. As the letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on May 28, 1992, stated: "in every particular Church, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and active. For this reason, the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches".⁵⁹ It would be contrary to the nature of the church to have someone, or one community, undermining the communion or pastoral welfare of the rest of the diocese.

Once the diocesan bishop has consulted the council of priests and those whose intentions and rights must be respected, he must make a decision about the proposed matter. When the diocesan bishop has made his decision, he should issue a proper decree, notarised by the chancellor, so there is a verifiable juridical act.

It is always advisable to have on record a list of dates and consultations that have taken place.

Church Buildings

Merging parishes does not necessarily mean or include closing church buildings or turning them over for secular purposes. Often, when parishes are merged, country churches are closed. This is the source of huge upset, especially when church buildings are sold directly to other ecclesial communities for them to use as places of worship. Decisions like this only add to the difficulties of the situation. Sometimes the churches are used as parish meeting places or for religious education purposes. This is quite different from giving them over for profane use, such as allowing them to be sold so they can be converted into houses or haysheds. There is a completely separate procedure for alienating or reducing a church to profane use to the procedure for altering parishes. The Congregation for Clergy explains:

There is a clear disposition both in law and in tradition that a sacred edifice which has been given over perpetually for divine worship should retain that sacred character if at all possible, and only a grave reason to the contrary is sufficient to justify relegating a church to profane but not sordid use (cf. can. 1222 §2). Even more so, altars do not lose their dedication or blessing when the church does, and can never be turned over to profane use for any reason (cf. canons 1212 and 1238).⁶⁰

A bishop has to consult the council of priests when building a new church.⁶¹ When a church is being relegated for profane use, the bishop has to obtain the consent and not just the advice of "those who legitimately claim rights regarding the church".⁶² He also must ascertain that relegating this church to profane use will not impair the good of souls. People do not have a right to pastoral care in a particular church building. The good of souls includes the souls of all Christ's faithful in the diocese for whom the bishop has obligations to provide pastoral care. One particular group of the faithful should not be receiving a level of pastoral care in a way which leads to other members of the faithful being deprived.

Those who could claim rights regarding a church building would include donors.⁶³ Those with rights certainly would not include all current parishioners. The person responsible for the juridical person of the parish is the parish priest." While it is advisable that the bishop consults with all current parishioners, the required consent is that of the parish priest.

Once the bishop has the consent of all those who legitimately claim rights in relation to the church and has consulted the council of priests, he could grant permission for profane use. The bishop needs to consult only the council of priests. It might not be wise for him to do so, but he could act contrary to the advice that has been given by the majority of members. A definite decree should be made and there should be a record of all the consultations, minutes, consents and votes.

Conclusion

The present situation clearly calls for vocations to the priesthood and religious life to be more valued and to be more actively promoted.

In the short term, bishops, priests, religious and parishioners often face very difficult decisions concerning parishes as the clergy age and decline in numbers, while other factors such as the urban drift from the country accentuate the problem. Everyone can see that changes are inevitable. However, as Pope Francis reminds everyone:

The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be "the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters."⁶⁵

For a long time official church documents and canon law have allowed for changes to come about. 'The law is clear about who makes the decisions and provides the procedures to bring about change. How successfully changes come about often depends upon clerical leadership, the consultation process, education and individual Christians living their vocations in new ways. There is no doubt that changes to parishes will be more smoothly introduced when people feel listened to, a consensus is reached, and lay leaders are properly trained. Ultimately, all those involved with diocesan restructuring need to appreciate as Saint John Chrysostom said in the fourth century: "You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart and there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayer of priests".⁶⁶

• Brendan Daly is a priest from the diocese of Christchurch and a Doctor of Canon Law. He taught at Holy Cross College, Dunedin and then at Good Shepherd Theological College, Auckland. In 2002 he became principal at Good Shepherd College and is now a Lecturer at Te Kupenga. Brendan is a judge on the Tribunal of the Catholic Church for New Zealand.
• Chapter in Canon Law in Action, Chapter 7: Parishes: Leadership and Other Issues associated with Clustering and Mergers ¹.
• Republished with permission.
• Footnotes are available as PDF only.
• Download Chapter 7 of Canon Law in Action "Parishes: Leadership and Other Issues associated with Clustering and Mergers"

News of the move came after a meeting of the bishops' conference 27 member Permanent Council, reports the German Catholic news agency KNA.

The Conference's permanent council says Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg (pictured), would "accept the offer of conversation made by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Beniamino Stella" to discuss the new instruction about parishes.

