Father Tony Wroblewski, pastor of the Brainerd Area Catholic Churches, took time Friday to explain the new proposed layout plan for Brainerd lakes area churches that was handed down by the Duluth Diocese. The diocese laid out its plan for its groups of parishes inside the Duluth Diocese (deaneries) at a news conference on Thursday in Duluth hosted by Bishop Paul D. Sirba.
“In every single diocese, demographic challenges play a role in our communities,” said Wroblewski. “And with that, the number of priests available to minister has been changing, so the diocese began the discussion of how to solve this problem and how to have a better distribution of clergy throughout the diocese and deanery in order to have a vibrant Catholic community.”
The plan, set to take effect as early as this summer and become implemented at Bishop Sirba’s discretion, places 19 churches into eight separate clusters. Each cluster will still maintain its own worship sites but will share one pastor and clergy.
“Having these clusters will help divide up the responsibilities and allow us to work with the parishes more effectively,” Wroblewski said. “It’s really going to set up a much better situation in an area that has been seeing growth and is going to continue to see growth. Now more direct contact with their pastor will be possible, something both the parishioners and myself have expressed an interest in having once again.”
While most churches survived the clustering, three sites will be closed, merging into surrounding parishes. St. Joseph in Deerwood will merge into St. Joseph in Crosby, Holy Family in Hillman will merge into Our Lady of Fatima in Garrison and Our Lady of Fatima in McGrath will merge into Holy Family in McGregor. The clusters proposed will layout as the following:
Cluster 1: St .Francis/Brainerd, All Saints/Baxter and St. Thomas/Pine Beach
Cluster 2: St. Joseph/Crosby and Our Lady of Fatima/Garrison
Cluster 3: Immaculate Heart/Crosslake and St. Emily/Emily
Cluster 4: St. Agnes/Walker and Sacred Heart/Hackensack
Cluster 5: St. Christopher/Nisswa, St. Alice/Pequot Lakes and Our Lady of Lourdes/Pine River
Cluster 6: Holy Family/McGregor and St. James/Aitkin
Cluster 7: St. Edward/Longville and St.Paul/Remer
Cluster 8: St Andrew/Brainerd and St.Mathias/Ft.Ripley
Set to unfold and become implemented over the course of the next five years, Wroblewski said the new clusters don’t place hard boundaries on people’s associations with the churches in their area.
“There has been a lot of sharing that’s taken place within churches here in Brainerd and Baxter,” said Wroblewski. “People have gotten to know each other over the last few years when we (St. Andrew, St. Mathias and St. Francis) started working together and people don’t want to see those walls go up between the churches despite the new clusters. We will continue to help and work with one another in areas where we can across cluster boundaries and I don’t anticipate to see any of those relationships between the churches to disappear.”
Comments (14)
Add commentI do understand the need for
I do understand the need for this to happen, but I am deeply saddened by what will happen to the churches that are left empty after the merges. The demolition of the church in Crosslake was a travesty. It appeared to be in good shape structurally, but was bulldozed down. The new church there has absolutely no "feeling" of it being a church. If Crosby merges with Deerwood and they build new, will this happen to those churches also? I realize the Crosby church is old, but Deerwood was also built at the same time as Crosslake and still appears to be structurally sound. You know funds will be needed so doing away with these for financial gain will be the answer. Again, it makes me sick and very sad.
Editor:
Editor: I think that there's a typo here: would the Diocese really expect the Longville congregation (SW of Remer) to partner with St Mathias? Must be nearly 100 miles apart! And why are St Andy's in Brainerd and Remer immune?
If you look at the map-
St Andrews and St Mathias are cluster 8, which isn't listed in the article. Longville is paired with St. Paul in Remer.
Correction Made
We apologize for any confusion, corrections to Cluster 7 have been made (should read as Longville and St. Paul/Remer) and Cluster 8 (should read as St. Andrews/Brainerd and St. Mathias/Ft. Ripley) has now been added.
We at the Dispatch regret the error and appreciate the feedback to help in the corrections!
too many empty churches
Where are the youth?
Yes. Its spelled Remer.
And I felt bad about picking on the new writer.
