As Catholics made their way to church on Sunday, they may have noticed fewer people in the pews or one priest covering multiple parishes.
Since 2017, the Diocese of Erie has been restructuring parishes to make sure they are serving the community in the best way possible.
For the past few years, the Diocese of Erie has worked with area parishes to find the best way continue to serve others while dealing with set-backs, a solution has been to merge parishes.
Msgr. Ed Lohse, Vicar General of the Diocese of Erie said, "There are quite a number of places in the Diocese right now that are in the middle of planning processes, at various stages, some are just beginning some are coming through to the end."
It's a long process for this to happen, it all starts with the parishioners coming together to meet and discuss before a plan makes its way to the bishop.
"Parishioners by in larger have been very engaged in this, you know they have been invited to be engaged with this and they have accepted that invitation", said Msgr. Lohse.
There's a number of reasons of why a restructuring plan is needed here in the Diocese of Erie, not only is there a lack of parishioners but also a shortage of priests.
"It definitely has an effect on parish staffing, we have a lot of our priests that are currently pastoring two parishes, some still pastor one parish", explained Msgr. Lohse.
Msgr. Lohse said Covid-19 has certainly delayed the process but it hasn't halted it, there's still a lot of wok happening behind the scenes. Still, he knows that some churches will have to close and parishes will have to merge so priests can continue to serve people.
"Realistically, I think anyone who looks at it objectively would say we have more buildings than we need, so it's likely that more will be closing but we do that very reluctantly", said Msgr. Lohse.
Some churches have already been restructured, most recently, a handful in Meadville have merged.
This has been an on-going problem for years that is now getting closer and closer to home.