The Conference says Bätzing "will suggest to the Congregation that the conversation be conducted with the Presidium of the Synodal Way, since bishops, priests, deacons and laity are equally addressed in the instruction."

This means Bätzing will be accompanied by laity representing the "Synodal Process" underway in Germany.

After several German bishops criticized the instruction, which stresses the canon law that only priests can direct the pastoral care of parishes, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, said he would be happy to receive them to "remove doubts and perplexity."

At that time he said the meeting could take place "in due course" if the bishops wished to present their objections to the new instruction about parishes, which the Congregation issued on 20 July.

Some commentators see the instruction as a response to plans drastically to reduce the number of parishes in German dioceses.

The Vatican recently blocked a plan by the German Diocese of Trier to turn 800 parishes into 35. The Archdiocese of Freiburg is continuing to press ahead with plans to reduce its 1,000 parishes to 40.

Stella says "care must be taken not to reduce the parish to the rank of ‘branch' of a ‘company' - in this case, the diocese - with the consequence that it can be ‘directed' by anyone, perhaps even by groups of ‘officials' with different skills."

The instruction encourages parishes to see themselves above all as a "missionary community," he says.

There has been a mixed reaction from the German prelates about the new instruction.

While several bishops have concerns about it, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt expressed their gratitude for the text.

Cardinal Walter Kasper is defending the Vatican intervention, saying: "The German criticism completely misses the actual concern of the instruction: the pastoral conversion to a missionary footing."

"But precisely this basic concern of Pope Francis would be highly topical in view of the disturbing recently published numbers of departures from the Church."

Kasper was referring to statistics issued last month which showed that a record number of Catholics left the Church in Germany in 2019.

A date for the meeting between the Vatican and the German bishops and their party has not yet been made.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

On Aug. 21, Lai Chau provincial authorities announced that they had officially allowed Hung Hoa Diocese to establish Lai Chau Parish based in San Thang commune in Lai Chau city. The parish's chapel is now based at the house of Nguyen Van Le, a layman.

Authorities permitted Father Joseph Nguyen Van Ninh, 49, to offer pastoral care to 2,791 Catholics from communities who are allowed to gather for prayer. Read more

At first, the document evokes an expansive vision of parish transformation by citing Pope Francis' call for "creativity" in "seeking how best to proclaim the Gospel" and that "the Church, and also the Code of Canon Law, gives us innumerable possibilities, much freedom to seek these things."

Then the instruction tantalizes reform-minded Catholics by saying, "Parish communities will find herein a call to go out of themselves, offering instruments of reform, even structural, in a spirit of communion and collaboration … for the proclamation of the Gospel."

But I find no structural instruments of reform here.

With one notable exception, the instruction is essentially "all hat and no cattle" as my Texas friends like to say.

The Congregation for the Clergy's instruction restates (somewhat defensively) long-standing church rules that mandate a male-celibate-priest-centric and priest-controlled vision of parish community.

This vision is already moribund in both the global north and the global south because — news flash — there are too few priests to serve the world's expanding Catholic population.

In Germany, the instruction was interpreted as an effort to stop moves by German bishops to encourage both priest and lay leadership in consolidating parishes and providing pastoral care. One German canon lawyer succinctly said the instruction "answers today's questions with yesterday's answers."

In a pastoral letter to his Magdeburg Diocese, German Bishop Gerhard Feige wrote, "I won't let myself be paralyzed and blocked by their restrictive orders, since much in it is quite unrealistic — especially with regard to our extreme diaspora situation, which they evidently cannot imagine — and since no positive solutions are indicated in view of the mounting lack of priests."

Feige also fears Rome's instruction will turn lay Catholics away from working for the church at all.

His concern was echoed by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who, while defending the instruction, also said it would have benefited from "more positive, encouraging and appreciative language" about lay leadership. Kasper tactfully suggested the world's bishops' conferences should have been consulted before the document was issued.

The prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, has invited German bishops to Rome to discuss the issues. I hope our German brothers can get through to presumably well-intentioned Vatican officials who seem to have little understanding of the realities of parish life in a time of fewer priests.

A caveat — there is one big positive in this document: It gives laypeople significantly more leverage in canonical appeals to preserve their parish communities.

For 14 years, I have worked closely with FutureChurch's Save Our Parish Community initiative to support countless ordinary Catholics accessing their canonical right to appeal the closure (and eventual sale) of their vital, solvent parishes and churches.

