ChurchAlive-The Community Voice - FINAL

What?
On Mission For The Church Alive! is a strategic planning process that invites participation from parish volunteers and all the faithful. The purpose is to foster viable, sustainable, and vibrant parishes and schools that support the mission of Jesus Christ and His Church.  Church Alive!  is an effort to re-envision parish life, taking into account the challenges we face.  It is also an effort to inspire every Catholic in our Diocese to make Christ a focal point of their lives – offering prayers, service and support in order to promote vibrant worship, life-changing faith formation, outreach to the marginalized, and evangelization to those who don’t know Jesus.    

Why? 
Our parishes are changing rapidly.

• In less than five years we will have more parishes than priests. Within 10 years the number of diocesan priests will decline from 225 to 125.
• Weekly Mass attendance in the Diocese has dropped steadily, from nearly 250,000 people in 2000 to about 150,000 in 2015.  Parishioner weddings have declined by 48 percent and infant baptisms by 47 percent.
• Many parishes are struggling financially, and nearly half of our 200 parishes run annual deficits to pay the bills.
• Enrollment is down in both public and Catholic schools. Since 2000-2001, enrollment in our 59 Catholic elementary schools has dropped by half to about 12,000 students, making it difficult to keep tuition affordable.
• Available resources vary greatly, and parishes in affluent areas usually provide a greater breadth of ministry than parishes in less affluent communities, often, those who are most in need receive the least.

Goals
Church Alive! teams in each parish have been working with the Diocesan Commission to consider new models of parish life that reflect the needs of the communities, material resources, and available clergy.  This process will require significant realignment of resources in every district in the Diocese, and the changes will be designed for the long term - over several decades.  The process will also produce new structures, staffing and strategies for our parishes and schools, ensuring effective pastoral care so that Catholics in the six counties of the Diocese can “learn Jesus, love Jesus, and live Jesus.”
 
For more information, please visit www.onmissionchurchalive.org.