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Parishioner Comments
November 28th, 2009 commentary from Jan Clancy: Norwich Deanery Clustering, One Parishioner’s View
Make no mistake: we are going to feel sad, angry, frustrated, and helpless…..but, with God’s grace, we WILL come through this process, we will make new friends, and—hopefully—we will be stronger Christians.
For many of us, change does not come easily. We feel safe in our routines and in our various communities of home, Church, work, neighborhood.
As we all know, however, situations in life DO change, whether or not we want them to.
Most of us are realists, however. We may have our heartaches, our tears, our cursing, our temper-tantrums when things change against our wishes, but
we do survive it, adjust to it, and make it our own. We may have the scars to show for it, but we do come through it. While we may not choose the changes that come our way, we CAN and MUST
choose our attitude: will we come through changes with bitterness? With a “why my Parish” attitude? Or, will we come through it with growth and acceptance and
determination to make the best of the situation? Some people always see the proverbial glass as half-empty. These people are negative-Nellies who drain our enthusiasm and our inner peace. Those
who see the glass as half-full, however, are the strong people we rely on and want to be with in changing times.
So, in the clustering process, I see our challenge as a vision choice. Is our glass half-empty or half-full?
Sister Elissa Rinere ran two meetings recently in Norwich, open to all Parishioners in the Norwich Deanery. Approximately 15 of our St. Catherine of
Siena family attended either the meeting at Sts. Peter and Paul or the meeting at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After those meetings, many attended a Monday evening meeting in Siena Hall. A summary
of the process was in the Church Bulletin. All Parishioners were invited to the Saturday, November 21, meeting in Siena Hall where Sister Elissa again explained the clustering process.
Briefly:
Above, I said that most of us are realists. The reality is that:
- In the Diocese of Norwich there are 77 Parishes and 79 priests. (The Cathedral, with close to 2000 Parishioners has two priests and St. Andrew in
Colchester with about 1500 Parishioners, has two priest.)
- Many of these 79 priests are nearing retirement age.
- There was one ordination last year. None this year.
- The US has 6% of the world’s Catholics and 12% of the world’s priests.
- The Catholic population in eastern Connecticut is decreasing.
- Weekend Mass attendance is decreasing.
- There are 51 weekend Masses in the Norwich Deanery; average attendance 157.
Next steps:
- Each Parish in the Norwich deanery must choose three Parishioners to attend six meetings that will be held at St. Patrick Cathedral. (December 10, January
13, February 9, February 24, March 15, April 8). These Parish reps MUST attend all six meetings. They will have a group meeting and then break into clusters. These people must (a) keep in
mind the Church, worldwide; (b) love the Eucharist; (c) be civil – keep their discussions respectful and be open to all viewpoints presented.
- The recommendations of the clusters will be forwarded to Bishop Cote by May.
- Any changes will take effect next September.
- What will be discussed at these six meetings?
- Are the Parishes clustered in a logical cluster, or would a particular Parish be logically moved to a different cluster?
- How would the Parishes in each cluster manage/organize if down one priest?
- How would the Parishes in each cluster manage/organize if down two priests?
- There are different scenarios to consider.
- Yoking: Each Parish remains open but share a priest. Ideally, they will also share resources. For example, one Parish might have a dynamic teen
program, while another Parish might have an effective CCD program. The efficient management, then, would be to regionalize these programs. As well, physical resources must be
considered—condition of the buildings, parking, Parish Hall, etc
- Closing a Parish and merging with another: If a Parish can no longer support faith programs or perhaps cannot
support their financial obligations, perhaps the Parish reps would recommend, after prayers and tears, closing.
- Staying open but accepting with open hearts those from closed Parishes. We must embrace THEIR talents and strengths. (Yes, maybe even have to give up “our” pew.)
- Who is St. Catherine clustered with? St. Thomas in Voluntown and St. Mary in Jewett City
- Is St. Catherine of Siena going to close? Yoke? Remain open and merge with other Parishes? That is
precisely what is going to be talked about at these upcoming six meetings.
- When a Parish closes what happens to the assets? If the buildings and grounds are sold, the money (after any
outstanding debts are paid) will follow the Parishioners to the new Parish.
- Why don’t we have female priests? Have married priests? Realists: we have to deal with what we have
–few priests, aging priests, decreasing attendance, decreasing resources, fewer children. We cannot change the Church structure with this process.
- Why are we at this point? Isn’t it because of poor leadership? Church sex scandals? Insensitivity to the gay
community? Alienation of those divorced? Not enough faith-nurturing to our youth? Not making new comers or immigrants welcome? Realists will point out that we can try to avoid those
mistakes in the future; in fact, we MUST avoid making the same mistakes in the future--but looking back and pointing fingers is an exercise in futility. The blame game doesn’t solve our
current crisis. We must deal with what we have–few priests, aging priests, decreasing attendance, decreasing resources, fewer children.
- So, what this one Parishioner sees:
Keep in mind that regionalization is NOT a new concept to any of us. Who among us went to Preston High School? No one—there is no Preston High
School. How many of us do all our shopping in Preston? No one I know. We shop at Stop and Shop (Montville, or Norwich, or Groton) or Kohl’s (Lisbon or Groton) or Wal-Mart
(Lisbon, or Norwich, or Groton). How many visit their doctor’s office here in Preston? No one I know. What about going out to dinner? Yes, we have a few places to eat
here in Preston, but many go to Waterford, or Norwich, or Mystic. What about hospitals? All regionalized.
Sad but true: we will, sooner or later, have regionalized Catholic Churches; but, haven’t many of us taken advantage of that already? How many
of us have gone to Holy Day Masses at St. Patrick Cathedral because 7am on the way to work was convenient for us or at 12:10 on the way to an appointment “saved time” or
Sunday 5pm Mass because we slept in Sunday morning?
No doubt about it: this is an emotional issue. Every Parishioner is encouraged to talk to the three Parish representatives about their
feelings, their ideas, their reactions.
We will feel sad or angry, but, REALISTICALLY, we will have to face it, adjust to it, and ultimately, accept it. To do this, we must pray for the strength
to listen to God. We must pray that the three representatives from each Parish will consider all possibilities and reach the decisions that will best benefit each Parish. MOST IMPORTANTLY, we must remember that worshiping at the Eucharist is our purpose, whether in Preston, or Voluntown, or Jewett City or Norwich.
October 20, 2009: Alice and myself attended the initial “Core Group” meeting last
night, and came away from it hopeful in that there are so many of us at Saint Catherine’s who share a common interest in maintaining a strong Parish community. There are going to be many
changes over the next months, but change does not have to be a bad thing and we are all going to have to learn to help make that change one for the better for all of us. A “gut
reaction” when something is threatened is to hunker down and defend, but we have to do the opposite…learn to look outside our comfortable box as to the realities of our current
situation regarding availability of priests, demographics that might show out of kilter resource allocation, and possibilities for sharing resources that we hadn’t previously considered. Bob and Alice Payette, Preston
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