MADISON, Wis. — Catholic clergymen with the Diocese of Madison said they must change their parish arrangements and priest appointments to keep the faith strong.
A new three-year strategic plan, called “Into the Deep,” has been put in place as a way forward.
“Into the Deep is a multi-year, comprehensive strategic planning process in the Diocese of Madison. Its purpose is to realign our resources — physical, financial, human, priestly, etc. — so that we might move our parishes and other Catholic institutions from ‘maintenance to mission,’ in order to share the life-changing good news of Jesus Christ more effectively in our increasingly secular culture,” the diocese’s website said about the plan.
The website said the goals of the plan include to “more effectively and fruitfully” follow Jesus, reclaim Sunday, evangelize others, engage youth, equip leaders and serve neighbors today and in the future.
The plan, in part, was established as the surrounding U.S. culture becomes more secularized, according to the diocese.
“In terms of church speed, this has really been turbos speed,” Father Scott Jablonski said while he held the hard findings of a study he helped put together.
“We must leave behind what is comfortable and act with courage and conviction and zeal right now, to go follow the Lord and to try to lead our people into something that’s healthier and holier for the future,” Jablonski added.
The plan groups parishes into new pastorates and places priests into new assignments. The Diocese of Madison said it will downsize from 102 to 30 pastorates under this plan.
A pastorate, the diocese explained, is a collection of parishes led by one priest or administrator. Other priests can serve along with him Parochial Vicars. This means, every pastorate in the Diocese of Madison will now have a team of priests, plus a larger group of lay employees.
“We did a deep dive on data and those of us that have been with us in this process, knowing well and declining numbers of baptisms, mass attendance, marriages, any metric by which we could to measure how people’s faith declined. We want to subvert those numbers. We want to turn those numbers around and we can do so if we have more of the resources, energy, priests time, all of the staff, all the people laser focused on this mission of proclaiming the gospel and bringing people to the Lord,” Bishop Donald Hying said.
“Fewer and fewer people are attending mass and less people receiving the sacraments,” Jablonski added. “When you look at the statistics, it’s clear that we need to do something new and really revolutionary.”
As part of the pastorate consolidation process, Jablonski must accept added responsibility. The St. Francis Xavier priest will soon become head of five churches and two parish schools.
“Being a priest is not for the faint of heart. It’s a beautiful, beautiful life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But the days of just sort of sitting back in a rectory and, you know, having cocktails at 5 p.m. and watching the evening news together… are in the past,” Jablonski said. “I think really at this point, what the church needs is bold missionary, visionary leaders.”
Currently, there are no plans to close any of the diocese schools or churches. Learn more about “Into the Deep,” here.