South Seattle Strategic Planning

The South Seattle Deanery completed a strategic planning process in 2022 to strengthen the local Catholic community and balance available resources across the archdiocese.

Communication & Decrees

On July 8, 2022 Archbishop Etienne issued the following decrees and letters:

On May 27, 2022 the following letters and decrees were issued:

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne issued a decree and wrote a cover letter to Our Lady of Mount Virgin parish.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne wrote a letter to all the parishes involved in strategic planning in the South Seattle deanery.

September 23, 2021 Archbishop Letter to South Seattle Deanery

The Process and History

While strategic planning has been underway for decades, it intensified in 2015 in South Seattle. Pastoral leaders and members of the parish communities engaged in a consultative process, with the support of an outside consultant and made recommendations to Archbishop J. Peter Sartain. These recommendations were paused when Archbishop Sartain announced his retirement.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne inherited the recommendations and created the Strategic Planning Committee to review them, recognizing the concentration of resources in the South Seattle region, and balancing them with the need for more pastoral care in other areas of the archdiocese.

The Strategic Planning Committee reviewed the previous recommendations, explored new items, and began a larger discussion around strengthening ministries to support the mission of the Church.

Archbishop Etienne shared the recommendations with the Presbyteral Council, before asking members of the Strategic Planning Committee to begin a dialog with the parishes about the proposed directions.

Why South Seattle?

Overall, there is a concentration of parishes, ministries, and resources in the South Seattle compared to other areas of the archdiocese. In some cases, parishes are located less than 2 miles from each other, while in other parts of the archdiocese parishioners must travel 45 minutes or more to their closest parish.

Within the South Seattle deanery, no single factor determined changes for a parish. Instead, the strategic planning process includes many factors like:

Mission effectiveness
Unique and necessary ministries
Historical significance
Diversity
Economics
Cultural communities
Campus maintenance
School presence
Mass attendance and Sacramental trends
Priest availability
Needs across the archdiocese

Parishes with New Directions

These five parishes were given a new proposed direction in April 2021. The stakeholder groups from each parish, supported by the Archdiocese Strategic Planning team, worked through the strategic planning process.

St. Patrick

After parish consultation, the St. Patrick community selected to join with St. Joseph parish.

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St. Therese

The proposed changes affecting St. Therese are two-fold. First, St. Mary’s parish will merge with St. Therese. Then, St. Therese will be re-envisioning itself as a parish to enhance its vitality and mission effectiveness, according to the vision articulated by the Holy Father, so that it can effectively minister to the needs of all people living in its boundaries.

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St. Mary

St. Mary parish joined with St. Therese parish. As one community, they collaborate on the vision and execution of the critical Food Bank outreach, which has been serving the community since 1949.

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Immaculate Conception

In partnership with the Archdiocese, Immaculate Conception will be re-envisioning itself as a parish driven by the vision articulated by our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Immaculate Conception will work to enhance its vitality and mission effectiveness, so that it may effectively minister to the surrounding community and beyond.

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Our Lady of Mount Virgin

Our Lady of Mount Virgin, which was established to serve immigrant communities, and diverse multicultural communities including Vietnamese, Chinese and Laotian parishioners, will be closed. Stakeholders worked with the Archdiocese to ensure parishioners were welcomed by other parishes offering multi-cultural ministries.

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