November 30, 2007

Operating under projections that show there will be 114 priests available for duty in parish ministry come June 2009, the Diocese of Allentown is planning the allocation of those priests across its six deaneries. The future allocation of priests is an important factor that the Diocese's 33 deanery region committees will use in considering parish restructurings or consolidations and mergers.

According to a detailed chart published in the current issue of the Diocesan newspaper The AD Times, it is projected there will be thirteen fewer priests available for parish ministry in 2009 than there are presently. This decline is due to projected retirements, deaths and a smaller number of future ordinations to the priesthood.

The goal of the allocation process is to assign priests to a deanery in numbers that would bring the percentage of priests assigned to parish ministry in each deanery closer to the percentage of Catholic population in each deanery.

The criteria for parish restructuring, approved by the Diocesan Pastoral Council in September said, "The desired proportion of priests to people is 1 to 2,400." By 2009, using current projections, the diocesan ration of priests to people will be 1 to 2,382. The ratio in each individual deanery varies. In some deaneries, because of geographic considerations the priest-to-people ratio will be smaller.

The Very Reverend David L. James, V.E., Vicar of Synod Implementation for the Diocese said with the 2009 allocation "We're getting close to parity between the distribution of priests in each deanery and the distribution of Catholics in each deanery. This allocation more closely reflects the distribution of the Catholic population across the Diocese."

According to the chart in June 2009 27 priests will be assigned to parish ministry in Berks County, two more than are currently assigned there. In Carbon County in 2009 nine priests will be assigned to parish ministry, two less than currently. In Lehigh County there will be 29 priests assigned to parish ministry in 2009, down two priests from this year. In Northampton County there will be 27 priests assigned to parish ministry in 2009, one less priest than this year. In both the North Schuylkill and South Schuylkill Deaneries eleven priests will be assigned to parish ministry; 15-and-a-half priests are assigned to parishes in each deanery now. The "half priest" is actually a priest who currently pastors two parishes, one in each deanery. This will result in a reduction of four-and-a-half priests in each of the Schuylkill County deaneries.

The allocation of priests was developed by the Diocese's 12-member Priest Personnel Board and reviewed by the Diocesan Pastoral Council.

Another important criterion calls for each pastor to be assigned to only one parish. Currently there are 34 pastors caring for two or more parishes. Applying the criteria of one-pastor-to-one parish to the projected number of priests that will be available for parish ministry will be the primary factor in the merger and consolidation of a significant number of parishes across the Diocese.

Copyright 2003 The Catholic Diocese of Allentown
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