Starting Sept. 1, the church will eliminate the 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass.
“This rationale was that this Mass has the smallest attendance of all of our weekend Masses,” Meyer said in the letter.
The letter said the changes are needed because one of the church’s full-time pastors was recently transferred. Another priest is part-time at St. Albert and full-time at Fenwick High School and can only help with weekend Masses. A third priest has taken on more responsibilities that will interfere with him leading Mass at the church.
“This is a new era for our parish and our Church. We have been fortunate to not have felt the effect of priest shortage until now,” Meyer said in the letter.
“We are anticipating that there will be 100 priest pastors available to serve the parishes of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati (in the near future),” said the Rev. David Brinkmoeller, dean of the Dayton Deanery and pastor of St. Helen’s Parrish on Burkhardt Road in Riverside and Immaculate Conception on Smithville Road in Dayton.
That’s 100 priest pastors in parishes across the 19 counties that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati oversees in Ohio. The Archdiocese currently has 230 parishes in Cincinnati, Dayton and northern Ohio, according to the Archdiocese Web site.
The deanery, which is under the Archdiocese, has priest pastors serving in 32 parishes located in the counties of Montgomery and Greene, Brinkmoeller said last week. He anticipates that in the near future there will be less than 20 priest pastors serving in the Dayton Deanery.
Brinkmoeller said local parishes are allowing lay people to play greater roles in the church, roles formerly that of priests.
“Many, many more lay people are taking strong leadership roles in our parishes,” Brinkmoeller said. Parishes are also working together when it comes to worship activities and events.
Brinkmoeller said Coadjutor Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis Schnurr is expected to come to the Dayton area in October to meet with young men who may be interested in becoming priests. The young men will be nominated to attend the meeting by their priests or other parishioners.
To get a copy of Meyer’s letter, visit St. Albert at 3033 Far Hills Ave. or call the office at (937) 293-1191.
For more information about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, visit www. catholiccincinnati.org.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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