Too many bishops were (and are to this day) treating parish communities like Starbucks franchises, rather than the body of Christ that they are called to shepherd — not to sell. Continue reading

Stella (pictured), whose congregation issued the new parish instructions last month, says he would be pleased to receive the bishops "in due course" if they wanted to accept his invitation to present their objections to the instruction.

Several German bishops have sharply criticised the new parish instruction, which underlines the canon law relating to the pastoral care of parishes. Only priests can direct the pastoral care of parishes, the instruction says.

Some commentators see the instruction as a response to plans to drastically reduce the number of parishes in German dioceses.

The Vatican has already blocked the Diocese of Trier's plan to turn 800 parishes into 35. Despite this, the Archdiocese of Freiburg is continuing to press ahead with plans to reduce its 1,000 parishes to 40.

Stella says "care must be taken not to reduce the parish to the rank of ‘branch' of a ‘company' - in this case, the diocese - with the consequence that it can be ‘directed' by anyone, perhaps even by groups of ‘officials' with different skills."

In contrast, the new parish instructions encourage parishes to see themselves above all as a "missionary community," he says.

German bishops's responses to the instruction vary, with some expressing gratitude for the text, others are less positive.

One bishop sees the instruction as a "strong brake on the motivation and appreciation of the services of lay people.'

He fears the text indicates a "conversion to clericalisation" because it emphasizes the priest's role in directing parishes.

A theologian is taking another view, defending the Vatican intervention, saying: "The German criticism completely misses the actual concern of the instruction: the pastoral conversion to a missionary footing."

"But precisely this basic concern of Pope Francis would be highly topical in view of the disturbing recently published numbers of departures from the Church."

The numbers he refers to are statistics issued last month which show a record number of Catholics left the Church in Germany in 2019.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: National Catholic Register

That's the question on the minds of parish leaders in the 17,000 American Catholic churches as the U.S. begins a return to a new normal post-pandemic life.

There are no guarantees, say Marti Jewell and Mark Mogilka, authors of "Open Wide the Doors to Christ: A Study of Catholic Social Innovation for Parish Vitality," just published by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, or FADICA, an organization that promotes best practices for church managers.

The two interviewed and studied two dozen parishes across the country, selected because of their reputation of vitality, along with more than 65 ministry leaders. Each parish in the study remained anonymous in the interest of providing candid input.

Vitality, noted the authors, is a somewhat amorphous concept. But you know it when you see it, Mogilka told NCR in a June 9 Zoom interview, with Mogilka participating from his home in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Jewell from Richmond, Virginia.

"You can feel it, it's tangible. There's an excitement. People are excited to meet you," said Mogilka.

Parishioners in vibrant parishes are likely to stay later on Sundays and greet newcomers.

The parish bulletin contains information about activities that go well beyond weekends, including social service outreach.

The result is often like that experienced at a superb restaurant: word gets out from enthusiastic patrons willing to tell their friends and neighbours about their spiritual and social ministry experiences.

The model of parishioners ensconced in a tight community, keeping the rest of the world away, is fading away.

Whether or not Catholics come back after the pandemic will depend much upon what their parishes were like before the pandemic struck.

What's clear, they said, is that change will be needed. "Pastors have to let go of 'they will go back and we'll do it as we did,' " Jewell told NCR.

Mogilka, a consultant for Meitler Inc., a church planning and consulting firm, is more definitive.

"In the short-term they will not actually come back. This is a marathon, not a sprint," he said.

Much of that has to do with wider cultural issues, and whether people will feel safe venturing outside into crowds.

He noted that a recent study of major league baseball fans indicated that only a small minority contemplate going to ballparks in the near future, with the rest content to watch the game on television.

The same is happening in church life, he said, as Catholics adjust to the new Zoom age.

That has some advantages.

At his parish, Resurrection in Green Bay, nearly 700 parishioners showed up for a virtual town hall.

Similar events included only about 50 done live before the pandemic.

"I feel we are called to redefine what we mean by community," said Mogilka, noting that, in another positive development, shut-ins and the disabled are feeling more of a part of the parish than ever before, able to access parish events via social media like everyone else.

There are drawbacks, however. Mogilka noted that about a third of all parishioners don't access social media, in part because older parishioners are often uncomfortable with the technology or rural residents have poor internet connections. Continue reading

Two years of death-defying earthquakes then the grief-stricken, the demolition, the dying, the rebuilding aftermath.

