NORWICH – Starting in January, Diocese of Syracuse Bishop James M. Moynihan and other Church officials are gathering in retreat to review an eight-inch thick binder – the contents of which will most likely re-shape the local Catholic landscape.

The weighty binder is filled with data and proposals that were submitted by numerous geographic parish alliances – known as Pastoral Care Areas – upon request this past Thanksgiving as part of an ongoing diocese reconfiguration process. Among the eight inches, three pages will represent the future of all eight churches in Chenango County, and 13 will cover just the two congregations in the City of Norwich. The numerous plans were directed to outline different ways near-by churches can collaborate or restructure their resources, in an effort to head-off a sever decline in the number of priests and priestly ordinations currently affecting the diocese.

“It’s racing out of whack,” said diocese Vicar James P. Lang, referring to the priest shortage.

Reconfiguration controversy arose in March when, due to the lack of church leaders and an economic downturn in the area, it was announced by Bishop Moynihan that St. Bartholomew’s in Norwich would close in favor of the city’s elder parish, St. Paul’s. Since that time parishioners and officials from both sides of the aisles have fought, although not always together, to keep both St. Bart’s and St. Paul’s open, eventually submitting a detailed pastoral plan highlighting the importance of both religious communities.

Based on information gathered from diocesan officials and local church leaders, individual plans – such as the one provided jointly by St. Paul’s and St. Bartholomew’s in Norwich – are not specifically what was asked for, but at the same time are not unusual.

“I don’t know,” responded Lang, when initially asked why St. Paul’s and St. Bart’s had issued a separate plan aside from the one created collaboratively by the eight parishes in the Pastoral Care Area, which makes up one of the 32 PCA’s under Syracuse’s jurisdiction.

Lang confirmed that the Thanksgiving requests were directed at each individual geographic grouping, however, in some cases more intensive side proposals are deemed necessary and also provided. “The Bishop and Father Cunningham, although it’s ultimately the Bishop’s decision, decided that St. Bart’s and St. Paul’s need to take a look too,” Lang said, citing that parishes share one priest, Father Cunningham, and their close proximity to each other. “That (separate submissions) in fact has not been unusual.”

It is expected that the diocese will begin reviewing the proposals in early January. A final outline for Pastoral Care Areas is scheduled to be ready by July 1, 2007.