Pittsburgh, Pa., May 1, 2018 / 15:43 pm
As the Diocese of Pittsburgh moves to condense its 188 parishes into 57 multi-parish groups, Bishop David Zubik hopes the new communities will become inspiring witnesses to the Catholic faith.
"The first and most important thing each of those groupings have to do is come together and form a single community to develop relationships with each other," Bishop Zubik told CNA.
"We are doing this…for evangelization purposes to try and invite people who've left the Church to come back, to try and invite people who are in the Church to become more excited about our faith," and possibly inspire non-Catholics to want to know more about Catholicism, he said.
The initiative, called "On Mission for the Church Alive!" began in April 2015 with a year of prayer for the whole diocese. Since the second year of the program, over 300 parish consolation meetings have been held and more than 30,000 religious, clergy and laity have participated.