Intentional Planning Overview

BY ANDREW REINHART

Intentional Planning in the Diocese of Toledo is the process of exploring new parish collaborations and clergy assignments to meet the spiritual needs of the people in our diocese now and going forward. This process studies demographic changes in the population of our diocese, the number of priests available for pastoral service, and the need for greater evangelization within our diocese. Once a possible change is identified, the process includes consultation with local clergy, pastoral councils and parish members to investigate what should best be done. The Intentional Planning process originated from priests’ and laity feedback that formed the diocesan strategic plan beginning in 2019 .

Each of the 122 parishes in the Diocese of Toledo will feel the effects of change. Some of these changes are challenging such as twinning, merging or grouping; other changes have been less so, including having fewer priests or sharing a pastor with another parish. Often changes rightly result in a reduction of Mass times offered at the parish.

As challenging as it may be, we do not get to choose whether to plan for the future. Over time planning has been a constant in the Diocese of Toledo and will continue. We do, however, get to choose if our planning is intentional.

In the history of Catholicism in Northwest Ohio, there have been countless changes to our parishes: sharing pastors, a declining number of associate pastors, changing weekend Mass schedules and deacons or laity leading parishes. Throughout the history of Catholicism in Northwest Ohio, over 70 parishes have closed.

Before the diocese’s founding in 1910, 11 parishes had already closed in the 19 counties that now comprise the diocese. In the early decades of the diocese, nine parishes closed during a period of growth in the Catholic Church in America. In more recent history, as the number of active Catholics has declined, there have been three rounds of planning in 1990, 2005 and the 2010s, and each of these seasons of planning included some parish closures. In more recent years, the diocese has not been pursuing parish closures, but if Mass attendance in the diocese continues to decline, some parishes may be in danger of closing.

One of the painful realities of our time is that many of our parishes are shrinking. The number of active priests in our diocese and the number of people worshiping in our churches have historically declined at about the same rate. These two realities are symptoms of something deeper. We are not facing a priest crisis or a Mass attendance crisis, we are facing a crisis of faith.

To face this crisis of faith there is only one solution, evangelization. As our parishes do the arduous work of evangelizing, we need to continue to minister in all our communities even the ones with fewer people in the pews and fewer priests. There are two general approaches to confronting this reality, either priests minister to multiple parishes or parishes close. Both approaches have pros and cons. When parishes close, many people do not find another parish to attend and no longer practice their faith. However, the remaining parish communities are better resourced and more manageable for the pastor to lead. If a pastor leads multiple parishes, more members remain engaged, but the pastor faces increased leadership responsibilitites.

The story about intentional planning starting on page 14 in this issue of Graceful Living is an example of parish challenges after a painful process of closures and mergers. In the next issue of Graceful Living, we will feature a “week in the life” article about a triparish grouping collaborating closely.

As we shift toward a more evangelical and missionary approach as a Church, remember that we are all in this together with Christ. The most important things you can do in this season of the Church are to give your life more completely to Christ, support your pastor, and generously give yourself to the life of your parish. Please pray for the intentional planning process throughout the Diocese of Toledo. Pray also for vocations to the priesthood and be open to collaboration between parishes which provides for the pastoral needs of the faithful and looks to a bright future where evangelization becomes the norm and the Catholic faith is more vibrantly lived.