Monforton

STEUBENVILLE — The Diocese of Steubenville and the Diocese of Columbus are studying a merger, an official with the Steubenville Diocese said.

Bishop Jeffrey Monforton of Steubenville met with priests, retired and active deacons and staff of the chancery on Monday and discussed, among other things, the loss of population and the loss of Catholics in the diocese, according to Communications Director Dino Orsatti.

“We have an aging population of Catholics, an aging population (in general), and aging priests. Looking five or 10 years down the road, half are going to be eligible to retire,” Orsatti said.

The Diocese of Steubenville was created Oct. 21, 1944, by Pope Pius XII. Thirteen counties in Southeast Ohio are in the diocese district, Guernsey, Washington, Athens, Meigs, Belmont, Noble, Monroe, Morgan, Gallia, Carroll, Jefferson, Harrison and Lawrence, that previously were in the Diocese of Columbus.

The theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars by David Franklin, the former Steubenville Diocese comptroller and vicar general, also is a factor, Orsatti said. Franklin failed to turn over payroll taxes he’d collected from employees of the diocese, the Office of Social Ministry and the Mount Calvary Cemetery Association, costing the diocese an additional $999,713 in interest and penalties that were assessed by the IRS when it covered the nearly $2.8 million payroll tax debt plus the employer portion of the tax.

Franklin was sentenced to a year in federal prison, after which he was to serve the balance of an 18-month state prison sentence.

In 2021, Monsignor Kurt Kemo admitted he’d diverted nearly $300,000 in funds intended for various projects in the diocese, including charitable endeavors to subsidize an extravagant lifestyle. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated theft without consent, two counts of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and falsifying financial records and spend six months in Eastern Ohio Correction Center, followed by two years of community control on each count.

“It was just a combination of everything, and the pandemic didn’t help,” Orsatti said. “When you close churches up, 20 percent of Catholics don’t come back when they open back up. It’s just a struggle. We’re the fourth smallest diocese in the country, as far as number of Catholics.”

About 60,000 Catholics were in the Steubenville Diocese in 1950, Orsatti said.

“Now we have less than 30,000,” he said. “It’s just a trend of fewer people going to Mass because we have fewer people. We have an aging population, an aging Catholic base. We’re getting a lot more funerals than baptisms.”

The bishop will “survey all the parishioners, get their thoughts, talk to the Ohio bishops,” Orsatti said.

“If the Ohio bishops think it’s a good idea, he’ll present it to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They meet next month in Baltimore,” Orsatti said

If the conference thinks it makes sense, the proposed merger then goes to the Vatican, he said.

“The pope is the only person who can make this decision — it has to come from the Vatican if it’s going to happen, whether we’ll be a satellite office of diocese or what.”

If approved, the merger would only be the second since 2020. in The other was the merger of the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska, with the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

Orsatti said there’s no timeline.

“We don’t have one,” he said. “We’re dealing with the Vatican, it’s not a decision we’re doing so there’s no timeline.”

The Steubenville Diocese is comprised of 50 parishes and 36 priests.

Among the churches in Washington County are the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption in Marietta, St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Little Hocking, St. John the Baptist in Churchtown, St. Bernard’s Catholic Church Beverly, St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Lower Salem and Our Lady of Mercy in Lowell.