Monsignor John McDermott held a meeting at St Joseph, Grand Isle to have a discussion about the future of the two parishes in Grand Isle County. [St Rose and St Amadeus]

Some factoids about the state of the Diocese:
Vt has 69 priests of which 3 are retiring this year.
65 are in parish ministry
15-18 are missionaries or Ordered priests [like Edmundites]
That leaves 45-47 diocesan parish priests in Vt.

There are 73 Parishes in Vt
Those parishes support 120 church buildings

Thus we have 45-47 priests to support 120 churches.

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With the shortage of priests there is a need to manage the Grand Isle County Parishes using a single priest. The proposal before the Bishop is to:
1- Merge both parishes into a single parish [Name to be determined]
   -Single Parish Council
   -Single Finance Council
2- Retain the four churches and close nothing
   - St Rose [South Hero]
   - St Joseph [Grand Isle]
   - St Amadeus [Alburgh]
   - St Joseph [Isle La Motte]
3- Adjust Mass Schedule to allow a single priest to 'make the rounds'
   - St Rose [South Hero]  4PM Saturday
   - St Joseph [Isle La Motte] 6PM Saturday
   - St Joseph [Grand Isle] 9AM Sunday
   - St Amadeus [Alburgh] 10:30AM Sunday

The new schedule will be started with the weekend of May 1.
The Bishop will decide if that is the way he wants to go.

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There was 30+ minutes of general discussion with very candid answers.
The new priest will be decided at a personnel meeting next Thursday and was not announced today.  There is a concerted attempt to have the new priest installed as our pastor in the beginning of June.
Suggestions about evangelization were brought up as a mechanism to employ in bringing members back to church.  Catholics do a lot of community service but rarely identify the service with catholic culture and 'we do this because it is what Jesus wants' types of statements.  If a few families a year can come back or sign up and they contribute one or all of the three 'T's [Time  Talent  Treasure] then each church will become much more viable.
The idea of using facebook was raised as a means to contact younger folks.  The Monsignor stated he has an account because the Bishop uses his account.  Bishop Coyne is very into the 'new media' but the diocese has not and will not declare any tool as required use.  All tools are up to the comfort level of the parish priest and will not be dictated to that priest.
Concerns have been raised about the controls associated with these types of media and mechanisms to stop blatantly incorrect comments from being published.  A whole new world for us all to explore....

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The meeting ended at about 8:05PM with lots of sideline discussion as the congregation from the four churches departed.