Archbishop Gregory by Padre Pedro Nuñez / Facebook
CV NEWS FEED // Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans recently offered a more detailed explanation as to the motive behind upcoming parish mergers that have become a deeply sensitive issue among parishioners in the Archdiocese.
In a June 18 interview conducted by Clarion Herald, the official Archdiocesan newspaper, Archbishop Aymond stated that while money issues played a significant role in the decision to restructure, the move was not motivated by finance alone.
“I accept everyone’s hurt feelings with compassion,” the Archbishop said. “I understand them.”
For his part, Archbishop Aymond noted that he had to make the decision to merge his own parish, St James Major in Gentilly, where he received the Sacraments and celebrated his first Mass. However, he continued, in addition to financial issues, such as rising costs of insurance rates for buildings and medical care, the necessity of a merger was largely due to “parish vitality.”
Archbishop Aymond explained that factors such as attendance rates, the number of baptisms and confirmations, and how many people are involved in religious education helped determine his decision regarding which parishes would benefit from merging.
He told the Archdiocesan publication:
Many people think it’s a financial thing. It’s really not just financial. It’s the number of people who come to Mass. It’s the number of people who are in religious education. It’s the number of confirmations. I go to do confirmation in a parish sometimes and there are only three or four people to be confirmed. That’s not vibrancy.
The Archbishop noted that he planned to install each of the new pastors and visit merging parishes to help ensure a smooth transition.
Above all, Archbishop Aymond stressed that parishioners must continue to attend Mass. “God would ask us to give it a chance and to try to adjust to these realities of our times,” he said, concluding:
When I came to New Orleans in 2009, I thought to myself that Archbishop Hughes had made the decision to restructure a lot of parishes after Hurricane Katrina, and I said to myself, “Thank God, I won’t have to do this.” But we’re in a position now where we do have to do it because we have some communities that are just not vibrant. Our prayer is that this restructuring will lead to parishes that are sustainable and full of vitality.
