Together as One Church

The Diocese of Alexandria is embarking on a pastoral planning process to renew discipleship and enhance relationships with Jesus Christ in every corner of the diocese.  The pastoral planning process will examine the current structure of parishes, missions, schools and other ministries in our diocese to evaluate how they can best meet the needs of the faithful and address challenges facing the Church today in living out its mission to spread the saving name of Jesus who is the good news.  This will involve ongoing prayer, listening, feedback and sacrifice from the entire community, and will result in a renewed pastoral plan for the Diocese of Alexandria.

The core change needed for a renewed Church is an interior renewal, which must occur in our hearts.  This interior renewal in each of us is essential in order for spiritual growth to happen in our broader community. We ask all parishioners across our Diocese to join with us in personal reflection and prayer as we begin this process.  We also encourage you to take the opportunity to engage and talk with your parish community, and your priests, deacons and lay leaders about your questions, feedback and concerns so that we can collectively develop the most vibrant and promising plan for our diocese.

Bishop Robert Marshall established a Core Team to guide and advise him consisting of:

• Fr. Craig Scott, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, Pastor, St. James Memorial Church
• Deacon Richard Mitchell, Vice Chancellor/Director of the Diaconate/Director of Stewardship and Public Relations, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral
• Msgr. James Ferguson, Rector of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and Defender of the Bond for Tribunal
• Ann Masden – board member of St. Mary’s Residential Community and Services and the Family Justice Center of Central Louisiana. Former Director of Development and Public Affairs for the Diocese of Alexandria.  She is a member of St. Rita Church in Alexandria
• John Ed Laborde – owner and operator of Panaroma Foods Catering in Marksville. He is a member of St. Joseph Church in Marksville and serves as president of the Sacred Heart School Council in Moreauville.
• Gail Jones – retired from a career in higher education and non-profit service she is currently active in many missions, ministries and boards. She is a member of St. Augustine Church in Isle Brevelle (Cane River).

The Core Team meets regularly with the bishop to help guide the conversation and discernment process.

Pastors from each church parish and mission have identified Key Parish Leaders who will assist with leading information sessions and gathering feedback for the Core Team.

The Catholic Leadership Institute, a lay apostolate based in Philadelphia, is designing and facilitating the process.

The primary purpose of this process is to create a sustainable structure of church parishes, missions, schools and ministries that renew discipleship, enhance relationships with Jesus Christ and moves the Diocese of Alexandria to fulfill the Church’s mission to go forth and make disciples.

The vision for the pastoral plan in the Diocese of Alexandria is to:

• Building a future of hope through collaboration & leadership
• Expanding our vision by embracing our unique gifts
• Renewing a commitment to mission
• Encouraging a Vibrant Parish Experience

The pastoral planning process is intended to address these concerns through the following opportunities:

• Enabling the faithful to go make disciples within a mission-driven, sustainable structure of parishes and ministries.
• Enhancing the vibrancy of our parishes and ministries.
• Increasing our support of the morale, health and holiness of our priests.

The Church and its people continue to face unique opportunities and challenges as society changes around us.  In Louisiana, and certainly in the Diocese of Alexandria, the demographic landscape looks different than it did even 10 years ago, while our structural landscape remains largely unchanged.

To achieve our vision, we must address the challenges facing our diocese today, which include:

• A changing regional and diocesan landscape
• National trends regarding religion
• Too few priests to staff our parishes and missions.

While our faith community is vibrant and strong, the current structural landscape, combined with the above challenges, limits the ability of our local Church to fully live out our God-given mission as Catholics and disciples of Jesus Christ.  We must together move toward an apostolic mission-focused network of parishes, missions, schools, ministries, agencies and communities to strengthen our ability to effectively spread the Good News of Jesus for generations to come.

Bishop Marshall is calling the entire Catholic Church in the Diocese of Alexandria – in all thirteen civil parishes, including our fifty church parishes, twenty-one missions, eight Catholic Schools, and many other ministries – to come “Together as One Church.”  The faith that has been sown and nurtured here is strong, but our structures do not always encourage our best efforts.  This process is our opportunity to acknowledge, celebrate, and heal our past and to forge and embrace a future of hope in the Diocese of Alexandria.

