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In many parts of the U.S., the Catholic Church is facing a complicated crisis. Congregations are aging, expenses are rising and the number of priests to lead mass is decreasing. In some cities, bishops are making the difficult choice to close churches. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is trying something new, and it starts with listening to ordinary Catholics. Reporter Buffy Gorrilla listens in.
BUFFY GORRILLA: During his first press conference as a newly appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia, one question stood out to Nelson J. Perez.
NELSON J PEREZ: Are you going to close parishes? And so my response to that was that I didn't come here to close parishes. I came here, hopefully, to build up the church. But then I said, could that involve change? Of course it could involve change.
GORRILLA: That was in 2020. Since then, Catholics' attendance at mass hasn't increased.
DAN CELLUCCI: We have 1.7 million baptized Catholics in the Church of Philadelphia. Only about 17% of us are walking through the doors of a church.
GORRILLA: The other stats don't look good, either. The archdiocese says it's lost over a quarter of its priests in the last decade, leaving 13 parishes without a full-time pastor. Dan Cellucci grew up in Philadelphia and is President and CEO of Catholic Leadership Institute. He consults for church leaders like Perez across the country, offering advice on how to run their diocese.
CELLUCCI: The fair criticism of the church universally and here, even in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over the years, has been we just don't listen.
GORRILLA: So that is one of the problems Perez is trying to fix. Matthew Manion is the faculty director of the Center for Church Management at the Villanova School of Business. He sees not listening as a wider problem.
MATTHEW MANION: There's a growing recognition that the old way of being church here in the United States, for the most part, is not working. We need to be a church that's going out. We need to be a church that's meeting people where they are.
GORRILLA: In recent years, churches in the Northeast have closed with limited input from lay Catholics, causing hurt feelings and leading to protests. Parishioners in Massachusetts held an 11-year, around-the-clock vigil to protest one church closure. Others have disrupted religious services or held public rallies. So in his pastoral letter, his vision for the church, Perez called for listening sessions and an opportunity to engage with communities.
PEREZ: I think what surprised me the most was actually their desire for connectivity.
GORRILLA: Sessions were offered in person and online and in multiple languages. The forums created a space for Catholics to question church leaders about their plans.
CELLUCCI: Where are you guys from?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I do want to...
CELLUCCI: In the neighborhood or...
GORRILLA: On a warm evening, Cellucci enthusiastically greets a small group with handshakes and easy questions at a high school in Philadelphia.
CELLUCCI: Archbishop wanted, very early on, to have the people involved. We've had sessions that have been two people, and that they have been 250 people.
GORRILLA: One participant is 76-year-old Mary Laver. Laver is a longtime Catholic whose parish is in Germantown. She sacrificed a sunny evening to be here.
MARY LAVER: I found it very exciting that the archbishop invited all the people, all the Catholics of the Philadelphia area, the five counties, to give input and listen to his emerging plan for how to do restructuring without a hatchet.
GORRILLA: The cornerstone of this restructuring includes the rollout of missionary hubs. The first five are located at parishes in Philadelphia County and the four main surrounding counties in the region. The staff will be working with communities to try and reach the 83% of Catholics who don't attend mass regularly.
CELLUCCI: We see missionary hubs as places of connection - new people moving in, people who want to take a second look at the Catholic Church or maybe a third look.
LAVER: It indicates to me there's a new vision afoot, and I was eager to hear about it and maybe make some comments, as well.
GORRILLA: This 10-year plan from Perez and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia offers a fresh take on a persistent problem. If it works, it could set a new model nationwide.
For NPR News, I'm Buffy Gorrilla in Philadelphia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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