Beacons of Light Update
As I mentioned last week, the priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati met to learn some information about the Beacons of Light Pastoral Planning Process. I have described the meeting as a “data dump” and I mean it in the best possible way. The Archdiocese hired a consulting firm to conduct data analysis and in this meeting, they presented an overview of their analysis. Fr. Jedidiah and I were both rather impressed by the breadth and depth of the analysis that was conducted and it will hopefully bear fruit in this process.
As you know the Archdiocese comprises 19 counties in Southwestern Ohio. There are 212 parishes, about 160,000 registered households and around 400,000 registered individuals. There are 111 Catholic high schools and about 160 active priests (4 external priests from foreign countries, 29 religious order priests and 127 diocesan priests).
One of the aspects of the report was the community demographics. They utilized data from the US Census Bureau to describe the population of the people. There are just over 3,000,000 living in the 19 counties of the Archdiocese. Projections are for our overall population to remain stable in the next 10 years, we won’t grow or decline much. Over the past 10 years, the fastest growing age demographic in our diocese were the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and the largest overall group are millennials (born 1981–1998). These two groups are really important for us to look at when we plan.
Outside of community demographics, we were presented with Catholic demographics. In the past 10 years the number of registered households declined 6% from 168,000 to 158,000. The decline was present in sacramental practice throughout the Archdiocese over the past 10 years: Mass attendance declined 22.5%, Baptisms declined 19%, First Communions declined 23.8%, Confirmations declined 21.5%, Weddings declined 27.9%, and funerals declined 4.5%. Also Catholic school enrollment declined 13.7%. The school enrollment has been helped by the State of Ohio voucher program. If a new governor with different policies is elected, our Catholic schools could really suffer. As far as priests go, upcoming retirements will affect the number of priests who can serve as pastors. In the next 10 years 68 of the 114 Archdiocesan pastors will be able to retire. Also the presence of religious order priests will likely diminish in the next 10 years, which means diocesan priests will have to fill in those gaps. They anticipate that the Archdiocese will be able to support 60-65 pastoral assignments for the next 10 years. Currently we don’t operate with much of an “insurance policy” (if a priest suddenly can’t fulfill his duties, it is a scramble to fill the gap).
These numbers should cause us to pay attention and conduct an examination of conscience. What we are dealing with is not just a priest shortage. There is a general decline in the practice of the Catholic faith amongst the faithful. These are the trends.
However, there is hope. The line from the presentation that struck me the most was made by one of the consultants. He said that these are the trends in the Archdiocese and we do major planning to interrupt trends. The goal of this planning is to break a pattern of decline in religious practice. Our parishes aren’t immune to this decline. We’ve lost numbers, had fewer parishioners receive the sacraments, and haven’t done a great job in raising up vocations.
The question is what do we do from here? Do we embrace hopelessness and disappointment? Do we keep trying to do the same practices hoping for a different result? Or do we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, trusting that God wants a renewal of the faith in our local Church. Our world is crying out for Jesus Christ. Our Church is crying out for renewal. We were born for this moment. Each and every one of us was called into existence for this particular moment of history to renew the face of the earth and the Church of Jesus Christ.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson
