The March/April 2026 issue of Faith Along Michigan’s 45th Parallel (known by some as Fluff Along Michigan’s 45th Parallel) highlighted the massive downsizing of the Diocese of Gaylord (Pastoral Plan 2026). The cover of the magazine has an ancient image of Saints Peter and Paul, two missionaries who might be startled and alarmed at the direction of the Church in our times.
Bishop Walsh stated that “There are both challenging and aspirational components to the Pastoral Plan 2026. We are being stretched.” Really? Aspirational? Being stretched? The Pastoral Plan isn’t anything even close to a stretching; what is happening is a shrinking of the Diocese of Gaylord with no identifiable pushback by the leadership of the Diocese. It is an exercise in managed decline.
Faith Along Michigan’s 45th Parallel doesn’t acknowledge the real reasons for the decline of the Diocese. Nor does it offer any truly spiritual or Catholic responses to this crisis. Instead, there is almost a celebration of the Plan as if the Plan is somehow a wonderful endeavor, full of positive and bountiful effects that we can all be happy about. The magazine spends pages on Diocesan administrative, bureaucratic, and monotonous information including the status of the Diocese by vicariate, changes to the vicariate borders, and leadership changes. (In a Diocese so small and with so few clergy, why have vicariates in the first place? Who even knows what a vicariate is?) It also includes an article titled, “Walking Together Through Change – Understanding Limited-Use Churches and How We Support One Another”. This article tries to paint a picture of how closing parishes (which will lead to a decrease in Church attendance) will lead to the following: “Together – in love, communion, and mission – we will continue to build up the Church in Northern Michigan and trust in Divine Providence.”
Neither the Pastoral Plan nor Faith Along Michigan’s 45th Parallel address the heart of the issue: the Church is in a precipitous and dangerous decline due to many factors, including but not limited to, a lack of catechesis among clergy and faithful, a lack of leadership in the Diocese, a lack of Catholic presence and practice in the parishes, and an overall decline in supernatural faith among not only among the lay members of the Church but also by its clergy (as evidenced by the numerous actions of both clergy and laity). One recent example is the upcoming reassignment of Fr. Donald Libby, who has played a role (in participation with Divine Providence) in galvanizing multiple vocations to the Diocese of Gaylord. Instead of transferring him to a larger parish with a high school, he is being moved to a rural parish with no school. This will have an effect of limiting his influence to bring vocations to the Diocese; is this a blunder of administration or an attempt to sabotage vocations?
Please continue to pray for the Diocese of Gaylord.