Renew My Church

St. Bernadette is seeking input on whether our grouping for Renew My Church is suitable for the parish. Our grouping includes St. Thomas More, St. Dennis, and St. Bede Parishes. You may view this Youtube video and listen to Fr. Don Nevis, co-chair of the steering committee for Renew My Church, speak about the grouping process. The entire video also includes Archbishop Cupich speaking about his vision for Renew My Church.

All parishes and schools in the Archdiocese will be in a grouping. For some groupings, the planning process may result in new configurations. There will be some groupings, however, in which reconfiguration will not result. All groupings will be charged with more formal collaboration and/or support of parishes in other areas of the Archdiocese.

The ultimate purpose for forming groupings is to better position ourselves to most effectively carry out our mission of evangelization and making disciples, in a sustainable manner, with the opportunities and challenges of our current times. No parish can be everything to everyone. Many of today’s challenges, both of evangelization and finances, require looking and working beyond our individual parish.

A set of parishes should be considered a good grouping if they:

• Are reasonably close geographically
• Serve the same broader community (e.g. the parishes serve the same public school district(s).)
• There are obvious commonalities and affinities (e.g. parishioners occasionally attend Mass at more than one parish in the grouping.)

Please speak to a member of the Parish or Finance Councils or a member of the parish staff if you would like to give us your input.

For more information about Renew My Church, please the Archdiocese of Chicago's Frequently Asked Questions. You are also encouraged to view the demographic information, as well as projected changes to the demographics, for the parish boundaries of St. Bernadette as well as the surrounding parishes, which may help to explain the reason for our proposed grouping. This information is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.



Feedback is requested before September 21.