Over the weekend, parishioners at 76 churches across 30 counties in northeast Iowa attended the final Eucharistic Masses with their community parish — at least for the foreseeable future. The rite is the central act of worship in the faith and an obligation for observant Catholics.
Many will now have to travel outside their communities to receive Sunday communion as the Archdiocese of Dubuque embarks on a restructuring process, which will consolidate its 160 parishes into 24 pastorates, defined on the archdiocese's website as parish groupings, which are expected to merge over time.
The reorganization, known as Journey in Faith, takes effect July 14 with an interim Mass schedule expected to last six months. At that point, the archdiocese will assess the plan and may make adjustments.
A broader trend
Mass attendance in the archdiocese has fallen 46% in the last 20 years, and Catholic marriages have declined 57%. In addition to reducing Mass locations, the plan aims to reduce the number of priests in the archdiocese from 85 currently serving to 55 by 2040.
The trend is not isolated to the state’s northeast. The Diocese of Sioux City conducted a similar process in 2017, ending weekend Mass at 41 parishes. Church consolidations and closures have occurred elsewhere in the Midwest, including in Missouri and Michigan.
“In the last 20 to 30 years, Midwestern Catholicism has declining rates of Catholics participating in Mass,” University of Iowa Religion Professor Kristy Nabhan-Warren said on IPR's River to River. “So, various archdioceses across the Midwest, and country, have had to make some really hard decisions.”
Difficult decisions
That decision-making process was brought to many parishioners in the Dubuque archdiocese in the fall of 2025. Marcy Horst, who has attended Mass at the St. Mary of Vinton parish for 35 years, agreed to lead her church’s Journey in Faith committee. At the time, she knew little about the process.
At a meeting in Cedar Rapids in September 2025, she learned the plan would cause many churches to lose weekend worship.
“Our parish was slated to continue to have Mass, so there was some relief,” she said. “But we were in the same room with all these other people from all these other parishes who would lose Mass, and it was very shocking — disturbing. I actually cried on the drive home.”
Horst’s relief for her own parish disappeared in April, when the archdiocese released its final pastorate plan. It listed Vinton among the parishes losing weekend services.
“We were stunned,” Horst recalled.
The parish met the archdiocese’s criteria to maintain Mass: its building is handicap accessible and has a sprinkler system; it added a $1.3 million gathering space to the front of the church in 2016; and the parish is debt-free and located in a county seat.
“We did everything the archdiocese recommended,” Horst said.
The parish appealed the decision to the archbishop. Failing to hear a reply, they appealed again to the Vatican, where a dicastery — a council representing the Pope — will offer a final decision.
Horst said the Journey in Faith process has left her feeling disheartened.
“The very unfortunate part to me is that I would say at least half of our current church-going parishioners are no longer going to attend a Sunday Mass," she said. "Some are elderly. Some are just disillusioned. There are all sorts of reasons, but I have spoken to many, many people who are not going to do it.”
A path toward "vibrancy"
Resistance to the plan is not unique to Vinton. A group called Save Our Churches, Save Our Communities formed to “address resource concerns without dissolving parish communities or eliminating Mass,” according to its website.
The group has gathered nearly 4,000 members on Facebook, and has supported parishes, like Vinton, that are appealing the plan.
Nabhan-Warren, who is not Catholic, said, from a scholar’s perspective, the Archdiocese of Dubuque has made efforts to hear from parishioners throughout the Journey in Faith initiative.
“From what I've read and seen, it has been a very thoughtful, iterative process,” she said.
That’s been the archdiocese’s goal.
Communications Director and Deacon John Robbins said they have strived for “transparency.” Recognizing the process has brought forward “hurt and related anger,” he presented Journey in Faith as an opportunity for revival.
“We're asking that parishioners look through the perspective of not only what our ancestors have done, but what our descendants are going to receive,” Robbins said. “To ensure we have a bright future, we need to pool our resources, and we need to be unified.”
The archdiocese emphasizes the plan does not involve parish closures. Impacted churches will remain open for weddings and funerals, and some will continue to hold weekday services.
“We have this hope that through vibrancy, through combined efforts, we will not need to close any parishes. That is our hope,” Robbins said.
Parishioners may still be wondering: will the plan succeed in creating a sustainable future for the archdiocese?
The archdiocese continues to serve 180,000 Catholics in northeast Iowa, and the Catholic Church is attracting new members at high rates across the U.S., including in Des Moines.
But in rural areas, Nabhan-Warren said the church will have to adapt.
“We're going to need to see a change in how things are run with the institutional church, especially in areas that are sparsely populated, like Iowa,” she said.
Journey in Faith and similar processes elsewhere are evidence that “the church is changing. American society is changing," she added.
