ST ALOYSIUS
ON THE OHIO

The Fall 2023 Parish Vitality Report is now available. This report is an overview of the first full year of implementation of Beacons of Light. The report offers an assessment on the progress through the phases, principles, and parameters of Beacons of Light as well as the challenges many Families of Parishes are facing at this milestone.

FROM ARCHBISHOP SCHNURR

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Much has transpired since we introduced Beacons of Light in June 2021. Together, we have studied population and parish trends, organized parishes into Families, and launched a significant pastoral planning process that will strengthen our archdiocese to live out Christ’s great commission of evangelization into the future. This Parish Vitality Report provides a snapshot of progress since Families of Parishes were implemented in July 2022. Please read this report in its entirety. You will find within it glimpses of the new life envisioned in Beacons of Light.

I am especially grateful to our priests, deacons, lay staff and parishioner leaders who are finding new ways to lead and serve in this time. This report highlights the significant progress made during Phase 1 of Beacons of Light in most of our Families of Parishes: Family Leadership Teams are being formed, competent and qualified staff are coming together and parish councils are becoming unified. Parish leaders, both clergy and laity, will be instrumental as Families take the next steps in this process to identify vision, build Family culture and create plans for a more vital community of evangelization centered on the Eucharist.

When we announced Beacons of Light in 2021, I noted that, if we are to be the Church as Christ intends, we must understand that “status quo” can have no place in our vocabulary. We must always ask ourselves, “What in God’s plan must we do next?” This is the challenge for all of us now and will continue to be. Beacons of Light is not simply a process of reorganization of our parishes in response to changing demographics, diminished religious practice and fewer priests. Beacons of Light is a process of pastoral planning to best arrange all the resources of the archdiocese to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples in this particular time and place. Its goal, therefore, is greater life in our parishes to live Christ’s evangelizing mission. This is a call, a responsibility, for each person. I urge you to pray for the continued success of Beacons of Light and to participate fully in the life of your Family of Parishes. It takes all of us working together to bring the Gospel to life in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

As we celebrate together the good things God has done in our archdiocese these past several months, let us also ask for the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother, that our Lord continue to bless us with his presence and his love.

Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr
Archbishop of Cincinnati

 

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