From the Archbishop

Message from Archbishop Vigneron

Kathy From the Archbishop

The following is a message from Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron to the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit:

The Archdiocese of Detroit today celebrates a significant milestone in its missionary transformation as 113 parish communities join together and form 26 Families of Parishes. The remaining 103 parish communities will follow next year, forming 25 additional Families of Parishes. These groupings are the fruit of embracing the graces of Synod 16 and our response to God’s call to renew our structures and align resources toward our common mission to share Christ with every woman and man in southeast Michigan.

 

This is the most radical transformation our parishes have experienced in decades. Teams of priests, deacons, religious and lay staff will work together to better share their gifts and talents with the whole Family of Parishes. This is not merging or clustering. In our model of Families, each parish will keep its identity and charism but will share its gifts with all the parishes.

 

Our move to Families of Parishes is meant to rejuvenate and energize my brother priests, who will benefit from the key elements of collaboration and mutual support among the team. And you, the faithful of the Archdiocese, will also benefit from a larger group of priests, deacons, and lay staff ministering to you. But most importantly, I am confident that Families of Parishes will help us go on mission. This is what Jesus is asking of us; we are equipping our parishes to go out into the community to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet. That is why we are willing to make this radical transformation. 

 

I want to offer a few words of gratitude. To begin, I am grateful for our priests and deacons who will start their new assignments today in their new Families of Parishes. It takes great courage to embrace change. We need their courage and God’s grace to navigate this transition, so please join me in praying for our clergy and for all our lay staff who will support them in our new structures. 

 

I also want to thank the many co-workers who have helped me discern, plan, and launch Families of Parishes. This is a significant undertaking, one we could not have accomplished without open discernment and discussion about concerns, ideas and vision. It is through active listening and prayer that we can follow the path down which the Holy Spirit is leading us.

 

Lastly, I want to express my deep appreciation and affection to you, the faithful of the Archdiocese, who are embarking upon this journey with us. You will play a large role in uniting your new Families of Parishes and contributing to the success of our shared mission. Thank you for trusting in this process and praying for its success. 

 

As we bring together our first Families of Parishes today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Junipero Serra, the great missionary who was instrumental in bringing the Gospel to California in the 1700s. St. Junipero’s motto was “siempre adelante, nunca atrás,” which translates to, “always forward, never back.” It is providential to mark this milestone in the life of the Archdiocese under the intercession of Father Serra. United with Mary and the Twelve, we move forward, never back, confident that Jesus walks with us and that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will share with men and women of our time the hope, joy and salvation that can only be found in Christ.

 

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron
Archbishop of Detroit

Mass Dispensation Extended Until March 13, 2021

Kathy From the Archbishop, Uncategorized

Letter from Archbishop Vigneron to the Faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Sacred Liturgy, and particularly the Holy Eucharist, is the very heart and foundation of our Catholic faith. It is during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that the saving death and resurrection of Jesus is made present to us, our covenant with Our Lord is renewed, and God, in the person of Jesus Christ, comes to us and makes himself truly present for us in his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is an irreplaceable gift; a foretaste of Heaven itself.
When the pandemic first began, in the midst of tremendous uncertainty, it was necessary to suspend all public liturgies. During this time, we assessed the situation in light of public health information and explored a safe way to bring Christ to the people, both through the Word of God and the Sacraments. Given the gravity of the Sunday obligation to attend Mass, this decision was not undertaken lightly. Then, we cautiously returned to Mass with prudent restrictions, such as capacity limits and rigorous cleaning protocols, to allow for the resumption of essential public worship without undue risk of accelerating the pandemic. During these difficult months of pandemic, our pastors, parishes, and all the faithful have adapted in order to ensure the health and well-being of everyone in our local communities. I want to offer my sincere gratitude for the efforts that have been undertaken to implement and maintain the first-rate precautionary measures that have kept our parishes and schools safe.As part of our adaptations, many of our parishes have broadcast Masses over the internet during these last several months. While this has been a means to help Catholics nourish their souls when they could not be present for Mass, we must remember that it cannot become the norm. God did not come to us virtually. He came to us — and continues to come to us — in the flesh. As Catholics, unmediated contact with the Real Presence of the flesh and blood of Our Lord in offering this sacrifice to the Father is irreplaceable and essential. We recall Christ’s own words when he foretold the gift of the Holy Eucharist:

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6: 54-56)

In recognition of the essential and central nature of the Eucharist Sacrifice in our lives as Catholics, and in acknowledgement of my duty as shepherd to care for the souls of everyone within our diocese, it is important that I lead more of us back to Mass, when and where possible. That is why the general dispensation from the Sunday obligation will be extended only for one month, until March 13. With its expiration, I intend to grant some particular dispensations to those in need. It is time for us to welcome back more of the faithful with a renewed amazement that we have a God who is so close to us and who has such a deep love for us that he comes to us in flesh and blood. Active participation in Mass is an occasion for all of us to avail ourselves of the immeasurable spiritual graces Christ desires for his faithful through his Paschal Sacrifice.

