Diocesan representatives were: Father Jacques from Peter Claver and Providence, Father Pat – the head of the Uptown deanery, and Andres Villere (sp?) who is the buildings and grounds manager and Father Asare (sp?) who is the St. Matthias cluster pastor, and thus the pastor for the Lourdes community.

The Diocesan representatives presented a financial report for the parish and a description of the of the Archdiocese current state, including their finances, the number of available clergy for the coming years and the philosophy for what they want to hear from each parish about their plans.  They explained what the process would be for deciding what parishes get “suppressed” (closed) and which ones will remain opened – it was very complicated and included a timeline.  They did not have the process or the timeline written down, but promised to share it with Father Asare.  They answered 6 or so questions that the Parish Council had asked back in June.  Then they took questions from the meeting attendees.  The meeting went from 6-8:30pm.  Some major points that I understood to come out of the meeting follow

• there is a new planning process that every single parish in the region must take part in to determine their future.
• this process begins immediately and will decide the status of all parishes at the earliest by the summer.
• the planning process with each parish begins now and must get turned by January 11, 2008.  Each parish’s plan then goes up through the church’s hierarchy for review until it get to the ArchBishop who makes the final decision.  The earliest timeframe for that decision is summer 08.
• each parish priest is to be the facilitator of the planning process with the parish members.  No plans that don’t have participation and approval of the Parish priest will be considered.
• this plan includes much in depth information about the state of the parish, demographics of the parish members, estimates of return rates, financial plans, etc.  Basically, measures of viability.
• the RSD lease of OLOL school building ends in July 08
• the complete facilities at OLOL totals 48,000 square feet!  Currently, only the school portion is repaired.  The church and rectory are gutted.  The church has a large dip in the floor that the diocese believes must be repaired.  That would be one of the biggest repair expenses.
• the Diocese believes that the OLOL facilities need anywhere from $400k - $1.6 million to repair the facilities fully.
• the Archdiocese is not willing to lease out any of its buildings in a long term way until the planning process is complete
• the Archdiose is not willing to sell any church facilities or partition and sell portions of church facilities unless that respective parish is suppressed
• any short term proposals for lease on any of the OLOL facilities would need to go through Fr. Asare to be considered by the Archdiocese.  Parish members do not have a role in making any decisions regarding the use of OLOL structures.
• there is some tension and hostility between Fr. Asare and the Parish membership.  Many council members voiced concern publically about Fr. Asare’s reluctance to support OLOL Parish’s attempts to organize themselves and their community
• Fr. Asare agreed to give the OLOL Parish Council dates that he would be available to do the planning process over the next month and a half
• council members stressed the importance of having the planning process at OLOL and the need to have access to the OLOL facilities for their organizing
• the Archdiocese has been very busy and that is why they haven’t talked to the parish yet.  Fr. Asare is the only proper channel that the Parish has to communicate with the Archdiocese
• there is a well of hurt feelings amongst the parishioner about treatment by the Archdiocese and the Cluster Parish.

(Neighbors United would like to thank Shana Sassoon and Jane Dimitry for this report)