Archbishop Aymond discusses parish mergers/restructure in Archdiocese of New Orleans

 

Restructuring was driven by more than finances

Archbishop Gregory Aymond

How difficult is it for you to have made the decision to close and merge parishes?

First of all, I accept everyone’s hurt feelings with compassion. I understand them.  Unfortunately, I had to make a decision to merge my own parish. St. James Major in Gentilly is where I was baptized and made my First Communion and confirmation. St. James Major is where I celebrated my first Mass and also where I served for many years as an altar server. So, I know how it feels, and it doesn’t feel good. I have great compassion when people realize that the place where they have worshiped and perhaps been baptized is being merged. But, we also have to be good stewards of the resources that God has given to us. I think we need to look not just at New Orleans but at the entire country and see that this is happening because demographics are changing and finances are different than they used to be. Just for example, insurance rates for buildings and medical care keep going up, and we simply can’t afford some of these things. But I want to stress that these decisions were not based solely on finances. A lot depended on how many people are going to church, on the numbers of baptisms and confirmations and the number of people involved in religious education. That’s more important than the finances. But, we also have to take finances into consideration. The Archdiocese of Baltimore just announced it was going from about 100 parishes to 50. The Diocese of Pittsburgh did something similar recently.

Is parish vitality something you will continue to look at?

Yes. I think it’s important to let people know that we are going to round two. We have some other parishes that fit into a similar category as some of the parishes that are merging. Our Parish Sustainability Committee is going to be meeting with parishioners from those parishes and the parish leadership to see if they can improve in certain areas or if we need to talk about some mergers. Many people think it’s a financial thing. It’s really not just financial. It’s the number of people who come to Mass. It’s the number of people who are in religious education. It’s the number of confirmations. I go to do confirmation in a parish sometimes and there are only three or four people to be confirmed. That’s not vibrancy.

How important is it for the pastor of the newly merged parish to be a welcoming presence to the people who are coming from the closed worship sites?

That’s of utmost importance. I will be installing each of the new pastors, so I will be visiting the parish. We’ve tried to choose pastors who would be very sensitive to the challenging feelings that people may have about the mergers.

What if someone says, “Well, that’s it. I’m just going to stop going to church”? Would you hope people would give this a chance?

I think it’s important to give it a chance. God would ask us to give it a chance and to try to adjust to these realities of our times. Secondly, Jesus would say, “I come to you in the Eucharist, and no one else has the Eucharist.” Jesus would say, “Could you not spend an hour with me?” And he would invite us, in spite of any inconvenience or disappointment, to still go to the Eucharist and to receive the body and blood of Christ and to hear the Scriptures, because he comes to us in Word and in the Eucharist.

What are your overall feelings right now?

When I came to New Orleans in 2009, I thought to myself that Archbishop Hughes had made the decision to restructure a lot of parishes after Hurricane Katrina, and I said to myself, “Thank God, I won’t have to do this.” But we’re in a position now where we do have to do it because we have some communities that are just not vibrant. Our prayer is that this restructuring will lead to parishes that are sustainable and full of vitality.