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December 17, 2020
As we reach the end of another year, it’s normal to take stock of the past twelve months. Here at our parish, a Catholic community in Penn Hills and Monroeville, we’ve had an eventful year. Perhaps we might pause in order to look back that the year that was, and look forward to the year ahead.
In January, the merger of our five predecessor parishes in Penn Hills and Monroeville into a single parish was accomplished. “Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish” came into existence early in January. Our goals were simple: to form a single Catholic community out of the various communities in our local region, and to take five communities – each of which were in operational deficit – and create a faith community that will be self-sufficient and sustainable for the future.
In order to do so, we began a program of cost reductions. We realigned our staff, and began preparations for a single office site. We evaluated our expenditures at each site, and began searching for ways to reduce expenses. By and large, we were very successful – our monthly expenses today are only 2/3 of what they were in January!
But… then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and we were faced with a new round of challenges. Parish revenues decreased dramatically: when our parish family no longer gathered each weekend for Mass, our donations plummeted.
Over the summer, we lost two of our resident priests, as Fr Al Zapf retired and Fr Faustine Furaha finished his doctoral studies and returned home.
When the initial pandemic lockdown had passed, and we were again able to plan to gather for publicly-attended Mass, we thought about how we might proceed. In the pre-COVID environment, we hosted 12 Masses each weekend at our six church sites. Each weekend, around 3000 people attended our liturgies, which represented only a small fraction of our seating capacity (3/4 of these attended Mass in Monroeville, and ¼ in Penn Hills). In the summer, since we were still in the pandemic environment, we asked you – our parish community – whether you planned to attend Mass in person once we were able to do so. As we looked at your responses, we realized that two Masses on Saturday afternoon/evening and two Masses on Sunday morning would meet the expressed need of the community. Therefore, we decided to hold one Mass on Saturday and one Mass on Sunday in Penn Hills, and the same in Monroeville. Later, when we had the opportunity to expand our schedule, we included an additional two Masses on Sunday mornings (one each in Penn Hills and in Monroeville). We’ve found that half of our Masses fill up to the limited seating that is available (about one-third to one-half of actual seating capacity), and the other half of our Masses are only partially full. As a result, it seems that we have met the needs of our parish community for in-person Mass attendance at this point. We will want to re-evaluate this approach once the pandemic has passed, both in terms of Mass attendance and the maximum number of Masses our priests can celebrate each weekend.
This past fall, we began the work of planning for the future of our parish. A number of questions face us: what will our parish community look like, after the pandemic? What needs for ministry will exist in Penn Hills and in Monroeville? What opportunities for evangelization should we be prepared to address? What are our resources, and how might we best deploy them for the good of our parish community? We formed a committee to address these questions, calling upon representatives of each of our predecessor parishes as committee members. As of mid-December, they’ve reviewed all the relevant data, and they’ve visited each of the buildings at our six parish sites. In the upcoming months, they’ll provide the results of their study to our parish councils, as well as their recommendation for our path forward.
Next year, our parish councils will respond to this information, and will provide their thoughts and recommendations to our clergy leadership team. At that point, Fr Thom and Fr Larry will prayerfully discern all the input they’ve received, and will take a number of actions. First, a “town hall” meeting will be convened. (At this point, it’s uncertain whether it will be in-person or virtual.) At this event, the information that has been gathered and the recommendations that have been suggested will be discussed, and the community will be invited to share their perspectives on the question of how we might best position our parish for ministry and evangelization in the future. Finally, we will prepare a proposal to the diocese about how best to utilize our resources for future growth and sustainability.
2020 has been a challenging year for the Catholic Community of Penn Hills and Monroeville. As we look to Christ our Divine Shepherd for inspiration and pastoral care, we continue to trust in the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in the year ahead!
