The Diocese of Erie is located in North Western Pennsylvania. This is the heart of the “rust belt”. years ago a lot of industry was located here. It was in this region that the oil industry had its beginning and the bulk of the steel industry was located for many years. In recent decades however much of the industry that was so important to the local economy has moved to different parts of the States and even overseas. Now you can drive through the Pennsylvania countryside and see once massive factories slowly rusting away. The change in the local economy has its parallel in the demographic shift in the region, as young people follow the jobs out of Pennsylvania.
During the middle of the 20th century the local economy was booming. Churches and schools were being built in every neighborhood and town to accommodate the large number of Catholics who lived in the region. However, if we flash forward to the present day we encounter a very different situation. The drop in the number of Catholics living in the region has meant that there are simply not enough people to attend the churches and schools, or enough funding to support their operation. Cultural changes, scandals and multiple other factors have contributed to a situation in which most dioceses are trying to adjust down to the reality of a smaller Catholic community.
This isn’t just a US mainland phenomenon. It is being experienced in the CNMI as well. I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s when the CNMI economy was booming. The population got up to about 100,000 people, most of whom were Catholic. New parishes and missions were being established throughout the CNMI. Since then the economy has experienced a down turn, that only recently seems to show signs of recovery.
In addition, about half of the priests that minister in this diocese are not from the local community. They are here on religious visas that are severely restricted. While they are fine priests, it is a constant challenge to ensure that there are enough to meet the needs of the community. The result is that the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa is attempting to deal with its challenges, just as are many other dioceses.
There are two common ways of addressing the problem of limited resources and smaller populations. One way is the merger of parishes and the other is clustering.
When parishes are merged, two or more parishes are joined to become one new parish. Often the bishop will close both parishes and create a new and combined parish with a new name. Though it is possible to simply close one of the parishes and have its parishioners join the surviving parish. Merging parishes can be a bit traumatic for the parishioners involved, as they often have a long history with the relevant parishes and a strong emotional investment.
While merging parishes involves a structural and legal change in the parishes involved, clustering makes no structural changes to the parishes. Clustering involves two or more parishes sharing resources. One priest may be assigned to the cluster and function as the pastor of all the parishes in that cluster. The clergy assigned to that cluster share responsibility for ministering to all the people of the cluster. The staff of the different parishes might work together to better serve the people of all the parishes in the cluster. So rather than have two or three part-time Directors of Religious Education (DRE), they are able to have one DRE but on a full time basis serving the entire cluster. Each parish in the cluster maintains its separate identity and has its own parish finance council. The bishop has indicated that each parish will also maintain its own pastoral council, though the pastoral councils are encouraged to work together as much as possible.
One of the ministries to which deacons in the Diocese of Erie are being assigned is serving as Pastoral Life Coordinators (PLC) for clustered parishes. For example, two parishes near my home have been combined into a cluster with one pastor. Each parish has a deacon assigned to it as a PLC. The deacon takes responsibility for the day to day administration of his assigned parish and the priest attends to the spiritual and pastoral needs of the two parishes. It seems to work well there. In another cluster, two retired priests are responsible for the spiritual and pastoral care of the parishioners in the individual parish to which each is assigned. The deacon serves as the PLC for the entire cluster. This arrangement seems to be working as well.
Recently, Bishop Jimenez organized the parishes of the Diocese into clusters. The reasons for this were varied but primarily to make better use of the clergy and available resources to support all of the parishes. Also, with Fr. Ken having returned to the mainland for a well earned retirement and Fr. James heading off to the Catholic University of America, my old alma mater, to study canon law, the number of priests available is even more limited. Clustering is a way to provide coverage in the absence of these priests. The clusters are organized with several priests each and a deacon. One of the priests is appointed as the pastor but all of the clergy work together as a team. Each brings his strengths and experience to the new clusters.
Clustering isn’t really new to the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa. I can remember back in the 90’s when Msgr. Ben Martinez was pastor of San Antonio and San Jude. That was a cluster in fact, if not in name. At different times Fr. Roger Tenorio, Fr. Gary Bradley and Msgr. Antonelli also were responsible for clustered parishes.
The one concern that I have is for the health of the cluster pastors. Each of the priests mentioned above has gone on to his heavenly reward. It is my feeling that for some of them responsibility for multiple parishes at the same time was too much and they wore themselves out. However, rather than load responsibility for a cluster of parishes upon a single pastor, the clustering model used by Bishop Jimenez shares the work of pastoral ministry among a team of people. The pastor may still have bottom line responsibility for the parishes in the cluster but the work of providing ministry and pastoral care to the people of the clustered parishes is shared.