MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Sept. 14, 2014
Catholic laity — the people in the pews — will play a more prominent role in the life of the church in southeastern Wisconsin in the coming years, according to a declaration issued Sunday by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki.
And local bishops will lend their voices to the social justice issues that disproportionately affect minorities in the 10-county archdiocese, such as poverty, immigration and gun violence, the declaration says.
The document, issued during Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, outlines Listecki’s long-range vision for the church, which was mapped out in June during a two-day synod that pulled together hundreds of local Catholics from across the archdiocese. …
Listecki’s blueprint comes at a pivotal time for the church in southeastern Wisconsin. The archdiocese is attempting to emerge from a grueling, nearly 4-year-old bankruptcy that has cost it more than $13 million — a bankruptcy prompted by its mishandling of clergy sex abuse cases dating back decades. Parish membership is declining, despite the growing number of people locally who identify themselves as Catholic. The archdiocese also is bracing for the retirements of dozens of full-time priests in the coming years.
Still, there is room for optimism, said Mark Gray, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which has been conducting a demographic study for the archdiocese.
“We actually predict that the self-identified Catholic population in the archdiocese, looking on toward 2040, will be quite stable,” he said. “These are people who still see themselves as Catholic, and they are. They’re the lowest-hanging fruit for the new evangelization — the people easiest to bring back.”
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