Pierce Deanery Strategic Planning

The Pierce Deanery is the first to be part of the renewed strategic planning effort across the Archdiocese. The deanery began its urgent strategic planning work after Holy Rosary Parish was determined to no longer be viable.

A New Parish Vision

Following Archbishop Paul D. Etienne’s vision to foster a sustainable, thriving Catholic community in Tacoma, the Pierce Deanery continues efforts to merge Holy Rosary, Visitation, St. Rita and St. Ann parishes into one new parish, associated with the mission of St. John of the Woods.

Pastors of these parishes appointed lay members to a joint Stakeholder group to lead this process. These Stakeholders will invite parishioners to play an active role in shaping the new parish that embraces cultural diversity, creates missionary disciples, and provides multiple ministries for the community.

Corpus Christi Mass at St. Ann with altar servers from Holy Rosary, Visitation and St. Ann. Photos courtesy of Francine Mastini.

LET US JOURNEY TOGETHER

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for gathering us together and calling us to serve as your disciples. You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, and his shepherds, with the great mission of evangelizing and witnessing your love to the world.

Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern Your will for the spiritual renewal of our parish communities. Give us strength, courage, and clear vision as we use our gifts to serve You.

We entrust our parish families to the care of Mary, our Mother and ask for her intercession and guidance as we strive to bear witness to the Gospel, celebrating the qualities of each faith-filled community and together building an engaging parish.

Amen

Embracing Parish Heritage

We honor the unique history and rich contributions from each of these five parishes. These parish communities have enriched the lives of their parishioners and have positively impacted their local communities. Each will bring its unique gifts and talents to the new parish to continue the long-standing history of helping others know Christ.

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish, Tacoma

Founded in 1891, Holy Rosary, which welcomed German-speaking Catholics, was the second parish in the Tacoma area. lts first pastor was Father William Eversmann, O.S.B. who celebrated Mass in German and opened a school in September of 1891.

Link to more info

St. Ann, Tacoma

Established in 1924, St. Ann parish has been a home for many multi-cultural communities including the Korean, Somoan and Vietnamese communities.

Link to more info

St. John of the Woods, Tacoma

Established in 1926 by Fr. Huber T. J. Mertens, St. John of the Woods was a small rural Catholic parish. Its church burned down in 1940 and was rebuilt in 1947, along with a parish hall completed in 1958.

Link to more info

St. Rita of Cascia, Tacoma

Established in 1922, St. Rita of Cascia celebrates a rich Italian heritage and a history of service and outreach to the local community.

Link to more info

Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Mary, Tacoma

Established in 1892, Visitation parish is rooted in the Benedictine Order. Its church building was erected in 1912 and is known for its stained-glass windows.

Link to more info

Visitation STEM Academy

On August 23, 1925, Visitation Catholic School was dedicated. Today the school has a strong emphasis on teaching the faith, project-based collaborative learning, and providing an excellent education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Link to more info

Resources for Parishes

Communication Updates

May 2002

News Release: Archbishop Issues Decrees for New Parish in Tacoma

January 2022

Recap of Archbishop Etienne's Opening at the Stakeholder meeting

September - December 2021

Communication Update

August 2021

June/July 2021

May 2021

Official Letters and Decrees

On May 6, 2022, Archbishop Etienne issued decrees for each merging parish to form the new parish of St. John XXIII.

On March 8, 2022, Archbishop Etienne wrote a letter to all the joint stakeholders and included answers to their questions from the listening session.

Archbishop March 2022 letter

On September 23, 2021 Archbishop wrote a letter to the entire deanery.

Archbishop letter to deanery

On July 1, 2021 three canonical decrees were issued:

On May 15, 2021 Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg wrote a letter to all the parishes providing an update on the strategic planning process.

Read it here

On November 21, 2020 Archbishop Paul D. Etienne wrote a letter to outline the vision for the strategic planning work in the Pierce Deanery.

