The Rev. Nicholas Shori first walked in the doors of St. Paul the Apostle Church in New Middletown 17 years ago. Aug. 15 will be his final day as pastor.
Shori has been named the new director of the Youngstown Diocesan reorganization plan. He will help put into motion the plan that Bishop George Murry announced last month.
"Probably one of the biggest challenges will be trying to figure out what to do," Shori said. "Because no one has ever done this before. It would involve, I think, initially talking to the priests, talking to a lot of the people. Help them understand that, that which was promulgated last June, is now going to start getting implemented."
The plan calls for the reduction of 25 parishes across the six-county Youngstown Diocese over the next two years. Shori said this will not be an easy job.
"While seeing some things come to an end, there is always the opportunity to very hopefully and positively recreate parishes, mission, identity," Shori said. "That's what I hope we are going to be able to convey to one another in doing this."
In his time at St. Paul's, Shori oversaw the building of a new church and incredible growth in the number of families that attend. He said he hopes he can share those successes with the rest of the diocese.
"What we've created here, I think can be very much a hope and a promise for parishes that are now going to try to figure out what they want their future to be like," he said. "What they want their tomorrow to be. I think we bring out of this experience, a very positive, very hopeful sign to Catholics in the area."
