As originally reported in the Reporter and Farmer Additional reporting by the Marshall County Journal
Starting right after the July 4th holiday, a major reorganization of Catholic parishes will occur within the Diocese of Sioux Falls. This will have a major impact on houses of worship throughout northeastern South Dakota, including in Britton and Eden, though less immediate effect in the next several months. The ultimate goal is to provide stability over the next decade.
As the number of Catholics attending mass and priests decrease across the country, many dioceses in the United States have undergone a reorganization similar to what the Diocese of Sioux Falls is implementing next month, according to Vicar for Lay and Clergy Formation for the Diocese of Sioux Falls Scott Traynor.
“Like many dioceses, we are facing a decline in the number of pastors over the next eight to 10 years,” Traynor said. “Our Bishop prayed and was guided to begin the process of reorganizing into pastorates now instead of waiting. This will help build a culture of missionary zeal in the community.”
Father Ken Lulf of Sacred Heart Parish in Eden said the process began last year when Bishop Donald DeGrood, who oversees the SF Diocese, implemented the initial steps. The initiative is called Set Ablaze and began with a number of conversations with pastors across the diocese. The diocese hired a company called PartnersEdge, according to Traynor, to undertake demographic studies.
Under the Set Ablaze plan, parishes across the diocese will be joined together into units called pastorates. Each pastorate will have one priest and associate priests to conduct masses, administrative duties and other tasks. Lulf will be the main pastor for the pastorate in northeast South Dakota with priests in Webster and Sisseton acting as “associate priests.”
In Britton, at Saint John de Britto Catholic Church, the current priest, Father Albert Cizewski, will stay in residence, although he is now technically fully retired. Father Albert explained that he will continue living at the rectory and handle the sacramental needs of the parish, including daily and weekend masses, baptisms and weddings.
For his part, as the pastor, Father Lulf will handle the administrative duties for the Britton parish, including finance and parish committees. On a larger scale, he will effectively be the head of the Catholic parishes in not only Eden and Britton, but also Rosholt, Grenville, Webster, Waubay and two Sisseton parishes.
Lulf added that worshipers might not notice many changes for the first year. “After consulting with my brother priests who will serve the pastorate along with me (in all the abovementioned towns), we will be able to keep current Mass times in place in each of the parishes in the pastorate during this upcoming ‘Transition Period,’” said Lulf.
“It is important though to understand that this schedule is temporary,” Lulf emphasized. “As the Set Ablaze Plan moves forward, another schedule will be established that acknowledges long-term planning for the pastorate and the number of priests available to provide Sacramental ministry. This schedule will be implemented July 1, 2024 barring any unforeseen circumstances.”
Part of the new plan includes the formation of a local committee from the pastorate to come up with a long term vision for their area on how to grow the church within their community. Lulf noted the committee will include two people from each parish, along with the priests. The topics include evangelization, worship, service and outreach to the community. Lulf plans listening sessions with the public on how to achieve these goals.
“We want pastorates to be laboratories of creativity,” Traynor said. “We want each one to come up with its own plan to submit to the Bishop. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each parish knows its community and the best way to move forward.”
Traynor noted the reorganization will free up resources for the local parishes and allow them to share a business manager, facilities manager and evangelization manager, instead of each parish having their own one.
“We want to build a lifelong missionary spirit,” Traynor said. “We want the process to be guided by the Holy Spirit and be open to what God has planned for us.”
Both local priests, Lulf and Cizewski, also encourage people to pray for the success of the Set Ablaze plan. Full reports and future goals are available for the public to view at setablazesf. org. For local mass times, including those in Britton and Eden, as always, see page 4 of the Journal.
