Changes in store for Catholic churches

The answer was no.

After months and months of collaborating, planning, meeting and devising a possible solution to continue celebrating Mass at eight area Catholic parishes, the local Pastoral Planning Committee was told their changes were "inadequate."

Father John Norman, current pastor of six parishes, soon to be eight; told attendees at a town hall meeting in Ewing, Saturday evening, that Fr. Scott Hastings, vicar for clergy and judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of Omaha, said no to a proposal put forth by committee members representing the Catholic churches in Ewing, Clearwater, rural Deloit, Elgin, Raeville, Petersburg, Neligh and Tilden.

Committee members, including Ann Kurpgeweit, rural Deloit; Deb Schlecht, Clearwater; Amy Baker, Neligh; Becky Kerkman, Elgin; Walt Patras, Tilden; Denis Bergstrom, Ewing; Clarissa Stuhr, Raeville; Clyde Stuhr, Petersburg and clergy members Deacon John Starman, Fr. Patrick Nields, Fr. Joseph Sund and Norman, began meeting in April to develop a workable plan to continue weekend Masses at all eight locations, utilizing parameters developed by the archdiocese.

Norman met with Hastings and Phil Lasala, director of pastoral planning, Tuesday, Oct. 4 and presented the committee's plan to have Mass celebrated three times, each weekend, at alternating locations.

The proposal Norman and the committee suggested included celebrating Mass at Tilden every Saturday evening, Neligh, Elgin and Clearwater every Sunday, Petersburg and Deloit every second and fourth weekend and Ewing and Raeville every first, third and fifth weekend.

"We were told that type of change was not considered to be radical enough," said Norman.

Instead, Hastings provided redirection of the local's proposal saying there would be two acceptable options for rural Catholics in the nearly 1,400-square mile area. Options relayed by Hastings, according to Norman, were to either close two of the eight churches or combine the eight into two new parishes.

Option 1 - Two Parishes Cease Sunday Mass

According to Norman, Hastings said in order to have six places where Mass on the weekend was celebrated means two parishes must cease Sunday Mass. Norman told those in attendance, the "two parishes would likely become fiscally nonviable and would eventually close."

Decisions as to which two churches would be closed would be made by the Pastoral Planning Committee representing the eight parishes.

Closed parishes' assets would be liquidated or transferred to a receiving parish.

Responsibility for care of the closed parish cemeteries would be transferred to a receiving parish.

Endowments and funds of closed facilities would be evaluated to reflect the donor's intentions.

Six corporations would be formed representing the six remaining parishes.

Closure plans must include discussion of demolition of sacred spaces and, in most cases, the actual church must be destroyed.

Option 2-Adopt Radical

Reorganization

Norman told the Saturday evening crowd gathered in St. Dominic's Hall, the second option involved "adopting radical reorganization through canonical mergers."

He explained this option would involve merging the eight churches into two, newly-formed parishes.

Churches located along Highway 275, including St. Peter's in Ewing, St. Theresa's in Clearwater, St. Francis in Neligh, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Tilden and St. Johns in rural Deloit, would become a new, single parish, combining all assets and liabilities while parishes located along Highway 14 - St. Boniface in Elgin, St. Bonaventure in Raeville and St. John the Baptist in Petersburg - would unite to form a second parish.

Administration of all parishes would be streamlined within one office.

Two corporations would be formed representing the two newly-named parishes.

The pastor and assistant pastor of the two parishes would be housed in the current rectory in Petersburg.

The two parishes would each have a family finance council consisting of two members from the original parishes.

The council would guide the pastor in the overall financial management of the family of parishes.

Mergers must be completed by July 1, 2024.

The local committee will meet later this month to chose an option and will present the decision to Omaha by Nov. 15.

How did we get here?

In 2019, the Archdiocese of Omaha, overseer of 84 parishes in Boyd, Holt, Wheeler, Greeley, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Boone, Antelope, Knox, Pierce, Madison, Platte, Colfax, Stanton, Wayne, Cedar, Dixon, Dakota, Thurston, Cuming, Dodge, Burt, Washington, Douglas and Sarpy counties and portions of Hall County, formulated a pastoral planning initiative called Journey of Faith. The initiative is a plan to address the shortage of  priests, decreasing Mass attendance, declining numbers of active Catholic parishioners, a population shift from rural Nebraska to urban areas and growth of multi-cultural communities.

As part of the process, the Omaha Archdiocese reorganized all rural Nebraska parishes in the archdiocese into 12 groups or families. Urban parishes have been divided into 22 families.

Family K includes St. Boniface in Elgin, St. Bonaventure in Raeville, St. John the Baptist in Petersburg, St. Peter de Alcántara in Ewing, St. John the Baptist of rural Deloit, St. Francis of Assisi in Neligh, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tilden and St. Theresa Mission in Clearwater.

Three priests currently serve the family of local churches including Nields, Sund and Norman. By 2023, that number will be reduced to two.

Expected Priest Availability

According to the Archdiocese of Omaha, by 2023, 27 archdiocesan priests will be available for assignment in the rural area with 54 available in urban sites.

Pastoral Planning Parameters

Each priest in a parish or family may celebrate up to four Sunday obligation Masses at up to two locations per weekend or three Masses at three locations.

People should generally not have to travel more than 20 miles to attend Mass.

Priests in rural areas will be assigned in groups of two.

In a family of parishes with two priests, up to four Masses may be scheduled per day.