That's probably going to be necessary here in America. If anything, the South and West should think about splitting some dioceses, and the Northeast and Midwest should think about combining them. We also need to shuffle the metropolitans to where Catholics actually are now (no reason to have a province in Hartford and Boston, for example…
That's probably going to be necessary here in America. If anything, the South and West should think about splitting some dioceses, and the Northeast and Midwest should think about combining them. We also need to shuffle the metropolitans to where Catholics actually are now (no reason to have a province in Hartford and Boston, for example).
We have 193 dioceses for 75 million nominal Catholics (400k per diocese) and 15 million active Catholics (80k per diocese). Any diocese with less than half those numbers should be combined. Any diocese with more than double those numbers should be split.
Metropolitans should number about 30, and have about 5 suffragan dioceses each.
I agree about reshuffling the metropolitan sees, but disagree that one bishop can adequately shepherd 80k Catholics. Most people rarely see their bishop. I think we should double or even triple the number of dioceses here in the US to allow for more fruitful relationships with the bishop.
Merging chancery departments could make it sustainable. As this article mentions, Pope Francis recommended that the Calabrian dioceses combined seminaries. We already do that in the US to great results. Why does each diocese need its own administration offices? They should combine them across regions as appropriate.
Case in point is the reporting on the Diocese of Steubenville here on the Pillar. The priests are overwhelmingly united about remaining separate from Columbus, partially because they don't want to get lost in a huge diocese. Let's have more Steubenvilles that share chanceries with Columbus and Youngstown.
That's probably going to be necessary here in America. If anything, the South and West should think about splitting some dioceses, and the Northeast and Midwest should think about combining them. We also need to shuffle the metropolitans to where Catholics actually are now (no reason to have a province in Hartford and Boston, for example).
We have 193 dioceses for 75 million nominal Catholics (400k per diocese) and 15 million active Catholics (80k per diocese). Any diocese with less than half those numbers should be combined. Any diocese with more than double those numbers should be split.
Metropolitans should number about 30, and have about 5 suffragan dioceses each.
I agree about reshuffling the metropolitan sees, but disagree that one bishop can adequately shepherd 80k Catholics. Most people rarely see their bishop. I think we should double or even triple the number of dioceses here in the US to allow for more fruitful relationships with the bishop.
Merging chancery departments could make it sustainable. As this article mentions, Pope Francis recommended that the Calabrian dioceses combined seminaries. We already do that in the US to great results. Why does each diocese need its own administration offices? They should combine them across regions as appropriate.
Case in point is the reporting on the Diocese of Steubenville here on the Pillar. The priests are overwhelmingly united about remaining separate from Columbus, partially because they don't want to get lost in a huge diocese. Let's have more Steubenvilles that share chanceries with Columbus and Youngstown.