Archdiocese of Detroit 2026 Restructuring

Pam and I attend two different parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, depending on our schedule and her voluntary parish responsibilities at both. In recent weeks, we've been inundated with requests to attend parish "Listening Sessions," ostensibly to have the curia listen to our concerns about how the AOD plans to restructure due to (1) shifting populations, (2) declining Mass attendance, and (3) the shortage of priests.

There are 209 parishes in the AOD, divided into 15 planning areas. The various proposed plans, 3 for each area, suggest eliminating certain weekend masses at under-populated parishes (who decides what is under-populated?) and require members to travel as far as 40 minutes from their local parish to another where the sacraments are offered. One plan for our area is shown in the image above, and our two parishes in Novi, MI (St. James and Holy Family), which are only a few miles apart, are both vibrant and unlikely to have their Masses eliminated during the restructuring.

The AOD's description of the problem displayed on their webpage (see image below) is described this way:

Over recent decades, we’ve seen significant shifts: fewer Catholics attending Mass, declining participation in the sacraments, and an ever-shrinking number of priests due to aging and retirement. Once serving 1.5 million Catholics, we now minister to approximately 900,000 — with fewer than half attending Mass regularly. At the same time, we’ve struggled to maintain buildings, structures and ministries designed for a much larger Church, and that’s left us stretched thin — making it harder to fully serve where people need us most.

While I understand the administrative issues surrounding finances and building upkeep, the shortage of priests and fewer people taking the sacraments, these problems will not be solved by demographic and geographic adjustments. The problems are spiritual, not numeric; they are quantum, not deterministic.

I cannot help be reminded of a similar problem faced years ago by the Lutheran church Missouri Synod, of which I had a connection before my conversion to Catholicism. The president of the LCMS declared that the solution to declining attendance was to establish new churches in upstate New York, where the population was historically Germanic and thus (supposedly) more psychologically aligned with Lutheranism. The red flag waving frantically called attention to the lack of the LCMS's attention to the fundamental evangelical nature of the Christian Church—The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20) and concern instead with adjusting the demographics and geography, for the purpose of increasing attendance. If Lutheranism (of the Missouri Synod nature) was so good and true, then why not evangelize where the churches were currently located? (The answer to that is book-length, and I'll not try to answer.)

I see in the AOD restructuring effort an embrace of similar blindness. I don't see the solution as physical restructuring but rather spiritual revival. Here are four considerations that, if implemented together, would eliminate the need for the AOD to restructure.

1. Do not restrict priests to only 1 or 2 Masses per day.

Canon Law 905 allows a priest to celebrate up to 1, 2 or 3, even 4 Masses per day, especially on weekends and festivals. Canon Law (905) is not infallible, dogmatic, or doctrinal. To rigidly hold to this restriction without considering the spiritual demands of a parish is to be pharisaical...holding rigidly to a law that harms the more important roles for a priest. 

2. Remove all administrative duties from the parish priest and give such duties to a full-time LAY administrator who is trained in or has demonstrated successful organizational leadership in the secular realm.

Acts 6:1-6 establishes the role of a deacon for the purpose of administering the parish, leaving prayer and teaching (and celebrating Mass and sacraments) to the priest (or ordained deacon). I do not think a parish administrator needs to be an ordained deacon, unless seminaries begin granting degrees in Organization Development and Leadership. This move alone would allow priests the time and energy to say more Masses, to pray and study the Word, and administer the sacraments. There are plenty of capable men who can be full-time LAY-administrators who are skilled in organizational development and administration. 

3. Remove ALL restrictions EVERYWHERE for celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass. 

This alone will attract more people to Mass. A simple census will reveal the GREAT attraction of young professionals and their families to the TLM. When I attend a TLM, I'm amazed by the deep reverence and the presence of young families with many children. They avoid the Novus Ordo for a variety of reasons, one being Vatican II's dismissive attitude toward reverence in the TLM. I believe that the invention of the Novus Ordo has resulted in fewer people taking the sacraments and fewer men considering the priesthood. The Novus Ordo has made common the worship of God.  (cf: https://www.youtube.com/c/MassoftheAges)

4. Attract young men to the Priesthood through the mystery of the TLM.

This will solve the shortage of priests. By opening the TLM everywhere and training priests to celebrate the TLM, you will attract more good and intelligent men to the priesthood. The priesthood is special and miraculous. Show young men how special and miraculous worship can be by celebrating the TLM. Avoid the common place of the Novus Ordo rubrics, reinstate ad orientem, chant, Latin hymns, organ, kneeling, communion on the tongue at the rail by ordained men, and the mystery that has been removed by the Novus Ordo (commonly referred to by many as simple "NO.")

5. Reinstate orthodox professors to the Seminary that the Archbishop fired without good cause.

Rejecting these holy men dissuades young men from the priesthood. Arbitrary and questionable decisions by an Archbishop are an offense to young men who want an orthodox faith. Intelligent, clear-minded men, who are called to the priesthood, do not want to pledge obedience to an Archbishop who blindly embraces Post-Vatican II ideology that punishes the centuries-old traditions of the church, and goes so far as to embrace Islam as a valid path to know God, and call Islamic places of worship "sacred." I could easily long to be a priest (although too old now), but I could never promise obedience to our current archbishop. I am sure his woke administrative decisions have turned young, faith-minded young men away from the priesthood in the AOD. Get the archbishop to confession and recant his sinful behavior. Young men will flock to the seminary. 

6. The Archbishop (Edward J. Weisenburger) needs to publicly recant and confess as "sin" his decisions that contradict the tradition of Catholic orthodoxy and worship. 

Weisenburger's accommodation to political liberalism and the LGBTQ trans community, his demeaning the importance of penance and post-Vatican II "reforms," his embrace of the Synod on Synodality with its shift toward modernism, and the his championing of the ambiguous and inclusive pronouncements of Pope Francis (Todos, todos, todos), have turned many devout Catholics away from the church, the sacraments, and financial support of the AOD.  Conversion has been replaced by slogans, repentance has been replaced by (DEI) inclusion, and doctrine has been replaced by "lived experience." Weisenburger needs to repudiate all of this and shepherd the Church in Detroit back to the faith. If he does so, God guarantees there will be no need for restructuring.