A National Study of Recent Diocesan Efforts at Parish Reorganization in the United States

In 1995, the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development (CPPCD) completed the first ever study of diocesan efforts at parish restructuring. In part as a result of the awareness this project created, and in part due to the enormous importance diocesan bishops have come to place on the issues, diocesan and parish restructuring have become particularly vital areas of Church concern, as Catholic parishes and the needs of the Catholic population for effective evangelization and pastoral ministry become all the more complex in a time of fewer priests.Pathways for the Church of the 21st Century, CPPCD's 2003 follow-up study, surveyed the dioceses and parishes that participated in the 1995 study to measure the extent of parish reorganization between 1995 and 2000. The study identifies a wide range of impacts associated with parishes that had been reorganized through linking for pastoral action, sharing a pastor or merging parishes. The study's findings, including recommendations for diocesan and parish reorganization efforts, are found in the report, Pathways for the Church of the 21st Century. All diocesan bishops and lead members of CPPCD will receive a copy. Highlights of the study and a report table of contents are available for downloading at no charge. To order a copy, click here.

CPPCD extends its thanks to Project Director Jeff Rexhausen, of CPPCD's Catholic Research Forum committee, and to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown, who conducted the initial parish and diocesan surveys. We are also grateful to the CPPCD members who conducted the in-depth interviews, and for the CARA staff and CPPCD members who provided analysis. Special thanks goes to the Raskob Foundation for their financial support of the study and to the Kucera Center of Loras College for publication.