Episcopal Press and News
Canadian Archdiocese to Close Half its Parishes
Episcopal News Service. December 21, 1998 [98-2279G]
(ENI) The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, which has about 300, 000 members and is one of the Canadian church's biggest geographical area, is planning to close almost half its parishes due to a shortage of priests.
John Acheson, author of the110-page diocesan report, "Faithful Into the Future: A Pastoral Plan for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton" said, "I think that this is a phenomenon that is hitting every diocese in North America and in Western Europe." But he insisted in an interview with ENI that the church was not in a crisis, and that the lack of priests gave lay people an opportunity to get involved in church life.
The report, which took Acheson and a committee 18 months to prepare, was made public on November 17. "The plan is to move ahead with the recommendations," he said.
The archdiocese has 79 priests serving 166 parishes. In many of the parishes mass is said only once a month or so. The report calls for consolidation of 78 parishes. Nine have already been closed.
Acheson told ENI that every parish in the diocese would feel the effects in one way or another. But he added, "No one will have to travel more than 30 minutes to go to mass on the weekend. We have only 42 of what we call diocesan priests, the other 37 are members of religious orders."
"At the same time," Acheson continued, "this is not to be seen as a crisis for us. I think that society is changing, so our church has to change. We had a real kick-start in our change in the early 1960s with our Vatican II Council. A lot of those changes are just now being implemented."