Followed by March 15, 2019, with 51 people dying while at prayer in the mosques, and while we are prayerfully and painfully recovering ourselves, we now have, on June 9, 2019, Paul Martin turning up with his Roman-like directions to demolish or sell off seven of Christchurch's 12 Catholic parish community churches that have managed to survive the earthquakes.

All this is not because we don't have enough parishioners in our churches.

Our parishes are full and some overflowing.

It is because he hasn't enough male celibate priests to minister to them.

He is using a North American big church heavily oil-dependent model - parishioners travelling, not the priest.

And because he can't seem to consider the practice that is common in the rest of Oceania, Latin America and Africa - in fact throughout the whole of the Southern Hemisphere, where lay ministers - married folk and women - can minister the liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion, without a priest being present, and the priest can turn up once every month or two and celebrate Mass and support them.

Maybe he sees the writing on the wall for clericalism and wants to finish it all off as quickly and painlessly as he can.

So he looks at the oldest, strongest base community parishes, churches like Sacred Heart Addington, St Teresa's Riccarton, Christ the King Burnside, strong parishes with high daily Mass attendance and university student communities and sells these churches or bulldozes them.

These communities and their attached schools have taken decades to build to the strength they are today.

You don't get rid of the places where your strength lies.

These churches and halls are our marae - the places where we gather to celebrate our births, deaths, weddings, first communions and ordinations. They are like cloaks that support our schools.

They were built with the blood, sweat and tears of our communities over generations.

Consultation?

He has not consulted with the priests, with the staff, nor with the parishioners. He simply announces his plan. He claims it is a proposal.

We are to pray and discuss it, but that his proposal will all be carried out within one year.

Our priests and staff and parishioners should have been consulted, involved and listened to, not just briefed.

Announcing a fixed plan and pretending it is a consultation, when it has been already decided upon, is the practice of clericalism at its very worst.

Shortage of priests

Currently we have 30 ordained priests in the diocese.

In 10 years we will have 12.

What about in 20 years?

In 20 years we will have four priests - if the trend continues. Something needs to be done about this.

Unlike the Anglicans, there is not a shortage of parishioners.

We need lay ministers - married people and women to be able to minister, for the Catholic Church to survive in the Christchurch diocese in 20 years' time.

Ten years is far too short a timeframe.

Knocking down churches and building a few new ones is not going to solve the long-term problem.

We need to be planning for 20, 50 and 100 years' time.

These lay ministers need to be trained and supported in ministry and in preaching and this is the place where our empty seminaries need to be putting their energy.

Working from strength

We need to work from the old strong base hub parishes and support the work the priests do there, with work by lay ministers in the surrounding churches.

In South Christchurch we want none of our four churches to be sold or destroyed.

We have had enough of death, destruction, building, selling and rebuilding.

Sacred Heart, Addington is the oldest and largest parish in our region and the safest church earthquake-wise - it is on good ground that doesn't break open or have springs or liquefaction rise up from below. (It is well worth checking the old black map of Christchurch springs.)

We suggest that Sacred Heart be our hub church.

The other three parish churches can remain having Mass celebrated once a month there by a Priest and a liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion by lay ministers on the other Sundays and days of the week if the community has able lay ministers.

We don't want more church name changes.

Name changes are not new here, they are old hat, we have had enough name and street and church and building changes to last a lifetime.

We want the emphasis to be on strengthening our communities and educating our lay ministers, not on demolishing and erecting buildings.

We want energy to go into how we can minister to one another in the absence of a priest.

We want to know how to be present to each other and to our beloved priests, who have done an amazing job in our parishes of all shapes and sizes through such a long difficult and continuing period of unrelieved upheaval.

• Kathleen Gallagher is a Christchurch author, playwright and film-maker. She is a member of St Peter's Church, Beckenham.
• First published in the Christchurch Press. Republished with permission.

Over the Pentecost weekend, however, Archbishop Jean Legrez, (pictured) completely re-organized them into 21 new parishes.

It is an impressive change.

In coming to this decision, the Archdiocese of Albi has followed a general trend among France's 93 dioceses, two-thirds of which have already made major changes to parish boundaries and structures.

Sometimes, these developments are already longstanding. For example, in 1978, the Diocese of Le Havre, reduced the number of its parishes from 171 to 21.

Evidently, the objective is to better organize the parishes to deal with the decline in priest numbers as well as demographic changes.

"It reflects a sociological reality, not just the state of the church," said Archbishop Legrez. "The point is to remain anchored in the real."

Clearly, with only 70 active priests, many years have already passed since the 503 churches of the Tarn region have been regularly served.

