After the final plan is announced in June 2024, no changes will be immediate. They will take place with consultation and over time. The implementation timeline will take the needs of each parish community into consideration. As we would expect, this will involve making appropriate decisions on pastoral leadership, staffing, and resources allocations for ministry and facilities. Thus, timelines may differ by parish and region but all churches will be available for sacramental needs such as weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Of course it will help! These public sessions will provide important information that the Archbishop, archdiocesan councils, and consultors will want to consider as they further discern and move toward a final decision. No decisions have been made.

A lot of time and effort has been put into this process thus far. Further, our archdiocese decided to approach this important work in a manner that ensured openness, transparency, and full collaboration with pastoral leaders and parishioners. While we can’t say all the recommendations offered will ultimately be accepted, the hallmark of this initiative continues to be that the Archbishop’s insists that we do this together.

If we consider the challenges the Catholic Church of Baltimore City face today with deferred maintenance, low Mass attendance, and multiple unmet opportunities to better serve the needs of the boarder community, we could not consider ourselves to be good stewards if we did not take bold steps to ensure a brighter future, not just for tomorrow, but for years to come. This requires us to carefully take stock of, and realign, our human and material resource so that we have revitalized parishes and ministries actively bringing Christ’s healing presence to those in need.

I certainly understand why you might feel that way as we consider the merging and closing of city parishes. However, we have known for a long time that we could not continue to ignore the decline in Mass attendance and increased resources required to keep our physical plants in good condition. To achieve the church we envision, one where parishioners are welcomed, engaged, and constantly growing in faith; and one strengthened by our varied ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds, we must realign and consolidate our efforts and resources. Our failure to do so would be shortsighted and render us to be poor stewards of the time, talent and material gifts with which God has blessed us.

Decisions on the disposition of any of the parishes that serve Baltimore City can only be considered and made after the Archbishop accepts/approves the preferred recommendations for how we will ensure a sustainable and thriving Church, The Archbishop’s decision will include locations where we are called to worship and where ministries will be most impactful. After decisions are made and the implementation phase begins all Churches will be available for sacraments that include baptisms, weddings and funerals.

We are blessed to enjoy rich diversity as an archdiocese and nowhere is it more evident than among our parishes in Baltimore City and the surrounding areas. Throughout the listening, visioning, discernment, and modeling process the needs of Black (Hispanic/Ethnic) parishes has remain prominent. Our reimagined, realigned, and revitalized parishes and ministries must be beacons of radical hospitality, welcoming all and actively bringing Christ’s healing presence to those in need.

One does not relate to the other. The Seek the City process began long before the passage of the law lifting the statute of limitations and the subsequent filing for Chapter 11 reorganization. Seek the City is a ground-up solution being developed based on the Church’s decades-long need for creating a sustainable Catholic presence in Baltimore City and commitment to reinvest in vibrant and effective ministries. What we know is, 1% of the Catholic population in the Archdiocese is being served by 61 churches. Through this collaborative and effective journey, we’ve demonstrated and documented a groundswell of voices to reimagine, realign and revitalize the Church in Baltimore City. Despite the challenges of population shifts and other forces that have impacted the Church in the city, we have never stopped providing outreach, delivering the Sacraments and celebrating Mass – and we never will.

The parish is a separate entity from the Archdiocese. Therefore, whatever assets the parish own, stay with that parish or follow that parish when merged into a newly formed parish, which would also remain a separate entity from the Archdiocese.