“Under the plan, existing parishes in the Cincinnati archdiocese— of which there are currently more than 200— have been grouped together into 53 ‘families’ of between 5 to 7 on average,” according to the report.

In announcing the plan, the archdiocese said that “the number of registered Catholic households in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has declined at a rate of 2.72 per day for the past decade. . . . The number of available priests will decrease by approximately 20% by 2026.”