Fifteen years ago, the parishes were already reorganized into 36 "parish sectors."

Why this change now then? The primary reason is to meet the requirements of church law.

"At a canonical level, there is no such thing as a ‘parish sector,'" said Archbishop Legrez.

Yet, expressions of this kind have become widespread across French dioceses. A new jargon has emerged, which is not always clear to the faithful, let alone to people who are more distant from the church.

These expressions include "parish groups," "parish sectors," or even "local communities." More recently, terms like "missionary pole" or even "radiating Eucharistic poles," as in Rennes in northern France, have come into vogue.

"People are looking for different forms of territorial organization," said Elisabeth Abbal, author of a doctoral thesis on parishes, who said that the variety of these expressions illustrates the "imagination" of dioceses in the face of adversity.

"Today, people are prioritizing the ‘pole' model, namely a central location towards which the faithful need to converge," she said.

However, this model also poses other problems, Abbal points out, beginning with the fact that it ends up creating ecclesial deserts.

"People living in isolated territories also have a right to evangelization," she said.

While local churches have shown great creativity, it is often because they are forced to do so.

Nevertheless, this has not stopped certain bishops from displaying great audacity in their endeavors to meet the challenges.

In some places, the "new parishes" which were created 15 or 20 years ago, which were in fact too big, have also now been changed.

The Diocese of Mende, which includes the Department of the Lozère in France's Massif Central region, is no longer divided into merely five parishes.

At the end of 2017, the Diocese of Rouen decided that some parts of its territory would no longer even have the status of parishes.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun declared them "mission lands" to lighten the load of his priests. Continue reading

• Image: la-Croix

The Mission Centre is a unique venture for the Diocese of Palmerston North.

It combines the school and parish administration areas in one shared building.

The school and parish secretaries work alongside each other in an open plan space.

The principal and parish priest's offices are under the same roof.

The bishop of Palmerston North, Charles Drennan noted this has changed dramatically the foot traffic into the heart of the parish.

"Young parents and children and all their energy are a part of the Mission Centre, which is the heart of the school and parish alongside the Church," he said.

For the school and parish staff, the changes will take a bit of getting used to.

Parish priest, Fr Craig Butler, said the closer contact between the school and parish is a positive outcome, and that he is "enjoying working with the staff of the Mission Centre."

A parish worker noted that although things are now quite different, the Centre seems to be working well.

The school secretary, Raewyn Donbroski, has received a positive response on the new Centre from parishioners and parents.

Despite the bad weather, Bishop Charles said that the blessing and opening was "a really joyous occasion with lots of positive feedback and excitement."

It took place after the 9:30am mass. Bishop Charles blessed the rooms of the Mission Centre.

After that there were speeches in the hall and a performance from the school Kapa Haka group.

Among those attending the opening was the Deputy Mayor Phil Nixon.

Kaumatua Ray Edwards encouraged the people to be unified around the success of this new venture.

Source

• pndiocese.org.nz
• Image: pndiocese.org.nz

The four lay staff and three priests, who previously worked within the three parishes of St Mary's, St Patrick's and St Thomas More, are presently working out of the unified parish's temporary site at St Mary's in Greenmeadows.

As parish pastoral council member David Marshall said, the location for the staff will eventually be be at the more central St Patrick's Church but money would have to be spent.

The Parish House in Napier is now vacant and two options for its future were now on the table.

It can either be converted and refurbished up to earthquake-risk levels or demolished to make way for a new office building.

"That is the challenge we have to take on," Marshall said.

He says services will continue at all three parishes and a "hub" of volunteers will be at them each morning to deal with parishioner inquiries and provide hospitality "for visitors from wherever they might come".

He said the unification mass on May 24 as probably the most significant event in the 165-year history of the church in Napier.

Last month the unifying of the three parishes was celebrated by Bishop Charles Drennan, the Bishop of Palmerston North Diocese and the three priests of the new parish Father Peter Head, Father Mike Wooller and Father John Mori. The event saw the Municipal Theatre in Napier packed with about 1000 people.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

In an open letter, 32 signatories told the Pope that the future of parish life is "massively threatened".

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, the letter writers state that "active and vibrant parishes" are being merged into "anonymous and unmanageable structures".

One result is that personal contact between people and ministers is being lost, the writers state.

Sacraments are removed ever further from the life of ordinary Catholics, in these cases.

This is leaving the faithful "alienated, unsettled and insecure" as priests are increasingly focused on administration instead of caring for souls.

