By Barbara S. Rothschild
Courier-Post
April 24, 2008
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080424/NEWS01/80424040/-1/special18
During a meeting this morning at the Courier-Post, Bishop Joseph Galante elaborated on his plan to reconfigure parishes in the Camden Diocese, including merging some and cutting the total number from 124 to 66.
The needs of an increasingly diverse population numbering half a million Catholics in the diocese can best be met by fewer, more dynamic parishes that can attract lay people to minister to various groups, including the young, the elderly, families and divorced Catholics, he said.
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| Bishop Galante |
"Parishes aren't so much the building. They're the community of people who gather," Galante said, adding that only 22 percent to 24 percent of the diocese's Catholics attend Mass regularly.
"That is appalling. We have to have active ministries, people to knock on doors and talk to people. We need people with training," he said.
Galante said most parish reorganizations should take from one to two years. The diocese will send trained people to work with parishioners experiencing a sense of loss and change during the process. It will begin this summer with the formation of small teams from each old parish that will work together to form the new parishes announced on April 3.
Eventually, a pastor will be appointed for each new parish, at first as a convener who will work with teams to build on the strengths and traditions of old parishes to create a new, stronger entity.
"The core teams will tell me when the people are ready," Galante said.
Once a new parish is ready to be established, the bishop will issue a decree and the new community will pick a name for its parish. Churches within each parish will keep their old names, he said.
Galante said that although nothing is written in stone, much thought went into which parishes would be closing and that complaints heard since April 3 had already been taken into consideration before his announcement.
"When the decisions came, it wasn't out of the blue," he said.
Galante said that the shortage of priests is in large part due to today's society, in which people may change careers many times.
"In a culture that doesn't value permanence as a strong value, it is hard to promote permanent commitment to priesthood," he said.
He also noted that seminaries are selective and put candidates through rigorous psychological testing before admitting them.
The lifelong formation of faith, one of the diocese's pastoral priorities, can help channel young men into the priesthood, he said.
He doesn't expect the Church to change its stance on the ordination of women.
Reach Barbara S. Rothschild at (856) 486-2416 or brothschild@courierpostonline.com
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