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	Vt. Diocese Faces Historic Changes By Kevin O'Connor Times Argus [Vermont] January 9, 2005 How do you staff 130 parishes with 55 priests, settle yet another round of clergy misconduct lawsuits and replace a retiring bishop? For Vermont's 148,000 Catholics, the new year promises historic challenges and change. Members of the state's largest religious group will start work Saturday on their chief concern when as many as 300 priests and parishioners meet privately to discuss how to consolidate churches to deal with a clergy shortage. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont projects the number of priests will drop by half in 10 years, leaving about 55 clergymen to minister to more than twice as many parishes. As a result, Bishop Kenneth Angell is inviting all priests, deacons and two lay representatives from each local church to suggest possible solutions at a by-invitation-only meeting at St. Monica School in Barre. The session will be closed to the press and public, as will subsequent meetings of a smaller planning advisory committee. As a result, most Vermonters won't know the outcome until the bishop shapes the recommendations into a consolidation plan this spring — just before he'll submit his resignation on his 75th birthday, Aug. 3, as required by church law. Some Catholics may question why Angell will set a diocesan plan for the next decade, only to step down and leave its implementation to a successor. But the Rev. John McDermott, director of the diocese's Office of Pastoral Planning, says the timing is coincidental and can't be avoided. "This has been talked about for a number of years, and over the past year and a half it has become much more of an issue," McDermott says of consolidation. "The bishop feels we just can't put off taking a hard look." Church leaders launched a study of the diocese's 130-parish structure last January and held a series of regional public meetings last spring, all with the hope of announcing a program of closings and reconfigurations this month. But the diocese decided to delay that schedule and put off a decision until spring, after Massachusetts Catholics protested the Archdiocese of Boston's plans to close almost a quarter of its more than 350 parishes. A priest shortage is plaguing Catholic churches throughout New England, the nation and as far away as Australia, where the Archbishop of Sydney recently announced his city's parishes would have to share clergy like their rural counterparts. The Vatican isn't dictating a blanket solution, but is instead letting individual dioceses deal with the problem in their own ways. Church leaders in Vermont and neighboring New Hampshire now are drafting separate parish consolidation plans as they watch counterparts in Massachusetts, the first state in the region to tackle the issue. The Archdiocese of Boston announced plans last spring to close or merge more than 80 of its parishes. Some 50 have since shut down without incident, but parishioners in other churches have staged sit-ins and vigils, with several protestors arrested for trespassing as recently as last month. Vermont leaders hope to avoid a similar situation by seeking suggestions from parishioners representing their peers statewide. Church leaders say they won't make any decisions at the closed-door session and therefore won't speak to the press that day. "I can't prevent a news truck from appearing, but I will ask all those who participate to please respect our desire to keep a low profile because the work is not over," McDermott says. "This is a step, but not the destination." A planning advisory committee made up of two-dozen parishioners, priests and deacons, as well as the bishop and McDermott, will weigh the meeting comments in private sessions over several weekends this winter. Angell then will shape the committee's work into a consolidation plan for public unveiling sometime this spring. The plan could be one of Angell's last major actions as bishop. If his resignation is accepted, Angell would continue to work until Vatican officials poll bishops in Vermont's regional province — which includes Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire — for their thoughts on possible successors. "They try to be timely, but it can take anywhere from eight months to two years," diocesan communications director Gloria Gibson says. Angell has served as Vermont Catholic bishop since November 1992. In his 13 years he has led church opposition to abortion and same-sex civil unions. His brother, "Frasier" sitcom creator David Angell, and sister-in-law died in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Shortly afterward, the diocese faced a string of lawsuits charging priests with child sexual abuse. The diocese, having spent almost $400,000 to settle such cases in the past two years, hoped the scandal was over. But it currently faces at least a half dozen new lawsuits. Lawyer Jerome O'Neill of Burlington sparked the diocese to settle one case for $150,000 — the largest such payment in state history — and another lawsuit for $120,000. He since has filed six more cases in Chittenden Superior Court against four one-time Vermont priests, including the Rev. Edward Paquette, the Rev. George Paulin and the Rev. Alfred Willis. All the new cases are awaiting court hearings. Church leaders can't simply resolve the problem with a checkbook, as the diocese doesn't have insurance for such cases and therefore must pay for settlements with money on hand. Officials stress they aren't tapping any regular collection funds – Vermont Catholics recently met the diocese's annual fund-raising goal of $2.35 million — but instead are paying settlements from a separate account designed for unforeseen circumstances. Church leaders grow frustrated when the press or public lump the diocese's problems together. The lawsuits, they say, are limited to a small number of former clergy, while the consolidation study is separate, unrelated and encompassing the membership, present and future. The diocese, which had more than 150 priests 50 years ago, now has slightly fewer than 100, with nearly one-third older than the retirement age of 70 and only six younger than 40. Officials fear the numbers will shrink to only 55 active priests statewide in 10 years, with only about 30 of those under age 60. Vermont parishioners have already expressed resistance to possible closings. Although diocesan leaders are promoting sacrifice for the good of the church statewide, locals spoke in support of their individual parishes when the diocese held an initial series of public meetings last spring. Many people specifically disagreed with Angell's statement that "a driving distance of 15 miles is not an unreasonable expectation for our people to meet in order to attend Mass," and suggested a small number of priests travel farther so that a large number of churchgoers wouldn't have to. McDermott says all past comments will be considered in future deliberations. He hopes the statewide meeting Saturday will be another step toward "a diocesan plan for the future." "That's not to say a new bishop could come in and say we should go back to the drawing board," he adds. "But the times demand we move the process along rather than wait."
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