Hot on the heels of the news out of Camden, another diocese — in fact, an archdiocese — is bracing for massive “restructuring,” i.e., parish closings and mergers.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Archbishop Alfred Hughes on Saturday began asking Catholics across metropolitan New Orleans, including those far from the flood zone, to prepare for a reorganization of Catholic life befitting a deeply damaged regional church.

In a letter being read from nearly 140 pulpits at weekend Masses, Hughes characterized the 215-year-old Archdiocese of New Orleans, the second-oldest archdiocese in the country, as a “missionary diocese” after Hurricane Katrina. He said “all sectors will share in some of the sacrifices involved” in a massive restructuring plan to be unveiled Wednesday.

Hughes offered no hint of what churches might be affected. But he said one new parish will be created, some will be merged, some closed and others reduced to mission status.

No more Catholic schools will reopen “at this time,” he stated.

In a foreshadowing of the post-Katrina reality, a representative of the Holy Cross fathers told parishioners of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish during a somber meeting Saturday that his religious order must leave the Mid-City parish it founded 129 years ago because it no longer has the priests to staff it.

“We do not have the vocations we used to have,” the Rev. Tom Chambers told about 75 older parishioners called to an extraordinary meeting at neighboring St. Anthony of Padua Church. “If we could have stayed, we would have stayed.”

Without staffing from the Holy Cross congregation, Sacred Heart would have to be supported by a dwindling number of diocesan priests. Parishioners took the news as a strong sign that a second blow is about to fall — that Sacred Heart, where jazz legend Louis Armstrong was baptized in 1901, might be closed in the archdiocesan reorganization.

“It’s like a death in the family,” said Mary Joe Decareaux.

There’s more details at the link. Stay tuned.