July 28, 2024 | Evangelization and Seek the City to Come

Catholic Review Radio

In May, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori announced the final plan for Seek the City to Come, a parish planning initiative designed to strengthen the Catholic Church’s presence in Baltimore City and some neighboring communities in Baltimore County. Under the plan, the number of parishes in those regions will be reduced from 61 to 23, and the number of worship sites will be reduced from 59 to 30. Seek the City is now in its implementation stage as many parishes begin the process of coming together to form new faith communities in the coming months. Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., who has spearheaded the Seek the City initiative over the last two years, has emphasized that every parish is being asked to evangelize the neighborhoods surrounding their communities. Joining George Matysek Jr. to talk about how that will take place and how the Archdiocese of Baltimore will be supporting parishes in a new approach to evangelization is Julie St. Croix. St. Croix was recently appointed the new director of Seek the City, taking over the position from her predecessor, Geri Byrd. St. Croix is the director of the Office of Parish Renewal for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. She is a former pastoral associate for Bishop Denis J. Madden in the urban vicariate and a former coordinator of pastoral leadership formation. She also has six years experience as director of religious education at St. John the Evangelist in Frederick.