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Faith in the future
Bishop George V. Murry believes the pastoral plan will strengthen parish life
By LINDA M. LINONIS
youngstown
As the bishop of more than 215,470 Roman Catholics in the Diocese of Youngstown, the Most Rev. George V. Murry fills various roles.
As a priest, he wants the spiritual lives of the faithful to be rich and rewarding.
As the head of 113 parishes and two missions in the six-county diocese that covers Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Trumbull, he wants good stewardship of resources.
Bishop Murry initiated the development of a pastoral plan for parishes in the fall of 2008. After months of meetings attended by lay people and clergy, the Youngstown Diocesan Parish Reconfiguration Plan was formed. The bishop had a press conference May 28 to announce the plan. A series of meetings Feb. 24 in the seven deaneries had originally presented the plan of restructuring that involved mergers and collaborations of parishes.
The practical and abstract played a role in the plan, and prayer figured prominently in the process.
“The pastoral plan was result of a realistic look at the diocese,” Bishop Murry said, referring in part to the number of priests, where populations are and status of buildings. “The goal of the diocese is to help the faithful grow in their faith and to become better followers of Jesus,” the fifth bishop of Youngstown said. “All have a difference experience of faith as each Catholic grows in likeness to the Lord.”
Bishop Murry said the “centerpiece” of this experience is the parish, where the celebration of the Eucharist is essential as an expression of faith. But, with a limited number of aging priests, the diocese has to make changes so that parishes survive and are healthy. “We had to take steps to ensure the future,” he said.
The bishop admitted some people wanted him to make all the decisions. But, he said, it was vital to him that the ideas and suggestions for the pastoral plan come from the populations in the parishes and not from him, one person. He referred to a passage, “the only we grow is by letting go,” from “Necessary Losses” by Judith Viorst. “Over the next two years, we will be making decisions about how many buildings do we need,” he said. But, he emphasized, the essences of parishes are based in the people.
Parish representatives relayed what was important to individual parishes and much of the focus was on youth and elderly ministries. Meetings took place within the seven deaneries of the diocese. “Four of the seven deaneries said the plan didn’t go far enough,” the bishop said. “I see it as incremental.”
The bishop said part of his job is looking at the overall picture of clergy in the diocese.
He said the reality is that 35 of the 96 active priests in the diocese will reach the retirement age of 70 by 2014.
This doesn’t account for deaths or illnesses, he added.
Though the diocese has 17 men in the seminary studying to be priests even if all were eventually ordained, the number still isn’t enough to maintain the current situation.
Bishop Murry also said he is concerned about “priest burnout” because a number of priests are currently responsible for more than one church. “We studied parishes and what were the reasonable expectations of priests.
“It’s about the economy of scale and utilizing resources,” he said.
“The parishes took stock of their resources and over the next two years other decisions will be made.
“We want to accomplish the process as gently and as caring as possible,” he said. “We have to make these changes to strengthen parish life.”
The bishop said the reconfiguration plan also considered “how parishes could relate to and work with one another.” Ethnic backgrounds, in some instances, played a role in mergers and consolidations.
“We want to be more effective everywhere in our role as carriers of the Gospel,” the bishop said.