The Bishop of the Youngstown Diocese will announce on Friday plans for merging parishes.
The Diocese has come up with a plan to cover every parish in one of three ways. The parish will stay as is and may share resources with another church or merge with a different parish. Bishop George Murry said a declining population is fueling the reorganization.
"Our goal is to face squarely the reality of a declining number of priests, and to respond to that by reconfiguring the Diocese so that we can be stronger than we have been in the past," Bishop Murry said.
Bishop Murry also said a shift in population from the cities to the suburbs, and a changing attitude toward the church all jump started the 18-month planning process to reshape the local Catholic community.
