We have 167 parishes in our diocese and we have 145 active priests. 73 of these priests are age 59 or older. There is currently only one priest under the age of 35. Recently we saw the unexpected suspension of several priests because of abuse and we lost several other priests through death. This loss of priests has unexpectedly accelerated the pastoral planning process. We will be moving from four priests in our cluster to only three active priests. This means that even though the Northern Cayuga Cluster (Weedsport) went from five masses to three (and now has an extern priest from Africa as its pastoral leader) and St. Michael’s in Lyons has gone from three to two masses (and now has a pastoral administrator as its pastoral leader with a retired priest as the sacramental minister), and in addition, the Catholic Community of the Blessed Trinity (Wolcott) has gone from four masses to three, we still have eleven masses in our eight parish cluster. It is not enough of a reduction of masses because by Canon Law and Bishop Clark's directives, a priest is limited to celebrating three masses a weekend. Up until now, St. John/St. Patrick’s mass schedule is the only one in our cluster that has not been reduced. The cluster needed to find a way to reduce the cluster communities masses by two. Since St. John/St. Patrick has not lost a mass and since the pastoral planning committee does not want to close a parish in this next round, we will have to eventually reduce our mass schedule by one. This means that eventually the cluster will have one less priest and so we will have one less mass at St. John. We will still have a mass at St. Patrick and a mass at St. John. At sometime in the future (if Fr. Dillon leaves), I will most likely be celebrating one of the masses at St. Michael's in Lyons. Then the Catholic Community of the Blessed Trinity would have one less mass and Fr. George Heyman also would most likely be celebrating a mass at St. Michael's in Lyons. It is important to realize if St. Michael's (or St. Thomas, etc.) did not have a priest, this is not a problem of just St. Michael's (or St. Thomas, etc.), but a concern of the whole cluster including St. John/St. Patrick. We have a couple possible proposals of the mass schedule for the cluster but nothing has been decided definitely yet. We took a straw poll to get people's preferences about mass time but we need to keep in mind that the other parishes in the cluster will be polling their people as well. We will not reach a perfect or ideal solution for everyone but we will work hard to come up with the best solution for all the parishes involved.

St. Patrick and St. John have worked together for a number of years. I have watched this develop even more in my time here and is mirrored in the joining of one parish council this past year. The cluster parishes and their representatives have been working together for the last several years. This was demonstrated by part of the cluster celebrating Confirmation together with Bishop Clark. During recent times we have also worked more closely with St. Michael's in Lyons. We share the services of Sr. Catherine and the youth from St. Michael's and St. John/St. Patrick now meet together. People from time to time attend mass or other liturgies at each other's parish as well as attend dinners or speakers from each other's parish (like our Family Education presenters). We took this spirit of cooperation to another level during a past Holy Week. We celebrated Holy Thursday at St. John's with St. Michael's Faith Community and we celebrated Holy Saturday at St. Michael's at their church for the Easter Vigil. I will be the celebrant for both liturgies. All three parishes were involved in these liturgies including Eucharistic Ministers, lectors, servers, and choirs.

In the next eight years, there could be over seventy priests retiring in our diocese and possibly ten priests ordained. This does not count priests that leave or die. As we face this change (which we never find easy), I offer again a few observations about this change of our mass schedule. First, there are many parishes in the diocese that have had to reduce their mass schedule (or even have had their parish closed). The people of Clyde/Savannah are fortunate to still have a mass at each parish on the weekend and three weekday masses (not counting nursing home masses, funeral masses or other special masses). This means that there still will be at least 20 Masses a month in Clyde/Savannah. I know a priest in Peru whose parish has 60,000 Catholics! His parishioners are able to attend only one Sunday Mass a month. I know another priest in Africa whose parishioners’ walk all through the night to be able to attend the only Mass on Sunday in the entire area. There are Catholics in the south or Midwest in the United States who also do not have an easy access to mass. If we are honest, most Americans are generally used to having most things pretty convenient, from money at ATM machines to 24-hour grocery shopping. This attitude of our culture is bound to affect our religious attitude and practices, including the convenience of when masses are scheduled. Yet without an increase in vocations to the priesthood (or a change by the Pope in who can be ordained, which we have no control over), this trend of fewer masses and more parishes closed will only continue. In fact we have been told that between 2008-2013 our cluster will have only two priests for the eight parishes. This will mean that some parishes in our cluster sometime in the next ten years will no longer have a Saturday evening or Sunday Mass. Yet there will still be the availability of the Eucharist near us and we will still have the opportunity to grow in our faith and show Christ's love to those in need.

We need to continue to prepare ourselves for this changing future. I would like to invite us to be grateful the masses we still have here. Although there will eventually be a change in the mass schedule, we still have the opportunity to go to other masses in nearby churches in our cluster. People from Clyde or Savannah have been used to traveling ten minutes to the other's church. Likewise St. Michael's is only ten or twenty minutes down the road from St. John. We travel to Lyons or Newark or Geneva to shop or visit someone in one of the hospitals. We certainly can travel that far for mass. Maybe some of our parishioners could offer to car pool for those that don't drive or find it hard to drive for some reason. Plus the masses that we have left will become fuller and could have the potential to be a richer celebration. It should be a little easier with one less mass to find enough lectors, servers and Eucharistic Ministers. Also, I would urge you to try and foster vocations in our parishes. We need to keep praying for vocations, as well as encouraging our children and grandchildren to consider a vocation to the priesthood.

This is a glimpse of the ongoing challenges that our parishes in our diocese and other dioceses throughout our country will continue to face in the coming years. If you have any concerns about this, please contact me or one of the members of the parish council. We hope to have a couple open meetings where parishioners can bring their questions or concerns about these new developments for our parishes. Ultimately, whatever we face in the years to come, we trust that our loving God will continue to lead us and provide for us in the future, as God has done so generously for us in the past. This is my prayer for all of us as we together face this new invitation from God.