STRATEGIC PLANNING: Diocesan population, active priests down

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
July 10, 2008

Change.

It happens to everyone, everywhere.

Changes in the demographics within the Diocese of Sioux City - a shift in the population of communities and a decrease in numbers of priests - is what triggered the diocese to begin a long-range planning process.

According to Father Armand Bertrand, pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Cherokee and St. John the Baptist Church in Quimby, and a member of the Strategic Planning Task Force for the Diocese of Sioux City, the number of priests who will be available to work in parish ministry 10 years from now is expected to take a sharp decline. Currently there are 78 active priests available for parish assignments and 11 of them are of retirement age.

"If all of the priests that are working now decide to retire next year, we would be at critical mass," said Father Bertrand.

By the year 2014, there will only be 53 priests under retirement age who are available for parish assignments. When you step forward another five years, 2019, there will only be 39 priests and that's half of today's numbers. That number could be a little higher if the men work beyond retirement age or could be lower due to untimely death or restrictive illnesses.

There will be change, noted Father Bertrand.

"There are realities we have to face," he said. "If there is a decrease in the number of priests, we obviously cannot maintain the same number of resident priests in many parishes. That is not something we want to happen, it is something that by reality will happen because the numbers are not there."

Certain facts, however, can't change such as the number of priests.

"Priests don't come out of thin air, it takes about eight years to put a person in formation and ordain them," said Father Bertrand.

The task force is examining how to best use priest manpower while providing the most effective ministry at parishes.

Msgr. R. Mark Duchaine, vicar general of the Diocese of Sioux City and pastor at St. Mary Church in Mapleton and St. Mary Church in Oto, chairman of the Task Force, said that although the outcome might be painful for some parishes that will have to join others or, perhaps, even be closed, he thinks "it's better for everyone to know what's what than to be left in the dark until the moment of truth arrives."

Population decline

Father Bertrand said much of the present work of the task force consists of research.

The most recent population stats he could find from the State of Iowa compared population growth and/or decline from the year 2000 to 2006. He investigated all 24 counties that make up the diocese.

Northwest Deanery - Lyon, Osceola, Sioux, O'Brien and Plymouth Counties - only two counties experienced slight increases in population and three counties decreased as much as 4.6 and as low as 1.5 percent. The priest noted that the county with the largest growth, Sioux County, has had business expansion as well as a growth in its Hispanic population.

Northeast Deanery - Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Palo Alto and Kossuth Counties- only one county grew.

"The one county that increased 3 percent was Dickinson and that is the Lakes area," noted Father Bertrand.

Central Deanery - Buena Vista, Cherokee, Ida, Pocahontas and Sac Counties - all experienced a decrease in population. He pointed out that Pocahontas County experienced the greatest loss at 10 percent. The county with the least loss in population was Buena Vista, 1.6 percent, and Father Bertrand noted that it's possible a larger loss may have been offset by a rise in Hispanic population.

South Central Deanery - Carroll, Crawford and Greene Counties - saw a loss in population in two counties and no change for Crawford.

Southwest Deanery - Monona and Woodbury Counties - experienced losses.

"Woodbury only saw a decrease by only .9 percent. You have the big city (Sioux City) and there are influxes with people moving in and out and of course there is a large Hispanic population there," noted Father Bertrand, who added that Monona County loss 6.8 percent.

Southeast Deanery - Boone, Calhoun, Humboldt and Webster Counties - experienced a decrease in population with the exception of Boone County, which registered a 1 percent growth.

"I don't see the rural areas getting any bigger," said Father Bertrand, who added that oftentimes older people move into larger communities where services are located.

Family farms, he added, are being absorbed by larger ones which take less people to operate. Along with people moving where the jobs are, Father Bertrand said another contributing factor to the decrease in population is the acceptance of contraception - couples desiring two children.

Only four counties in the diocese show an increase in population and a few others held fairly steady. He said they happen to be in areas where industries such as meat packing plants draw immigrants.

"It is clear, and has been for years, that our small rural communities are diminishing; some are on the verge of dying out altogether," said Msgr. Duchaine. "In my own community, I have seen in the course of just a few years how shops and stores and restaurants and other businesses simply are unable to hold on. "

He added that many of the people are moving to larger communities simply because that's where the jobs are.

"And what with gasoline now approaching $4 a gallon, I can't help but wonder if there won't be an even greater exodus from our small towns to the city," said Msgr. Duchaine.

While many communities in the diocese experienced a drop in population, according to statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau, the State of Iowa experienced an increase in population by 2 percent and the nation grew 6.5 percent.

School numbers

Father Bertrand also investigated the public school districts using 2008 numbers from the state department of education. Of the 86 school districts in the diocese, he could find stats on 79 of them.

"From the year 2000 to 2008, there was a decrease of 9,976 students in public school systems," he said. "There were only eight that showed an increase in population."

He discovered that Sioux Center grew by 108 students, Storm Lake was up 123 students, Sergeant-Bluff-Lutton (near Sioux City) went up 200 students, Denison was up 175 students and a few other districts had modest increases ranging from 25 to 40 students. Sioux City Public Schools lost 656 students in eight years.

As the Strategic Planning Task Force examines these numbers, Father Bertrand said they are not only looking at numbers as they pertain to the parishes but at the overall population and population trends of the diocese.

"We are looking at the demographics for the entire state to explore why parishes are decreasing," he said. "Not only is there the fact that couples are using contraception, but there are less people."

Along with impacting the numbers in the pews, this decline in population has impacted the pool of people from which to draw vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

"It is not just a Catholic phenomenon, it is a cultural phenomenon," said Father Bertrand. "With the data that I have come up with, it shows that it is endemic to the whole reality."

Parish numbers

The diocese is made up of 116 canonically established parishes with the smallest having 29 households and the largest having 1,219.

The breakdown: three parishes have 29-39 households; eight parishes have 42-57 households; nine parishes have 58-65 households; 10 parishes have 70-80 households; 21 parishes have 93-125 households; 14 parishes have 126 to 165 households; 17 parishes have 171-237 households; 12 parishes have 243-350 households; 10 parishes have 388-394 households; seven parishes have 634-750 households and 11 parishes have 775-1,219 households. In all, there are 85,000-plus parishioners in more than 33,000 households.

Will parish size play a role in the plan?

"Parish size must always be considered as a significant factor, but it is most certainly not the only one," noted Msgr. Duchaine. "A parish might be small in number of households but still be quite viable insofar as the quality of parish life is concerned. This, I think will be of more consequence to those involved in making recommendations than will be the mere number of households."

Decreases and shifts in the population as well as the decline in the number of priests available for active ministry makes it all the more important for the need to study the options "for what we can do to accommodate the needs of the Catholics in this part of the state," Father Bertrand said. "With the decrease in priests and decrease in the number of people it will obviously change the complexion of many parishes."

The Strategic Planning Task Force plans to present information and recommendations to Bishop Nickless by the spring of 2009 in time for it to be used in relation to next year's assignments.