DETROIT (MI)
Livingston Daily
By David N. Goodman, Associated Press
DETROIT (WTW) — Southeastern Michigan’s 1.3 million Roman Catholics will have 53 fewer parishes by year’s end though a mixture of mergers and closures made necessary by population shifts and a shortage of priests, Archbishop Allen Vigneron said Monday.
Vigneron described the wide-ranging restructuring of the Archdiocese of Detroit at an afternoon news conference releasing results of the latest phase of an intense, months-long study called “Together in Faith.” It involved 1,500 lay people as well as clergy.
“The life of the church here in the Archdiocese of Detroit cannot simply continue without significant changes,” Vigneron said in an open letter to Detroit-area Catholics that was released in advance to The Associated Press. “Faith and prudence demand that we act now to ensure that we will be able to do God’s work effectively in the years to come.”
The archdiocese now has 267 parishes and will have 214 by the end of 2012. Vigneron says two parishes will close outright, while others will merge, reorganize or go through financial reviews to determine their future.
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