St. Regis Catholic Parish - Bloomfield Hills issued the following announcement on Oct. 16.

* Family of Parishes (conclusion)  

Due to significantly fewer priests available for parish ministry, the number of parishes that are struggling to survive in the midst of the pandemic, and a firm belief that the Spirit of God is calling the Catholic Church of the Archdiocese to be creative in restructuring parish ministry, Archbishop Vigneron has announced that all parishes of the Archdiocese of Detroit will be transitioning to a model called “Family of Parishes” over the next two years. We will find out who is in our family at the end of November. We will then begin to plan together just what our particular family will look like in terms of the number of pastors, priests, and deacons; which ministries and outreaches we can bring together among all the parishes and how would we staff them; what is unique to each parish and how that can be maintained and even strengthened by being in a family with other nearby parishes; where our Mass schedules can be better coordinated both on weekdays and weekends; and much more. Below I touch on each of those issues briefly to give a sense of how a family of parishes might change us but also help us.  

Pastors, priests and deacons assigned to the family. Families will begin with all the pastors, priests and deacons currently assigned as part of the family. When an assignment runs its course, someone retires or chooses to move on, whether a particular opening will be filled will depend on decisions the family makes in terms of its structure. The understanding is that each family over the course of the next few years will have to make do with at least one and maybe two fewer priests. That would mean for us (if we are a family of four parishes, which is very likely) that all four pastors and any deacons in the four parishes would be assigned to the family. I would remain the pastor of St. Regis, but I also would be given an additional assignment to help pastor the other three parishes. The same would be true of the other three pastors. One of us would be named as the “Moderator” of the family and responsible for leading the parishes to as much sharing of life and ministry as possible,while maintaining our independence as different parishes. As the family evolves and pastors retire or move on, the family would end up either with two or three pastor/priests sharing the pastoral responsibility for all four parishes (with one as the Moderator or lead pastor), or with one priest as the sole pastor and two other priests as associate pastors. Yes, it will be a big transition for priests to think in terms not just of their one parish but in terms of all the parishes in the family, even if they are specially connected to one.

Bringing ministries and outreaches together and preserving what is unique and strong in each parish. Families will have to look at ministries and outreaches that can be strengthened by bringing them together. For example, would faith formation for children be strengthened if all four parishes coordinated that ministry together? Would we have a better youth ministry if it were shared by and supported by all the parishes in the family? Would schools be strengthened in any way by having schools more aligned? How could being in a family take our strengths—for example the yearly Christian Service outreach to South Oakland Shelter or the Worship ministry of Adoration—and help us do these even more robustly by opening them to the whole family? Nothing will be predetermined. These are the kinds of questions that will need to be addressed as we move toward a family model. Because the goal is not to merge parishes but to maintain the independence of all the parishes, parishes will not be combining finances. St. Regis will be responsible for its own legacy, its own bank accounts, raising sufficient funds and maintaining all the campus buildings. In areas where we share a common ministry or shared staff person, those costs would be borne in an equitable manner by all the parishes in the family.  

What about Mass schedules? The family model would encourage parishes to spread Masses out over all the parishes in a way that maximizes opportunities to participate but which reduces the overall number of Masses (because of the lack of availability of priests in the future). This will be a challenging issue, I am sure, given how parishes have certain long-standing Mass times and people become committed to a particular time and place. How we get to that point remains to be seen. Under the family model the priests will help at all the families of parishes, so people at each parish will become familiar with all the priests in the family. This could eventually encourage people to see all the Masses in the family as options for them, although people would still be registered with one parish and their donations would go back always to that parish, no matter which Mass one attended.   There is a lot to think about. I will leave it at that for now since so much is still speculative and will update you as more concrete information becomes available.   

Original source can be found here.