We know that there remains the concern for spread of infection, particularly among the winter months when we live indoors to a greater degree. All of us must remain vigilant to limit its spread, particularly among those most vulnerable. With this in mind, I am granting particular dispensations from the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation for people in certain circumstances, including those who are ill and those who care for anyone who is at-risk of serious complications from COVID-19. I am making a particular request that those who are ill or think they might be ill to refrain from this in-person participation in the liturgy as an act of justice and charity to others. Those who would experience significant anxiety or fear of getting sick from being in a public setting are similarly dispensed from their obligation to attend. More information about the particular dispensations can be found here. In allowing the general dispensation to expire, we welcome back to Mass all Catholics who have already been engaged in other activities that would present a similar or greater risk of exposure, such as eating out at restaurants, traveling, partaking in non-essential shopping, and widening one’s circle of contacts. These individuals should also prepare to return to Mass in recognition of its preeminence in our lives as Catholics.

The health and safety of our communities is and always will be paramount as we continue to closely monitor local conditions. For that reason, I am continuing the liturgical directive that all the faithful present at Mass, with the exception of small children, wear a mask or face-covering. If this proves impossible for you or a family member, please speak with your priest. Additionally, our churches will remain limited to no more than 50 percent of available capacity for the near future, and many other existing protocols will remain in place. The Archdiocese is committed to assisting pastors to adjust Mass schedules or offer additional public Masses, insofar as possible, to make it easier for as many of the faithful as possible to attend Mass while still practicing social distancing during the approaching Lent and Easter seasons.

At the beginning of this pandemic, I entrusted the Archdiocese of Detroit to Our Lady of Lourdes, patroness for those who suffer illness, asking that, through her intercession, God would grant healing and protection to the people of southeast Michigan and beyond. I ask you, brothers and sisters, to join me in offering prayers of thanksgiving to Our Blessed Mother for her intercession so far and to pray for her continued accompaniment. With her help, let us persevere in hope to face the challenges of this virus and continue to give witness to our confidence in the good news of the Lord’s victory over suffering and death.

With assurances of my prayers for you, I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron
Archbishop of Detroit

Letter from the Archbishop

Kathy From the Archbishop

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I write today with gratitude for the many blessings God has granted the Archdiocese of Detroit during our missionary journey. Six years ago, we asked God to send his Holy Spirit upon us in a New Pentecost, to fill us with an unshakable inner conviction of the truth of the Gospel and a love that compels us to share the good news with those around us. Two years later, through Synod ‘16 we received clarity that God wanted us to reclaim our Church’s missionary identity and we set out with a promise to trust and follow him.

We began in earnest the work of a generation, to unleash the Gospel in southeast Michigan and beyond. Last year, we announced the next phase of this missionary movement, a plan to transform our parishes and schools, making them places where individuals and families can encounter Jesus anew, grow as disciples, and be equipped as witnesses of the Risen Christ.

This continues to be our mission today, even now in the midst of a historic pandemic. The current health and economic crises have disrupted our lives and the life of the Church. This new reality has exacerbated some of the challenges we were already facing. Even before the pandemic, we knew that the way we function in our parishes needed to change. In addition to the shortage of priests available to serve in our parishes and the shortage of vocations for future ordinations, the parish structures we inherited served our mission well in the past, but they needed to be renewed and aligned for mission.

And so, in prayer and in consultation with others, I’ve discerned that now is the time to respond in faith to the challenges we face and to take the necessary steps to better equip our parish communities for mission. Over the next two years, parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit will join together to form new groupings called “families of parishes.” These groups – these families – of three to six parishes will work together and share human and material resources to further advance our shared mission. This new model will allow groups of priests, deacons, and lay staff to better share their gifts and talents with their entire parish families.

We are not the same diocese we were six years ago when we began this journey. God has been at work in us, in our communities, in our parishes, and in our schools. We have learned to be more docile to the Holy Spirit. We have learned to walk with apostolic boldness and confidence in God. We are committed to working in a spirit of innovation and collaboration. And most importantly, we have resolved to place Christ and his mission above all else.

Over the next several months, groups of clergy and lay faithful will help me discern the leadership and governance structure of the families of parishes and the ways in which this new structure will help all our parishes become vibrant posts of missionary activity. At Advent, my hope is to announce the groups of parishes that will form each family, with the first of them expected to begin to function as a family in July of 2021.

I invite you to visit the website www.familiesofparishes.org to learn more about this process and to sign up for updates. Please join me in praying for this very important step in the life and mission of our local Church. Let us give thanks to God ahead of time for the great work he is doing in our midst. God is with us. He has given us his Holy Spirit as the initiator, guide, and driving force of our mission.

Blessed Solanus Casey, Detroit’s own priest, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, protector of the sick, pray for us. And dear St. Anne, patron of our Archdiocese, pray for us.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron
Archbishop of Detroit