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Central City Catholic Churches
In response to the archdiocesan report “Building Up the Body of Christ” which describes a planning process to be used throughout the archdiocese, the pastors and lay colleagues of five parishes in the central area of Baltimore City -- St. Ignatius, the Basilica, St. Alphonsus, St. Vincent de Paul and Corpus Christi -- have been working together to lay out the framework for future cooperation and support among these parishes which we are calling the Central City Catholic Churches ("CCCC"). The primary concern has been to maintain the identity, mission, community, geographic location and trust funds of each of the parishes.
A four-page Interim Report is the collective work of the CCCC, providing a proposed structure to accelerate in the future and a reduction of the number of Masses. On January 5, 2012 the CCCC pastors unanimously ratified the Report and planned to submit it for review by the parishioners of each of the parishes. On January 11, our own pastoral council affirmed the Report with some helpful caveats. The Report was then presented to parishioners of St. Ignatius in a weekly bulletin, and it was discussed with those who were interested after all the Masses the weekend of January 21-22.
The Interim Report of the CCCC, dated January 18, 2012 is available here.
Subject to the approval of the newly-appointed archbishop, the actual initiation of the clustering plan will not occur until after June 2013 and more likely will not be fully implemented until 2015 or thereafter.
Even with the mandated clustering, we rest assured that our parish will continue to grow and to maintain its strong, visionary community by carrying on its traditional life and mission in the city of Baltimore.