I also had some comments about Crosby and Deerwood churches in mind; it will be hard there because there has always been resistance to merging those churches. The Deerwood church has been quietly raising and saving money to add on to their sanctuary, and recently learned that the Diocese won't permit it. I'm sure that made some people unhappy.
The Catholic church is steeped (or trapped?) in tradition and dogma; most protestant churches enjoy at least a certain degree of autonomy with local houses of worship owned corporately by their congregations. It must be hard for some Catholics to look upon that degree of freedom and not be a little jealous. And it must be likewise difficult for their diocese' to manage, knowing they are required to be at least somewhat dictatorial.
If I understand the problem (and I may not, exhaustively) it isn't that most of these congregations are becoming too cash-strapped to afford to keep going; its that Catholic tradition of celibate priesthood is becoming unpopular with young men looking towards a career in service. That's too bad; it seems to me creating a new layer of leadership that could be staffed by a wider array of people (including women and married people) would actually strengthen the church. Protestants often encourage lay leaders to perform some functions in areas that can't support a full-time pastorate.
There's no reason it couldn't work for Catholics that don't desire to uproot...it might even mean keeping some families within the tradition.
Shortage of Priests
Exactly eyolf! "That's too bad; it seems to me creating a new layer of leadership that could be staffed by a wider array of people (including women and married people) would actually strengthen the church."
The decline of Catholic priests will continue. The church needs to figure out how they are going to manage this.
maybe they should
utilize more deacons who are allowed to be married.
strategic planning meetings
'Under the assumption that the final outcome of the strategic planning - was done as a worse case scenario only - have we already reached a worse case scenario within our cluster?
trapped in my Catholic Faith
eyolf, yes, I suppose that Catholics could eliminate the problems of being Catholic, by stopping being Catholic, I supposed they could throw out their beliefs and become protestant and then there would be no problems, because as
we all know there are no problems in the protestant church.
Catholics live by a faith, part of that faith is living according to certain rules and tradition, believe it or not, there is a reason that priests don't marry, and why women are not priests. Women, and married clergy have their own responsibilities in the Catholic church.
The Church, does not, and can not bend to become more popular, the Church is not a 13 year old girl trying to fit into the in crowd. If there are Catholics that do not believe in the Catholic religion, of course they are always free to leave and follow another religion.
To say the Catholic church could have more priests by eliminating the requirements to become a priest is like saying we could have more doctors by saying you only need a HS diploma to become a doctor. Yes you would have more doctors but you would take away what it means to be a doctor.
edison
Good post. What it comes down to is that other churches have thrown God out in favor of bigger congregations, and of course more money, by not only bending, but completely breaking away from Christian values so as to allow women and gays into the church hierarchy.
pdnet: God didn't forbid
women and gays from becoming part of the church hierarchy, did He/She?
Edison
I didn't suggest that Women, and married people replace a time-honored tradition, but in the same way that many protestant denomonations cultivate lay leadership to perform some of the basic nuts and bolts of church business, I would suggest that the Catholic church could do the same. Most protestants require an ordained minister adminster the sacraments, but lay leaders can, and do perform many other things including teach and preach. To my knowledge, the Catholic heirachy has resisted this path for a long time.
As regards traditions, if you are a Catholic you will already know that Catholicism already has many flavors with subtle and not-so-subtle differences in different parts of the world, and that Catholic dogmas are changing.
My Grandmother was born Catholic and married a Baptist; both were excommunicated from their respective churches, which suited my grandma fine after her older sister gave birth to a priest's baby. Things would be handled differently here today...but they might not be in central Europe or Africa!
Catholics in N. America and Western Europe consider the veneration of Mother Mary in Latin America to border on cult-like behaviour, but some apologists consider it more like the modern day answer to early Christianity's appropriation of various pagan celebrations as Christian holy days...Mary seems more appropriately "nurturing" to people who may only be a few generations removed from naturalistic religions.
Even today, Many Catholics pay lip service to abstinence as a form of birth control, but privately many also will admit using a variety of methods in a time when large families are falling out of favor.
So, which set of "rules" are the right ones?
Cluster 2....
As long as you're making corrections, please check cluster 2. Thanks.