Deacon Eric Simontis

Fifty-three parishes. Twenty-four schools. One metro area. One Roman Catholic Archdiocese. A desire to look to the Archdiocese of the future. “We really didn’t have anywhere to start,” noted Deacon Eric Simontis, former CFO of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

“I wanted to begin a conversation on what the optimal number and locations of parishes and schools might be,” Deacon Eric shared. “For instance, we had always considered adding another parish in one of the distant parts of our diocese but didn’t have enough demographic information to make the decision.” Further complicating the issue was that, despite their proximity to each other, many parishes lived in silos. Every parish and school wanted their own ministry and their own staff. They didn’t pay attention to nearby parishes.

Enter FaithX. Through MissionMaps, they layered demographic data over a map of parishes and schools. “I had my WOW slide,” Deacon Eric said. “We could show one parish that within a 15-minute drive time there were 16 other parishes.” MissionMaps also showed each parish their neighborhood, the number of children, the number of Catholic families, the number of people not claiming religion in either a five- or 15-minute drive time from the parish. “This was information not otherwise readily available to us.”

“FaithX is not there to say whether we should open or close parishes or schools,” Deacon Eric reflected, “it’s there to start conversations.” What would it look like for parishes to leave their silos and cluster together and share ministry? One parish could be a center of excellence for young adults. Another for youth. Another for community service. One school could have dual language. Another could excel in STEM.

Now the CFO of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San José, Eric and FaithX begin to bring MissionMaps data to his new community. It will aid parishes as they ask important questions. How can we generate a better sacramental experience? How can we have a better level of Catholic identity at our schools? “We’re prioritizing spiritual renewal,” Deacon Eric shared. The data from MissionMaps aids in structural renewal to make that possible.

MissionMaps provides judicatories with interactive online, map-based platform for demographics, trends, and analytics, including congregational vitality and sustainability, missional opportunity, drive-time analysis and more.