The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis soon will undergo the largest reorganization in its history as it deals with tight budgets, fewer priests and shifting demographics.Whole article from Pioneer Press
Catholic parishes metrowide await details of the plan, which aims to restructure the archdiocese's churches and schools.
Recommendations could include merging, clustering or closing parishes. Also affected will be the archdiocese's schools. In addition, the plan aims to create efficiencies, like consolidating office work among clusters of parishes and looking for other ways to improve business practices.
The report, completed late last month, will be unveiled this fall if Archbishop John Nienstedt approves it. The changes are expected to begin after January 2011.
"It's a monumental effort and occasion," said Dennis McGrath, archdiocese spokesman. The archbishop "wants to make sure that he gets it absolutely right."
Similar restructuring efforts have taken place across the nation. Catholic archdioceses in Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., and Chicago have reorganized their churches and schools, or their central offices, or both.
The Archdiocese of Detroit tackled both, said spokesman Ned McGrath. The two McGraths are not related.
As part of a five-year plan, Detroit's Catholic parishes and schools evaluated themselves and decided whether closures, clustering or mergers were needed. The central-services division eliminated 77 positions, and five newspaper jobs, through a separate reorganization plan.
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