The Chicago Model

In 2016, the archdiocese of Chicago began to implement a diocesan plan known as “Renew My Church.”

The plan involved the closure of many struggling parishes and clustering of many others into pastorate groups. In some cases, the merged parishes would be renamed and given a new identity unconnected to either of them.

At the same time, parish cultures would be revamped with new structures of team-based leadership and new objectives, some with the use of parish modelling programs (we’ll discuss those in a future post).

The objectives were for the sake of “building a new reality” for the Church. There was a focus on an outward-looking missionary attitude, “moving from maintenance to mission.” People were told that they would begin living their Faith according to “new ways.”

A cultural shift or new paradigm was required, and goals were structured around the “7 signs of parish vitality” written by Cardinal Blase Cupich.

As this plan, Renew My Church, enters its fourth year, numbers continue to trend downward in the archdiocese of Chicago in terms of baptisms, weddings, funerals, Catholic school enrollment, male & female religious, priestly ordinations to the archdiocese (14 in 2015, 8 in 2019) and so on. A full report by the archdiocese may be viewed here.

It might fairly be argued that sufficient time has not passed for the possible good effects of the plan to be felt. This is almost certainly true in the case of vocational formation and ordinations which require many years. However, it is also true that the bad effects were felt immediately.

And it is also possible, even likely, that the hoped-for renewal will not occur at all, and that the heartbreak of people disenfranchised from their faith by the effective dissolution of their communities will have been, in the end, for nothing.

We run into similar problems when looking at other dioceses who developed a plan using, as Lafayette did, the Partner’s Edge group. The dioceses of Hartford, Baltimore, and others aimed at sweeping change, essentially using a corporate downsizing strategy, and as yet the jury is out on whether any of the measures helped–or ever will help.

The spirit and objectives of Uniting in Heart seem now to echo in many ways the Renew My Church plan of Chicago, as if our diocesan plan was adapted to resemble it. Numerous areas of overlap are evident in the UiH 2030 plan, and UiH 2030 specifically includes Cardinal Cupich’s “7 signs of parish vitality.” Our leadership has apparently taken some cues here and joined the gamble.

None of this is to say, by the way, that the problems of dwindling Church membership, lessening numbers of vocations or the like are not serious problems that need to be addressed, both in our diocese and others. It is not to say that church closures may not sometimes be necessary or that renewed focus on evangelization isn’t vital. But we are adopting an admittedly radical and deliberately disruptive approach that has not been proven to grow the Church.

There are in fact dioceses which are beating the odds and are experiencing growth, greater liturgical and sacramental participation, greater numbers of vocations and so on, and are doing so by other methods. There are dioceses that have doubled the Catholic population since the 50s. There are dioceses which have not had to resort to church closings because their vocations to the priesthood have been steady since the 1960s. There are dioceses that are opening new parishes, and who have more parishes today than they had in the mid-70s. Is there anything we can learn from them to promote organic growth and sustainability?

Forcible change to the spiritual life of a community is a cultural revolution, and revolution comes with a price. Do sudden mandated radical shifts promote faith in God and the Church, inspiring confidence and greater evangelical fervor, or might they just as easily go the opposite way, breaking down the remaining communities of the Faithful? If one relates to the Church less as his spiritual home because his community has been culturally or physically disassembled on purpose, is he more or less likely to bring other people into it?

Gallup has charted the decline in the practice of the Faith in the U.S.. No doubt many factors impact such trends but it is noticeable that heavy drops in the involvement of Catholic laity correspond with periods of drastic cultural change in the Church and with times (notably spikes in the abuse crisis) when the Faithful became aware of the distance, spiritually and practically, between themselves and their leaders. Having fallen during these periods, these numbers have not recovered and have not trended upward again in Catholic America as a whole.

The damage, in other words, appears to have been permanent, so far as the current data can show.

This is why a scornful and dismissive attitude toward the Faithful in our diocese only furthers our concern.

It would seem that these are conversations that need to happen within our diocese if we are to truly build a place where faith can grow and spread.

Our next posts will focus on parish models.

For our diocese:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.