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The Diocese of Scranton has repeatedly stressed the time taken and number of people involved in making final decisions on church consolidations. Here is a shortened version of the time line the diocese cites.

December 2007: Bishop Joseph Martino announces a comprehensive planning project for every parish in the 11-county diocese, appoints a Diocesan Planning Commission and retains The Reid Group as project consultants.

January 2008: Each parish forms a parish core team to help in planning, consisting of the pastor and four other parish members. Eight regional meetings are held, at which The Reid Group prepares parish core teams to conduct self-evaluations of their parishes based on data compiled for the diocese by each pastor.

February-April 2008: Using 20 criteria approved by Martino, core teams evaluate their parishes, then present findings to other parish committees or councils and to parishioners, seeking input.

April-June 2008. The 224 parishes in the diocese are grouped into 50 clusters; each cluster has a cluster core team consisting of the parish core team members from the cluster. They study parish self-evaluations and suggest one or more of four models for parishes in the cluster: consolidation to form a new parish, linking parishes under one pastor, establishing partnerships with other parishes to operate joint programs and share resources, and forming teams of two or more priests, deacons and lay people who would serve multiple parishes.
Concurrent with this and further actions, pastors arrange for professional evaluations of their churches and other facilities currently in use. Evaluations are submitted to the diocesan facilities manager by Sept. 2.

June 15, 2008: The suggestions from each cluster core team are presented to the Diocesan Planning Commission.

June 30-July 2, 2008: The Diocesan Planning Commission reviews the suggestions and responds by formulating preliminary recommendations for each cluster. A Times Leader analysis in July shows the central planning commission “respectfully” disagreed with the parish proposals of 21 out of the 50 parish clusters.

July 19-20, 2008: All parishioners receive a pastoral planning timeline in parish bulletins. Preliminary recommendations are announced to each parish the following weekend.

Jan. 30-31, 2009: A recording tailored for each cluster is played at church Mass services, with Bishop Martino announcing the final decisions on consolidation.