For the first time in its history, the Diocese of Columbus has established boundaries for every parish, and a map of these boundaries was made public the first week of September on the diocesan website. These are the results of a nearly two-year project initiated by Bishop Earl Fernandes.
“Historically, we had a lot of gaps in the parish boundary descriptions in our diocese, especially in our rural counties,” said Deacon Tom Berg Jr., diocesan Chancellor and coordinator of the project. “Even in the city of Columbus, there were areas not covered by parish boundaries, so it was vitally important that we addressed these situations.”
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Deacon Berg cited reasons such as being able to inform people new to a particular part of the diocese exactly which parish they reside in as well as knowing which parish would be responsible for pastoral care if a new hospital or nursing home were built, determining Catholic schools’ geographic boundaries, clarity regarding sacramental record keeping and delegation questions, and so forth.
He added that for Catholic charitable entities, it is very helpful for their service delivery efforts to know in which parish a family or individual in need lives, which in turns improves the mustering of local resources, providing spiritual care, and so forth.
“With all these boundaries set, these kind of questions can be answered much, much more quickly and efficiently,” Deacon Berg said.
The project was a team effort involving several diocesan offices. “We never could have finished this project in the time frame we did without offices collaborating with each other in a collegial and dedicated spirit,” Deacon Berg said.
Team members in addition to Deacon Berg included Wendy Piper and Robert Franz from the Vicariate Support Office; Dr. Adam Dufault, Superintendent of Catholic Schools; Michael Martz and Daidree Westbrook from the Information Technology (IT) Office; and Yvette Reategui from the Chancery Office.
“I can’t thank everyone on the team enough,” Deacon Berg said. “Everybody took to the work with a dedicated and friendly attitude. We really enjoyed working together, even though the effort was so extensive and, at times, very, very tedious.”
The effort had several phases, including verifying existing parish boundary descriptions, studying which parts of the diocese were not covered by boundary descriptions, researching diocesan and parish archives to search for boundary descriptions that were not currently known to diocesan staff, and studying current population trends.
Piper and Franz were heavily involved in the research aspect of the project, which included searching through numerous archive files to ascertain what bishops and pastors had written in the past about parish boundaries.
“The process of reviewing parish files revealed that technology has allowed for faster, if not instant communication,” Piper said. “The art of letter writing has been nearly lost. Thirty, 40 or 50+ years ago, letters were the primary form of communication and a key element of documenting parish history. Those documents from the past gave us great insights into the thinking and the growth of the diocese back then, which informed and guided what we worked on the last couple years.”
“Conducting research on parishes for the boundary project was fascinating,” Franz said. “It gave us a wonderful opportunity to learn a great deal about the history, the pastors and priests who were there, as well as the members of the parish. Sifting through all of those old documents affirmed to me how incredibly rich our history is and how far back it goes. I was surprised how is has deepened my faith.”
“The two main things in my mind about this project,” said Michael Martz, director of the IT office that provided necessary technological support, “were it helped clarify which pastors should be involved in aspects of the life of the Church: weddings, funerals, visiting the sick.
“It also helped set boundaries with an eye toward population trends and movements,” he added. His office developed digital tools that enabled the team to see visually how those trends were occurring across the diocese’s 23 counties.
Additionally, the project required, in accordance with Church law, multiple consultations: Information proposals about possible new boundaries and boundary changes were presented to all pastors in areas needing to have boundaries set or changed, including pastors of areas contiguous to those places. Then there were subsequent consultations with the diocesan Presbyteral Council.
“The priests with whom we consulted were exceptionally helpful. Their knowledge of the local areas was extensive, and those communications also helped shape the results of the project,” Deacon Berg said.
Once these phases were completed, proposed new boundaries and boundary changes were presented to Bishop Fernandes, who gave final approval to all new and changed boundaries. Afterward, decrees about new parish boundaries and changed parish boundaries were written and issued.
“Father Mike Hartge joined in the effort at the decree phase,” Deacon Berg said of the diocesan Vicar General. “His canon law expertise and excellent writing skills made this stage of the project proceed very smoothly and quickly.”
The final stage of the boundaries project was the drawing of a digital map of all the parish boundaries in the Diocese of Columbus. Personnel in the Diocesan Information Technology Office took on this task. Westbrook in the IT Office did the work of drawing the map.
“Daidree’s work is remarkable,” Deacon Berg said. “Drawing the map was painstaking and took several months.
“I have told people Daidree works in digital colors the way Michelangelo worked in frescoes, and I mean that. She took on a very, very difficult challenge and succeeded. She went about the work cheerfully and always responded patiently as countless edits were requested in order to perfect the map. I’m so grateful to her for being part of this team.”
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