The leader of the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese says things are moving forward after 160 parishes were reorganized into 24 pastorates in July.
Archbishop Thomas Zinkula was asked about it after a ceremony at the Catholic elementary school in Webster City. “It’s a big change. It takes a while to get used to it. The pastors have a lot in their hands pulling these parishes together, staff together, programs. So there’s a lot of, you know, there’s some stress with that, but of course we knew that would be the case,” he says. Some 75 to 80 of the churches ended weekend and or Sunday Mass in July.
Zinkula says the consolidation was needed because attendance at masses across the 30 counties in the archdiocese had fallen nearly 50 percent in the last two decades and there are fewer priests to conduct the services. “I’m hearing from priests and the lay faithful as well, the churches are fuller versus, you know, sometimes mostly empty. And so, the liturgies are more vibrant,” he says.
Zinkula says there are benefits for the priests. “As a priest now as a bishop, I would like every church to be full, every mass, because it’s just there’s more energy. So people are feeling that, that’s great,” Zinkula says. “The priest, there’s three priests here, there’s priest teams, there’s no priest alone anymore. So I’m hearing from the priest that fraternity and camaraderie, you know, to be, you know, kind of doing the work together.”
He says the priests are also praying together and sharing meals together, and they smile when they tell him about that. “So that brings joy to my heart, you know, that they’re not alone, kind of, you know, there’s a team approach,” Zinkula says. The churches that discontinued weekend or Sunday masses are still open for weekday services, funerals, weddings and baptisms.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)