ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Detroit Archdiocese and its recent attempts to reorganize itself in the face of metropolitan and demographic changes. It describes how changes in the Detroit metropolitan area have entailed increased urban inequality. This feature of metropolitan stratification will be shown to be a significant context for archdiocesan reorganization processes. The chapter also discusses the archdiocesan process of organizing itself into vicariates, or administrative clusterings of parishes, in hopes of better utilizing existing resources and determining what new resources and facilities are needed. It explains how the patterns of inequality found in metropolitan Detroit have influenced the reorganization process, how certain mechanisms of stratification have become an unanticipated part of the process, and offers some conceptual explanations for the empirical patterns so far detected. The chapter shows an array of data indicating that each vicariate is located ecologically in different sectors of Detroit and that they reflect the area's pattern of inequality.
