Seek the City to Come

As new parishes emerge from the recently unveiled Seek the City to Come plan for revitalizing the Catholic Church in the Baltimore metropolitan area, archdiocesan leaders are encouraging the newly forming faith communities to embrace an approach to evangelization that emulates the spirit of the apostolic age.

“This is difficult,” the bishop said. “It’s heart-wrenching. But we’re at a pivotal moment in the city church. We need to do this. We need to do this because our church membership is getting older and we’re not replacing ourselves.”

A steady stream of people was still flowing into Archbishop Curley High School more than 20 minutes after an April 25 listening session on the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Seek the City to Come parish reconfiguration proposal officially started.

Due to the anticipated need for more seating, the April 30 Seek the City to Come open public session is being moved from Our Lady of Victory to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St. The session is scheduled for 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Catholics who worship at parishes in Baltimore City have the opportunity to weigh in on the proposal for Seek the City, the archdiocesan process underway for nearly two years to change the footprint of physical locations in the city while emphasizing a eucharistic vision and a renewed vision for the city church in Baltimore.

The Seek the City to Come proposal realigns Catholic parishes throughout Baltimore City and some nearby communities in Baltimore County. Each worship site will bring the Eucharistic vision to life anew. Pastoral leadership for each location would be determined in the future.

The Seek the City to Come parish planning project undertaken by the Archdiocese of Baltimore addressed its task head on March 8, as more than 230 people gathered to build draft models of parish configurations.

As the Seek the City planning process for parishes in Baltimore City moves into the draft modeling stage, the discussion moves from what “could” be done to what “should” be done, according to Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., urban vicar.