YOUNGSTOWN - - Churches in the Youngstown Catholic Diocese have escaped - - for now - - the major shakeup that awaits Cleveland's Catholic community.
On Wednesday, the Cleveland Diocese announced parishes must start planning a consolidation program that will merge churches and possibly close some parochial schools. Cleveland will rework it's diocese to reflect shifts in church attendance and the growing difficulty in finding clerics.
The local diocese, which encompasses Ashtabula County and five other counties, is not ready to start a similar analysis, Nancy Yuhasz, chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown, said Friday.
The Rev. George V. Murry, installed as bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown in late March, hasn't had time to launch a study like the one that led to the downsizing ahead in Cleveland, Yuhasz said. "Right now, since he's a new bishop, (Murry) will not make any changes until he can visit the parishes and look at the numbers," she said.
A similar study is probably inevitable, Yuhasz said. "It's not on the schedule, but will be something we're looking at in the near future," she said.
Earlier this year, local priests said they didn't expect Ashtabula County to suffer much in a reorganization plan because of the economizing already in effect here. Many local priests oversee more than one church, they said. Also, church attendance in the county has remained relatively steady, unlike other areas of the diocese.
The Diocese of Youngstown comprises Ashtabula, Mahoning, Columbiana, Stark, Trumbull and Portage counties. More than 100 parishes in the diocese serve an estimated 216,000 worshippers.
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