Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, May 09, 2008

Plan keeps churches open

By JOE ORSO | La Crosse Tribune

Bishop Jerome Listecki accepted a plan on Thursday that could shrink the number of parishes in the Diocese of La Crosse from 165 to 75 without closing a single church building.

The plan, a response to a projected priest shortage in the diocese, would alter the traditional structure in which a parish is contained in a single building. In a new “umbrella parish,” a parish community would consist of two or more church buildings.

In his 38 months as bishop of the diocese, Listecki said after a prayer service attended by priests and laity at the Holy Crosse Diocesan Center, he has held funerals for 26 priests but ordained only five.

“One can see we’re not replacing priests at the pace demanded,” Listecki said. “We needed to do this now, or we will be forced to make decisions out of a crisis mentality.”

For the full list of 75 parish centers in the Diocese of La Crosse, click here.

To read more the diocese’s background information on the pastoral planning process, click here.

For a lexican of terms used in the diocese’s pastoral plan, click here.

The pastoral plan, developed by a committee over two years and presented to Listecki in June 2007, will not immediately be implemented.

A new committee will now consider protocols and strategies for implementing the plan. Listecki said they’ll be considering issues such as how a reconfigured parish could be named or what to do if one of the parishes has more debt than the other.

In a response to Listecki’s acceptance speech, the Rev. Mark Pierce asked that in the implementation of the plan an effort be made to invite input from parish staff, trained volunteers and Catholic educational institutions.

“It is my impression that over the years of my service we have suffered something of a brain drain in the diocese as fewer parishes seem able to afford — or is it that fewer pastors are willing to work with — trained professional staff, relying instead on the good will of volunteers,” said Pierce, pastor of Roncalli Catholic Newman Center. “The presbyterate’s ability to work with deacons and trained lay ecclesial ministers will be critical for the future of the local church.”

While the priest shortage was the main motivation for the plan, the committee also looked at such factors as populations shifting from rural to urban areas and pew counts that indicate about one-third of the diocese’s 202,000 Catholics attend Sunday Mass.

Under the new plan, which will be implemented as needed, each parish would have a parish center, and could also have satellite buildings that serve various functions within the reconfigured parish.

The Rev. David Kunz, director of the pastoral planning committee, said church members will have to get beyond the mindset that the only person who can minister in the church is a priest.

“It is a challenge for us to learn how to work together in a way we have never had to work together before,” said Kunz, pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church.

Listecki described this moment as a historic time and said the pastoral plan represents a “collaborative and creative effort.”

“The way I envision this is it forces us to look outside the parochialism we’ve embraced,” he said of the coming together of parishes.

Joe Orso can be reached at (608) 791-8429 or jorso@lacrossetribune.com.