As part of the process, we are collecting financial, demographic and sacramental data from each church parish and mission.  We will share that data and give everyone in the diocese the opportunity to offer feedback and insights that will inform the remainder of the planning process.  This effort will impact the entire diocese.

This is a one-year process, involving ongoing prayer, listening and feedback from the clergy and laity throughout the diocese that will inform the options considered for a pastoral plan for our church parishes, missions, and schools which will be finalized by the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 2025).

Prepare (July – December 2024)

• Organize a Core Planning Team
• Provide the pastors and priests an orientation to the process
• Priests select Key Parish Leaders to help guide the process at the church parish/mission level
• Develop a parish data survey
• Collect key demographic and sacramental data
• Announce the Together as One Church pastoral planning effort to the faithful and general public.

Assess (December 2024 – February 2025)

• Complete survey of church parishes and missions to gather baseline information
• Share the data and seek feedback and insights at information sessions held in each parish/mission
• Core Team evaluates feedback from parish/mission sessions

Discern (March 2025 – May 2025)

• Develop and share initial pastoral plan and parish/mission configuration proposals
• Get feedback on the initial proposals from the clergy and Key Parish Leaders
• Review feedback and make revisions to the initial pastoral plan
• Get feedback on the proposed pastoral plan and parish/mission configuration proposals from the laity during sessions at each parish/mission.
• Core Team reviews all feedback and then makes recommendations to Bishop Marshall.
• Bishop Marshall discerns the recommendations of the Core Team

Decide and Implement (June 2025 and forward)

• Bishop Marshall announces his decisions on final parish/mission structures on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
• Implementation of the new structures begins and occurs over the next several years

We are asking all members of our diocesan faith community to join us in prayer that we might be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we work to strengthen the future of the Diocese of Alexandria and be the beacon of hope to all in central Louisiana.  We invite you to reflect on your personal relationship with Jesus, how you envision a vibrant, service-oriented Church in our diocese, and how God is personally calling you to contribute in your own life as a missionary disciple of Jesus Christ.

We encourage you to participate in the opportunities for the faithful to provide feedback during this process.  The development of the pastoral plan will be data informed and guided by regular conversations with priests, deacons, religious, Key Parish Leaders and the lay faithful.

While we know that this process will involve closures and reconfigurations, we do not yet know the extent to which each deanery will experience these changes.  Decisions will not be based on data alone, but only after obtaining feedback from each parish/mission in the diocese.

By evaluating our current parish network, and identifying and making improvements, we can be better stewards of our resources and allow parishes to best serve their existing faithful while reaching out into the broader community.  We must together move from simply maintaining the physical and institutional structures that exist toward forming a mission-focused network of vibrant and sustainable parishes, missions, ministries, agencies and communities, becoming stronger than ever so that we can effectively spread the Good News of the Gospel to all.

The shortage of priests is one of the key factors the bishop will consider. Our diocese covers 13 civil parishes and extends from the Mississippi border to the Texas border. With the priests currently in the diocese, some pastors must shepherd multiple parishes/missions.  This is not the best stewardship of their time and talents.  By developing a parish network that allows priests to be more present with their flocks, we will empower these priests to better fulfill their vocations, to provide an encounter with Jesus Christ, and to attract others to consider similar vocations, as the need for vocations to the priesthood and religious life continues to rise.

This effort is taking place in conjunction with a renewed commitment by our priests and parishioners to nurture and support vocations to the priesthood, the consecrated life, and sacramental marriage.  Priests, deacons, Vocations Committees and parishioners will be inviting our young people to pray and discern their own particular vocation.

As Jesus promised, the Church has encountered and overcome many challenges throughout its 2000-year history.  Our time is not different.  While physical structures may change, the core of this plan is to fulfill our mission to reach every heart in our community with the invitation to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

In order to fully live out our call as disciples of Jesus, empower all of our faithful to share our witness to hope, re-encounter the Eucharist which is the source and summit of our faith, and increase vocations to the priesthood and religious life, the diocese must have the structural and environmental support in place to be a missionary church and fulfill the spiritual needs of our diverse communities.