News & Events

New Brunswick parishes begin phase two of renewing process

February 01, 2012

The Renewing the Church process in New Brunswick began its second phase with the first of two open meetings held Jan. 26 in the former St. Peter the Apostle High School. The bilingual meeting was facilitated by Jeffry Odell Korgen, executive director, Department of Diocesan Planning with Redemptorist Father Ronald E. Bonneau, co-director of the diocesan Office for Hispanic Ministry, serving as translator.

“I’m here because your bishop [Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski] is asking for your help,” Korgen said. He told the attendees the parishes in New Brunswick: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sacred Heart, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Ladislaus, St. Mary of Mount Virgin and St. Peter the Apostle, face many challenges.

These challenges, Korgen said, include priest shortages, the movement of peoples, the departure of ethnic groups for which parishes were established years ago, and new arrivals who, in some places in the diocese, are not served at all. He noted, too, that in many parts of the diocese Mass attendance is down, and in other places people cannot go to Mass in their native language.

“And most every parish in New Brunswick is facing severe financial challenges,” Korgen added.

He went on to explain how Bishop Bootkoski is committed to a Catholic principle called subsidiary, which means that the people closest to a situation should be involved and at the table when decisions are made. The table, Korgen said, is Renewing the Church in New Brunswick. Continuing, he told the attendees that the process would involve each parish’s deanery council, which is composed of two lay people and their pastor, meeting throughout the coming year.

The monthly meetings, which will be held from March to December, with the exception of July, will cover a wide range of topics from demographics to pastoral priorities and ministries to a review of facilities and finance reports.

By September, the group will have initial proposals for the new structure, feedback sought from parishioners, revisions made to proposed structure and, finally, one new structure for the Church in New Brunswick will be decided upon and presented to Bishop Bootkoski.

“This is a group that is going to try and come up with a structure everyone can celebrate and short of that, that everyone can live with,” Korgen said. He added that each of the proposals will be posted on the Internet.

“Bishop Paul has asked that there be three to four parishes in New Brunswick, but he has not required that any church buildings close,” Korgen said. He added that church buildings could remain open as worship sites of merged parishes, which has been done in other Renewing the Church processes completed in the diocese.

Korgen noted that an additional task of the deanery councils will be to decide if St. Peter the Apostle Church should become a university parish. Current parishioners would remain part of the parish, but a new ministry would be added.

“There has been a lot of sharing between St. Peter’s and campus ministry, but they are two separate entities right now,” Korgen said.

Anticipating concerns about losing pastors and priests, Korgen told attendees that currently there are about 130 priests in the diocese, but in 28 years from now, it is projected the diocese will have only 57 priests. “Bishop Bootkoski’s Future Staffing Plan includes increasing vocations to the priesthood, multiple parish pastoring, adding international priests and the Renewing the Church restructuring processes,” Korgen said.

He added that the New Brunswick deanery councils will also address ways to build on collaborations already established with Saint Peter’s University Hospital, Catholic Charities and campus ministry at Rutgers University.

Once the bishop has accepted the proposal for the Church in New Brunswick, a parishes’ provisional pastoral council will be established to work on the details of the restructuring, Korgen said. He added that the restructuring process will be completed by June 30, 2013.

After Korgen’s presentation, several questions were raised. One participant asked where the sacraments would be given. Another questioned when and where Masses would be offered. Korgen told them those questions would be the decision of the parishes and the community, not the diocese.

“Will Catholic schools in New Brunswick be resurrected?” one parishioner asked.

“I have heard much from my work in New Brunswick of the passion to have a school back…there is a void,” Korgen said, adding it will be up to the deanery council of the restructured Church in New Brunswick to address the need for a school.

As a sign of his commitment to Catholic education in New Brunswick, Bishop Bootkoski for the first time has asked Ellen Ayoub, Superintendent of Schools to attend all Renewing meetings and work with the deanery council on the school issue.

Irina Colon, who travels from Ocean County to worship at her parish, St. John the Baptist, said she when she arrived for the meeting she was concerned that decisions would be made from the top down. She left “very encouraged” that the people in the parishes would be involved in the renewing process.

Anne Gutsick, a parishioner of St. Peter the Apostle, said the presentation “gave clear, pertinent information and helped allay some fears about parishes closing.”

Another St. Peter’s parishioner, Marion Egan, said the most important thing she heard was, “This is about us, and not us and them. We have to look at ourselves as the Church of New Brunswick.”

Attendees at the meeting ranged from 87-year-old Elizabeth Czehi, a lifelong member of St. Ladislaus Parish to Jesus Macedo, who has been a communicant at St. Joseph Parish for only four years.

By Joanne Ward, Associate Publisher at The Catholic Spirit
February 2, 2012