Diocese Adopts Deanery Structure
The Roman Catholic Diocese of the Cleveland is restructuring itself along the lines of deaneries as provided by the Code of Canon Law (553-555).
From the bishop's cover letter
"For many years, we have been served by a district structure that allowed for a healthy participative framework for developing new initiatives and sharing resources among our parishes...However, over time, it has become apparent that an update has become necessary. The cultural landscape we are privileged to minister in has changed dramatically over the past several decades. We face many challenges.
In this new structure, I reinstate the Office of Dean and designate our parishes to be members of one of twelve Deaneries across the diocese. These twelve Deans will be a source of accountability in matters of parish governance, but also a focal point of care for their brother priests and deacons.
Additionally, the Deans will call together a Deanery Committee in each Deanery that consists of lay staff, clergy, (active and retired), and religious engaged in ministry in our parishes and other ministries within the Deanery.
With each Dean's guidance, I will appoint a Deanery Chair in each Deanery who will lead a process to develop and implement a Pastoral Plan for their Deaneries. These plans will consist of measurable actions that create new initiatives, share resources, and coordinate ministry among the parishes of the Deanery...
The Dean will facilitate the conversation to ensure that these visions are bold, manageable
and that they are achieved. He will be a champion for the vision, developed at the grassroots level."
In theory, the organization model for the Catholic Church is very simple: the Pope appoints bishops, bishops appoint pastors of parishes which serve the laity.
However, the Pope cannot possibility hold accountable bishops of some three thousand dioceses around the world, and bishops of large dioceses with hundreds of parishes cannot possibility hold accountable their pastors.
There are 184 parishes in the Diocese of Cleveland. Dividing them into 12 deaneries means an average of about 16 parishes per deanery. Deanery #9 Lake-Geauga has 20 parishes. Fourteen in Lake County and six in Geauga County.
To understand how the deanery system ought to work we need to recall Catholic social teaching on subsidiarity.
"The principle of Subsidiarity reminds us that larger institutions in society (such as the state or federal government) should not overwhelm or interfere with smaller or local institutions (such as the family, local schools, or the Church community). “Respecting Subsidiarity promotes the flourishing of each individual and the realization of the common good." Catholic bishops document on faithful citizenship
In church management this means that the Pope (or his bureaucracy) should not micromanage dioceses, nor should a bishop (or the diocesan bureaucracy) try to micromanage parishes. Some things are best done at the parish level, while other things are best done as the diocesan level. Introducing deaneries into the systems means that some things will be best done at the deanery level.
Deaneries can assist pastors and parishes in their accountability. The new system means that each parish will be reviewed once every three years not by someone in a downtown office who is reviewing sixty of more parishes, but by a peer, a pastor from a neighboring parish who is reviewing six or seven parishes each year. Such a review system is more likely to focus on how each parish is doing in comparison to its peers rather than locating the best or the worst parishes in the diocese.
Deans and the deanery may be more supportive of parishes and their pastors than someone in a downtown office trying to respond to 184 parishes of all sizes and shapes. Nearby parishes may be not only closer in proximity but more understanding of the parish's problems.
The new plan introduces mandatory planning but in a focused manner. No more than three initiatives in a three- year period. It provides reasonable resources for doing so, a deanery committee and a new position, deanery chairperson. Clearly the diocese does not want the parishes to spend a lot of meeting time producing paper documents to file away somewhere.
Subsidiarity will loom large in picking the three topics. Somethings are best left done at the diocesan level, and other things at the parish level. Sorting that out will call for creative leadership by the dean and the deanery chairperson.
In summary, deaneries will assist the diocese and its parishes in four ways: 1) provide greater transparency and accountability at the parish level (a creative dean might foster friendly rivalry among parishes), 2) greater support for priests and deacons (deans are encourages to included retired priests and deacons), 3) greater networking all the pastoral staff of the parishes, and other institutions within the deanery, and 4) accomplishment of a few projects that are better done at the deanery level.
Vatican II emphasized that bishops were not just under the Pope but a college of bishops with the Pope. (Francis emphasis upon synodality is an attempt to give flesh to how this would work. Vatican II said the priests were not just under the Bishop but also constituted a college with the Bishop as head. The deanery structure offers many opportunity for priests to collaborate with one another withing the large diocesan structure. The Bishop also created an Episcopal Council that includes the deans among his chief collaborators.