Read it here

Video Message from Archbishop Etienne

List of Parish Stakeholders

Holy Rosary — Joseph DeVega, Lisa Petrino, Thom Ryng, Heather Shea and Helen Talbo
St. Ann — Cathy Bunger, Bao Tran Doan, L.B. Gilmer, Minh Nguyen, Sr. Theresa Nguyen, Vo Thuy Tien, and Louie Tran
St. Rita — Marla Grassi, Debbi Orlando
Visitation — Linda Lamb, Marc Nuno, Owen O’Neill, LoAnn Rector, Rick Keller-Scholz, Dn. Mike Teskey, and Jeannie Wargo
St. John of the Woods — Mario Castillo, Gaye Dolan, Paul Giovanni, Twyla Hamrast, Joan Oshea, Daniel Soderlind, Larry Volland, and Mark Wiegman

Subcommittees

Communication – Kathy McSperitt (parish support staff: Helen McClenahan)
Diversity –Joseph DeVega
(parish support staff: Dn Carl Chilo)
Facility/Environment – Cathy Bunger (parish support staff: Ed Foster)
Formation/Evangelization – Sister Theresa
(parish support staff: Faith Formation department)
Financial Support/Stewardship – Owen O’Neill
(parish support staff: Scott Bader/Steve Homiack)
History/Archives – Lisa Petrino
(parish support staff: Seth Dalby)
Liturgical Support – Thom Ryng
(parish support staff: Jennifer Day)
Ministries – Helen Talbo
(parish support staff: Al Larpenteur)
Outreach/Support – Jeannie Wargo & Dn Mike Teskey
(parish support staff: Erica Cohen Moore)
School – Marc Nuno
(parish support staff: Kristin Dixon)

Glossary of Terms

Stakeholders – Each parish selected 6-8 lay members to be part of the joint Stakeholder group. These Stakeholders will work together to create the vision for the new parish community.
Subcommittees – The Stakeholders will develop Subcommittees to focus on specific areas. For example, a Subcommittee may focus on the faith formation programs for this new parish.
Taskforce – A Taskforce is a temporary working group assigned to a specific topic within one of the Subcommittees.

Read Full Parish Toolkit

Common Questions

Read full Q&A here

What will this parish look like?

At this time, no one knows. The vision is to create a united, vibrant and engaged parish
community of missionary disciples that reflects the vision set forth by Pope Francis and envisioned by Archbishop Etienne. This new parish will include many ministries, including the current Vietnamese ministries, community outreach opportunities and Visitation STEM Academy Catholic School.

The Stakeholders will engage in dialogue in various meetings and create subcommittees to address topics like evangelization, faith formation, creating disciples, finances, operations, and more.

Why these parishes?

These four parishes are clustered closely together in Tacoma. The deanery selected these parishes because of their location, their populations, and the needs of the larger community. By combining these four parishes into one new parish, with St. John of the Woods as an affiliated Mission, the new parish will draw from a larger geographic area and have a better potential to form a mission based, thriving Catholic community. Current parishioners will not have to travel much further to join their new parish ministries or attend Mass.

What was the decision process for this?

In partnership with the archdiocese, the Pierce Deanery, which covers the Tacoma area, began its recent round of strategic planning several years ago to review the changing nature of the region and impacts of this. This planning including meetings at both the deanery level and the parish leadership level. Specifically, initial discussion began around how to better serve the region and solicited input from various parishes through several deanery leadership gatherings.

After this planning began, the ceiling on the Holy Rosary church fell and attention shifted to the immediate pressing needs of the Holy Rosary parish community. The archdiocese worked with Holy Rosary parish leadership to discuss its viability as a standalone parish. Ultimately, it was determined that Holy Rosary parish is no longer a viable community capable of carrying out its mission.

With this pressing need to support the parishioners of Holy Rosary parish, and the reality that other neighboring parishes are also facing serious (and in some cases, similar) challenges, the Pierce Deanery accelerated its strategic planning process. After reviewing multiple assessments, data on parish vitality and in-depth discussions, the deanery leadership recommended that joining Holy Rosary, Visitation, St. Rita and St. Ann would be the best way to form a vibrant and thriving community to evangelize and help the people of the region encounter Christ, with St. John of the Woods as an affiliated Mission.

What happens to the buildings and assets from each of the parishes?

All the buildings, artifacts, finances and more from each of the four parishes will
belong to the new parish. The Stakeholders will develop an inventory and audit process for all the items and then determine how to best utilize them on behalf of the new parish in carrying out its mission. They may choose to move them to the parish campus, leave them where they are, offer them to other parishes, sell them or a combination of these options.

"We are so grateful to have engaged Catholics at our parishes who are willing to participate in this important journey. This is undoubtedly a challenging journey – and one that none of us would elect to take. However, faced with today’s realities – fewer active Catholics, an abundance of parishes, a lack of priests, and a decline in many ministries and Sacraments – we must consolidate our efforts so that we can be better positioned to achieve our mission of spreading the Gospel."

~ Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg, January 2021 Letter