New paths to vibrant parishes where everyone is "welcome without exception" are needed.

Calling for new models of ministry and new ways of managing parish life, the letter tells Francis that there is opposition to clustering among a cross-section of the faithful.

"Let us establish a new culture of co-responsibility and joint decision-making in all structures of our Church," the signatories write.

New management models and forms of pastoral ministry would allow parishioners to participate according to their charisms, the reformers state.

"Let us open the priestly office to everyone who has the charism," they continue.

The signatories warned Pope Francis: "Without active parishes, your vision [of the Church] lacks the foundation and the necessary strength to overcome opposition."

Another concern for reformers, according to the NCR article, is that the current model of the parish council isn't working.

Letter signatory Fr Tony Flannery from Ireland said: "Its weakness lies in the fact that it is a consulting body, while decision-making is still restricted to a small clerical group."

"That must change if we are to have any sort of meaningful co-responsibility, from parishes right up to the Vatican," he said.

"We need real responsibility for parish councils with the power of decision-making, which would allow priests to be free to do the ministerial work," Fr Flannery said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Tony Flannery blog
• Image: Bishop Accountability

In a column published online in Catholic New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said 14 per cent of the archdiocese's 368 parishes would undergo a "purgatory" of sorts and be merged with neighbours.

"I wish it could be different. I'd rather be adding parishes, or expanding the ones we have," Cardinal Dolan wrote.

The archdiocese, which covers the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and parts of the Hudson Valley, can no longer fill the seats in all its parishes, he explained.

"In areas that used to have huge Catholic numbers . . . most of the people have since moved away.

"On Manhattan alone, for instance, we have 88 parishes, some only blocks apart. Do the math: We have about 25 per cent of our parishes in an area where less than 12 per cent of the 2.8 million Catholics of the archdiocese reside," he said.

Continue reading

Some parishes will merge to create a new parish. All parish churches will be retained.

The parish mergers will be implemented over a period of two years and will be completed no later that 1 February 2016.

Before making his decision Archbishop John worked with a focus group that he appointed two years ago.

With the focus group he drew up a series of proposals which from May through August 2013 were taken to parishes and pastoral areas for a broad-based consultation.

Hundreds of people have taken part in discussions and consultations relating to the document. Archbishop John says "the responses bear the results of deep reflection and fervent prayer, for which I am very grateful. It is very clear that the discussions were accompanied by a sense of excitement and with great energy and passion, which are wonderful gifts to bring to the life of the Church."

"This is not an easy time for the Archdiocese. We face unprecedented challenges. We could ignore them and refuse to change, but change is in the very nature of things. Not to change is to stagnate and die. What helps us, of course, is that we know God is with us," say Archbishop John.

Click here for PDF version of the Promulgating Booklet and Appendices

Source

• The Archdiocese of Wellington
• Wel-Com

The plan, based on an extensive two-year review, was recently presented to parish priests, parish leaders and school principals at meetings held at Viard College in Porirua and in Nelson.

These meetings are part of a process of consultation in which Dew is inviting parish communities to discuss and reflect on the proposals and provide him with constructive ideas and feedback.

Under the proposal, two or more parishes in each pastoral area would combine to create a completely new parish, with one shared council and finance committee. The administration would be set up in one building, with most existing churches retained as 'mass centres', Archbishop Dew said.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz

Continue reading

"Often sincere people who leave our Church do not do so as a result of what non-Catholic groups believe, but fundamentally as a result of their own lived experience; for reasons not of doctrine but of life; not for strictly dogmatic, but for pastoral reasons; not due to theological problems, but to methodological problems of our Church," he told a delegation of Colombian bishops on June 21.

"What is important, then, is to become better believers, more pious, affable and welcoming in our parishes and communities, so that no-one feels distant or excluded," he said.

The Pope was referring particularly to Latin America, where the "increasingly active presence" of Pentecostal and Evangelical communities "cannot be ignored or underestimated".

Offering some practical advice, the Pope called for better catechesis — particularly to the young — as well as carefully prepared homilies at Mass and the promotion of Catholic doctrine in schools and universities.

Following this path, he said, would help awaken in Catholics "the aspiration to share with others the joy of following Christ and become members of his mystical body".

He said bishops should also try to facilitate "serene and open" dialogue with other Christian communities — "without losing one's own identity" — so as to improve relations and "overcome distrust and unnecessary confrontations".

Sources

• CNA
• News.va
• Image: Laloking97

"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