I have been reading through Fr. James Mallon’s book, Beyond the Parish. What a gift to the Church!

Fr James takes an honest look at the current reality which at times is difficult to read because he exposes the sad decline in the Catholic Church. But, any vision worth following MUST begin by confronting the most brutal facts of reality, no matter how difficult to recognize. It filled me with hope as I continued to read.

In the 7th Chapter, entitled, Our Journey, Fr James shares the story of arriving at Saint Benedict’s parish as their new Pastor. Not long before he was installed, the parish had amalgamated with two others. They came together as three communities in one new building. On his first weekend at Saint Benedict, he asked parishioners an important question, “What will stop the decline that necessitated the amalgamation of three buildings from continuing to happen in our midst?”

This is a very important question for every Catholic parish and every Diocese, especially when you consider the current landscape.

Most Dioceses around the world have been observing a steady decline in Sunday Mass attendance over the past few decades. Also, most Dioceses are recognizing that the number of active priests is in a precarious decline.

Sadly, many Bishops have been forced to make the difficult decision to close parishes through clustering or amalgamation. Clustering is an approach that keeps parish communities together and buildings open but subjects a single Priest to be Pastor for multiple parish communities, a difficult and unhealthy task. Amalgamation is a canonical reality whereby multiple parishes are amalgamated into one. The new amalgamated community may be housed in a single existing building, multiple buildings or a brand new building. Bottom line, there is one “amalgamated” parish with one Pastor.

Fr Mallon cited a couple of North American examples of Dioceses that have gone through this difficult process. For example, the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh conducted a significant restructuring from 1992-1994 moving from 332 parishes down to 218. After further closures, they now have 188 parishes. Their new plan is to restructure again, to operate with 48 parishes by the end of 2022. In 1970, the Archdiocese of Chicago had 462 parishes and dropped to 348 by the end of the 1990’s. In 1995 they had a Sunday Mass attendance of 554,000. If nothing changes on the vocation front, in ten years, they will have 35% less active priests serving their parishes.

A priest in Austria shared with Fr Mallon that his diocese was downsizing from 500 parishes to 40. Another priest in Germany said they were moving from over 700 parishes down 32.

As we consider these statistics, Fr James’ question to his own congregation seems even more important, “What will stop the decline that necessitated the closure from continuing to happen in our midst?”

Re-structuring through clustering or amalgamation may be necessary for some regions, but of itself, it will not be enough. “There are ecclesial structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization. Without new life and an authentic evangelical spirit, without the Church’s fidelity to her own calling, any new structure will soon prove ineffective” (Pope Francis, Evangelium Gaudium, 2613)

If, after re-structuring, we keep doing the same things and in the same way, we will get the same results – even in beautiful, new buildings!

So, how would you respond to Fr James’ question, “What will stop the decline from continuing?”

We need a total transformation of culture, strategy and, most importantly, a new approach to leadership.

If this kind of transformation were not necessary, leadership would not be necessary, management would do just fine – managing the decline would be inevitable. Transformational leadership is the key. 

Pastoral transformational leaders are divinely discontent with current reality. They lie in bed at night dreaming about transforming the organization into what it could be and should be and must be for the sake of the renewal of the world.

The goal of transformational leadership is to transform people and organizations in a literal sense – to change them in mind and heart.

There are four roles of a transformational leader in the parish context:

  • To inspire by their exemplary commitment to evangelization and disciple-making. The leader would not ask followers to do something that he would not do.
  • To set a missionary agenda focused on the people they are trying to reach, not the ones they are trying to keep. They are generous in removing obstacles for anyone making outreach a priority and they make heroes of people with a missionary mindset.
  • To recruit and release talent and charisms of their people. They have genuine concern in bringing out the very best from their collaborators and in developing their full potential. They give responsibility not just assign tasks. They provide mandates to their people and give them authority to make decisions.
  • To align all activities and initiatives to the evangelizing mission. They lead their parish from maintenance to mission. They make sure that every parish initiative is designed to help people take a step – a step closer to conversion, a step deeper in discipleship or to a step out in missionary boldness.

Research evidence is clear – transformational leaders are necessary whenever organizations are in the phase of capitulation and decline or even death. They are needed because small changes won’t suffice, tweaks to the system will remain deficient.

When organizational change needs to be deep and wide, transformational leaders make it happen in every industry and every region around the globe. Transformational leaders cause higher levels of engagement and performance. They inspire others because they hold onto hope that things can get better and will get better. They have positive expectations for collaborators and believe they were born for this very moment and brought together for such a time as this.

Please Lord, fill our Catholic parishes, Dioceses and institutions with transformational leaders that have the courage and capacity to lead necessary changes.

Used with permission. Originally published at brettpowell.org.