Dozens of Parishes To Merge Under Archdiocesan Plan

By Jordan Otero Sisson
Hartford Courant
May 6, 2017

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-hartford-archdiocese-pastoral-plan-announced-20170506-story.html

Fifty-nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford will be merged under a plan that church leaders say is designed to launch a new era of Catholicism in Connecticut, church leaders said Saturday morning.

The mergers, which will be effective as of June 29, will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes, according to a press release.

New Haven County was hit the hardest, with 16 parishes there slated for closure, according to the plan available on the archdiocese's website.

The archdiocese, which currently oversees 212 parishes in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties, spent the two years developing a reorganization plan.

Under the new structure, there will be 127 pastorates in the initial phase, from 2017-19. Sixty-eight parishes will remain as-is in the first phase. A pastorate is a single parish with a church and one or more worship sites, campus and ministries, according to the archdiocese's pastoral planning website.

Additionally, 186 church buildings will remain open. Twenty-six buildings will close, meaning that regularly scheduled Masses will not be held in them.

Major drivers behind the changes include a decline in the number of priests, fewer Catholic households and financial struggles that come with maintaining aging infrastructure.

Recommendations were originally expected early this year, but an announcement was delayed to accommodate further meetings with deaneries and local parish representatives.

Priest and deacon assignments will be announced after pastorates have been revealed, according to the archdiocese's pastoral planning website.

Priests gathered at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington this week to hear details of the plan, but they, along with archdiocesan officials, were tight-lipped about what was discussed.

Pastorates will be led by a pastor, but each may have several associate priests and deacons assigned to it, who will each have designated responsibilities. A maximum of four Masses per weekend will be celebrated by each priest in each pastorate.

Once parishes are established, they will create their own strategic pastoral plans based on the needs of the communities they serve. These localized plans will include a statement of mission, a three-year vision, guiding principles, strategic pastoral objectives, strategic goals and action plans, and a timeline of incremental milestones, according to the website.

Over the last five months, some parishes and parochial schools announced their own reorganizational plans ahead of the archdiocese's decision.