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June 9, 2021
Over the past three weeks, we’ve reviewed the information that was presented to you at our Parish Assemblies in May. We reviewed your comments in our Spring Survey, we discussed the results of the analysis of our parish Task Force, we reported the recommendation of our parish councils, and we presented the tentative recommendation that Fr Thom and Fr Larry will make to the bishop. Based on all of this information, the recommendation will be to retain one site in Monroeville (St Bernadette) and one site in Penn Hills (St Susanna). If you’d like to watch the Parish Assembly presentation in its entirety, it’s available for viewing at our website (www.cdsmph.org/assembly). This week, we’d like to share the questions you asked us, either at the assemblies or online.
We began the Q&A session by asking you four questions:
- Given what you’ve heard in the parish assembly presentation, what is your understanding of the sustainability of Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish?
- Do you understand that our annual offertory income cannot support the operations and maintenance costs of all of our current sites?
- How well do you understand the process of analysis and discernment that was followed by our Task Force, our parish councils, and our priest team?
- How well do you understand the urgency of implementing this recommendation?
The first question – regarding sustainability – is identical to the question we asked in the parish survey this spring. We asked it again for two reasons: to give those who hadn’t responded to the survey an opportunity to respond, and to see whether there was any difference in the answer after the assembly presentation. In March, in our survey, almost 75% of you said that “immediate action is necessary to create a sustainable future” and 25% answered that they were not sure. This time, 93% answered “immediate action is necessary” and 7% answered “unsure.” It seems that our situation is becoming more clear in the minds of our parish family.
The second question addressed data that we have presented to you over the past two years: each week, we receive less income (in donations, etc) than we spend on normal expenses (utilities, taxes, salaries, etc). In response to this question, 92% of you said that you completely understand that we’ve been unable to meet our expenses over the past decade; 8% of you said that you somewhat understand that this is the case. Overwhelmingly, our parish family understands the scope of the challenges that we face.
In our third question, we asked if you understood the process that we followed in order to reach a decision. 73% of you responded that you completely understand the process, 25% said that you somewhat understand the process, and 2% responded that you do not understand the process. Our bulletin columns over the past two weeks have described the entirety of the process that was followed and the considerations that were part of our discernment. No other considerations were part of our decision.
Our final question asked if you understood the urgency of implementing our decision. This ties into the question of our finances and our annual deficit. Each week, our expenses are approximately $9,000 greater than our donations received. To make up that difference (and pay our bills), we have to use money in our checking account and/or savings accounts in order to break even. Given the amount of money we have in these accounts, we can continue to pay our bills out of checking/savings for three or four years; at the end of that time, we’ll have run out of funds. As a parish, we need to complete the closure and sale of some parish buildings – in order to reduce our annual deficit – within four years, or else we run the risk of becoming unable to continue to provide ministry in Penn Hills and Monroeville. 93% of you said that you completely understand this dynamic; 7% of you responded that you understand it somewhat.
We also asked you to write down any specific questions that you had; we answered these in the assembly, and also collected additional questions online. The questions tended to group into five general areas. Here’s what you asked:
- The most frequently-asked questions had to do with the use of the proceeds of the sales of any buildings. These buildings belong to the parish and therefore, all proceeds of building sales stay with the parish. In addition to our existing annual deficit (currently around $330,000/year), the parish also has $1.2 million in debt. We intend to use the proceeds of all sales to pay down our debt and to help create a stable financial situation for our parish.
- A number of questions dealt with the process we followed. Our discernment took into account the findings of the task force, the recommendations of our parish councils, and the decision of Fr Thom and Fr Larry to honor these sources of information. The following were NOT part of our decision-making process: how easy it might be to sell a property, what value a sale would bring the parish, or the decisions about Mass schedules made during the pandemic.
- Some people asked about the timeframe of our process: in June, we will submit our proposal to Bishop Zubik, who will then consult with his diocesan priest council. He will pray over the question and then announce his decision. We expect that this might occur sometime this summer. Once the decree has been finalized, we will plan events at each of the churches that will close in order to allow us to celebrate the communities who made up our legacy parishes. When the buildings have been closed, we intend to start working to place the closed buildings on the market. In order to prevent the parish from going bankrupt, we hope to complete all sales within the next three to four years.
- Some have asked what will happen to the items inside the churches (statues, Stations of the Cross, etc). Our intent is to place some of the interior furnishings of buildings that close into the churches that remain open. No sacred or religious items will be placed for public sale, but will remain the property of the Church.
- A number of people were concerned that we will have insufficient capacity with only two church buildings in use. Part of our discernment process was a requirement to retain sufficient seating (without packing the churches full to capacity) in order to exceed the pre-COVID numbers of attendees at our Masses. A weekend schedule of six Masses at two church buildings, each filled to 80% capacity, will hold 10-33% more people at Mass than our attendance levels in 2018.
We’ll keep you up to date as the process moves forward. Please continue to keep Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish and our parish family in your prayers!
