Parish of St. Teilo's with Our Lady of Lourdes

In early 2009, Archbishop Peter Smith asked each Parish in the city of Cardiff to

engage in discussions about the future of the Church in our city.

All questionnaire responses that were received and details of meetings held in the

Parish formed the basis of our submission, which was submitted to the Archdiocese in

March 2009.

Many thanks to all who participated in the important exercise.

Below is a brief outline why this consultation is necessary:

•	We in the Catholic Church are used to change - that’s one of our strengths! You may remember (or have heard of) Vatican II (1962-65), which made huge changes in some of our ways of doing things.
•	Involving lay-people more in the life and vision of the Church, and being aware of the changed roles of our priests and religious, continues the changes started by Vatican II.
•	Our society is changing, too, and this has an effect on the environment in which we live and believe, as Catholics. Society doesn’t always value religion or faith as we might want it to.
•	Our diocese is changing, too. Many parishes have merged, or clustered, and ten parishes have no resident priest. Twenty two churches or Mass Centres have closed. Just over 25 years ago, our diocese had a total of 113 priests in the parishes. Today there is a total of 67. Then, there were 14 priests training, today there is one. In future, it is likely that there will be eleven priests available to serve in the city of Cardiff.
•	This means that, although many priests have taken on extra responsibilities, and have had to adapt to different ways of working, we have a duty of care to them. Lay people must allow the priests to concentrate on those duties which only they can do and be flexible when it comes to the things that can be a shared responsibility in the parish.
•	It’s not all bad news, however. More and more lay-people are carrying out the ministry of the church, and Archbishop Peter encourages them to continue this development, which builds upon the work we are called to do by the Gospel.
•	Lots of discussion has already taken place to look for the best way forward. Priests, religious and lay-people are part of that discussion.
•	*“We are all called through Baptism to share in the mission of the Church.”*