For the weekend of Oct. 16 and 17, I was asked to be an archdiocesan representative at one of the merging parishes identified by the strategic planning. Not as an expert, but as a representative, it would be my job to listen, relay information and refer people to where they would be able to find out more.
Parishioners at the 4:30 p.m. Mass Oct. 16 at Holy Cross in northeast Minneapolis were upset after reading in the daily newspapers earlier that morning that their parish was slated to close.
Six parishes in the southwestern part of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are slated to merge under the strategic plan announced Oct. 16, and most parishioners are not surprised.
Viable Catholic schools are an essential element for fulfilling the mission of the Church in this Archdiocese. Catholic schools assist parents, as primary educators, in handing on the faith to the next generation.
Carol Shukle of Our Lady of the Lake in Mound wondered why she was asked to serve on the Strategic Planning Task Force in 2009.
“I’m not a religious [sister], I don’t work for the archdiocese,” said Shukle, 58.
After two years of consultation, and much prayer and reflection on the part of many, I am announcing our Strategic Plan for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This plan is the culmination of a process launched in February 2009 when I named the Archdiocesan Strategic Planning Task Force.
A new chaplaincy, an advisory board and resource centers located throughout the archdiocese are just a few of the changes in the Strategic Plan to improve Latino ministry in the archdiocese.
The archdiocesan strategic plan presents two challenges for priests, deacons and parishioners, said Father Kevin Finnegan, who is already meeting those challenges as pastor of Divine Mercy in Faribault, St. Patrick in Shieldsville and St. Michael in Kenyon.
The number of households of registered parishioners is approximately 215,000. The number of households is expected to grow by about 7.5 percent in five years, so that by 2014, the number of households will be approximately 248,000.
Canon law provides a means whereby certain decisions, including the decision to merge specific parishes as outlined in the Strategic Plan, may be appealed.
Ode to a country church