Northwest Wayne Vicariate

Vicariate Report: May 2005

The Vicariate Committee met on May 2. Since the April meeting, all church structures and facilities in Redford have been inspected. All Parish Evaluations (PEI) for the vicariate have been completed and are being reviewed by the Vicariate subcommittee before being sent downtown. The Vicar, Fr. Denis, has sent letters to each pastor to address issues arising from the PEI statistical data or which were left incomplete. Although St. Valentine has made great strides over the last year, there are several issues for St. Valentine arising out of the PEI such as tackling the deficit, stabilizing and balancing the parish budget, and the reduction of sacramentals ( such as baptisms, communions, and confirmations) by 57%. Plans have or are being implemented to address each area of concern.

During the next month, each Parish Council must approve a plan to disseminate the information contained in the Parish Evaluations to the parish at large. Some parishes are making a copy of the report and leaving it in the rectory, others are posting the information on the parish website, and some are having a general meeting open to all parishioners. At a minimum, a copy of the report will be made and left in the rectory available to all parishioners to review. In the interim, Vicariate Reports are posted on the St. Valentine Website. If approved and authorized by the Parish Council, a copy of the St. Valentine PEI and the Vicariate statistics will be available to post on the St. Valentine and Vicariate websites (www.NWWV.org).

During June, the Parish Councils must also approve the Vicariate Goals. Vicariate statistics derived from the PEI and the Vicariate Goals were distributed for review to the Parish Council at the last Parish Council meeting and the Vicariate Goals are to be reviewed and approved at the June meeting. The Vicariate has also requested that each Parish authorize a nominal payment this year of $100 to cover the cost of Vicariate activities since Archdiocesan planning is now being shifted to the vicariate level. It was suggested that the parish contribution in future years will be based on CSA households and will be approximately .03 to .05 cents per parish household.

By June 1, the Vicariate subcommittee will be forwarding the Vicariate Plan to the ten (10) member Archdiocesan Coordinating Committee who will then make recommendations to the Archbishop. Before making those recommendations of parish continuation, cluster, or closure, the Coordinating Committee will address the issues raised by the Vicariate Plans and the parish inventories with the vicariate and each affected parish. The Archbishop will present the five (5) year strategic plan the first week of Advent.

The balance of the May Vicariate meeting was a general discussion of the lack of church resources in two primary areas: priests and financial. Archdiocesan subsidies to parishes and schools are being reduced or eliminated. Additionally, the Archdiocese has 310 parishes and only 305 available priests. In our vicariate, a number of priests five (5) will be eligible to retire or past retirement age in the next five years. Three (3) priests are being ordained this year for the archdiocese and next year it is zero. The shortage of priests and their allocation will be addressed at the Fall Convocation about the same time as the Archbishop announces the overall strategic plan. Because of the lack of financial resources and priests, there was a discussion of the new concept of the "area" church.

In conjunction with this discussion of limited resources, the Archdiocese representative requested that each parish evaluate the number of weekend masses being offered at their parish. If the church is not being used over 50% at each mass, then there are too many masses and the number of masses needs to be evaluated and reduced.

The next meeting of the Vicariate Committee is June 6. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Dan Ryan