The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a pastoral plan Feb. 9 that calls for the closing of seven parishes and delays the reopening of 23 others until there are enough parishioners in an area to warrant the resumption of pastoral ministry.
It also calls for establishing six centralized elementary schools, which before the storm had served primarily as individual parish elementary schools.
The archdiocese, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is facing unknown projections regarding its future Catholic population and hundreds of its properties suffered extensive damage.
New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes projected that the archdiocese, which before Katrina was home to nearly a half-million Catholics in 142 parishes, might see its Catholic population return in the next two years to only 60 percent to 65 percent of its August 2005 levels, which would mean a Catholic population of about 295,000.
The pastoral plan, which will take effect March 15, establishes a framework for pastoral ministry in the seven deaneries that sustained the greatest damage from the Aug. 29 storm. Those seven deaneries include the areas of Orleans, St. Bernard and lower Plaquemines civil parishes that were devastated by Katrina's winds and floodwaters.
The seven parishes that will close are St. Augustine, St. John the Baptist, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Philip the Apostle, St. Rose of Lima and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in New Orleans and St. Jude in Diamond.
However, St. Augustine Church will remain open as a place of worship, and St. John the Baptist Church, familiar to the thousands of daily commuters who pass its golden dome adjacent to Interstate 10, will remain available as a site for weddings and funerals only.
The plan calls for a formal review process in 18 months, but Archbishop Hughes said the review could occur sooner if an area is repopulated more quickly and a parish needs to reopen.
The plan creates 14 "cluster" parishes in the affected areas that will offer pastoral ministry to another parish or parishes that have yet to reopen. The plan is particularly mindful of preserving worship communities for African-American, Asian and Hispanic Catholics, Archbishop Hughes said.
Pastors of parishes that have closed or have yet to reopen will soon receive new assignments, and Archbishop Hughes said he will offer to send two priests to the Diocese of Baton Rouge for the next two years in gratitude for the help that diocese provided in hosting the archdiocese's central offices and thousands of evacuees after the storm.
Another priest may be offered a ministry assignment in the Diocese of Lake Charles, which was severely impacted by Hurricane Rita.
Because the archdiocese placed a priority on developing a pastoral plan for the seven deaneries most severely affected by Katrina, the plan does not address pastoral or educational ministry in the church parishes located in Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Washington civil parishes.
Most of the church parishes in those areas are back in full operation, and many have experienced an influx of parishioners resulting from population shifts after Katrina.
The pastoral plan also provides for new initiatives for parish-based social services in the seven affected deaneries, including community outreach, a family literacy program and a social service center.
"We're obviously going to have to make sacrifices, but I see us being able to live the Gospel message more directly," Archbishop Hughes said in announcing the plan.
"When we experience the loss of material things, there's an invitation to focus on what is more lasting and important. I would hope that even as we make sacrifices and scale back we will at the same time live more simply as families and as church," he said.
Of the seven parishes that are closing, only one -- St. Nicholas of Myra on Lake St. Catherine -- was destroyed by Katrina, although several received substantial damage.
Deliberations on the pastoral plan began in October, about a month after the storm. Archbishop Hughes met with the priests of all 12 deaneries and then determined the archdiocese needed to focus on the seven most damaged deaneries.
He also consulted with the major superiors of men and women religious serving in the archdiocese to gauge their ability to maintain a presence in parishes and schools.
Edmundite Father Michael Jacques, the pastor of St. Peter Claver Church in New Orleans and head of the Council of Deans, coordinated the plan and said he was pleased Archbishop Hughes used a collaborative process.
"He was very concerned that the worship life, school life and social service life is available for the people of the archdiocese," Father Jacques told the Clarion Herald, the archdiocesan newspaper. "By this process he allowed that discussion to take place."
The archdiocese had a total of $13 million in flood insurance on its properties, and damage to more than 1,000 archdiocesan facilities far exceeded that amount. Archbishop Hughes estimated those damages at $84 million.
He also said the archdiocese had projected a $40 million deficit in operations by the end of December 2005, but insurance reimbursements, employee layoffs and the return to relatively normal operations in outlying church parishes had slashed the deficit to $4.5 million. --CNS |