More than 70 Catholics gathered at the St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church Thursday to discuss plans for a parish merger under the guidance of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Two draft models for parish merging in the Vicariate 4, District 3 were presented by Michel Therrien, the president of the Institute for Pastoral Leadership and the director of evangelization with the diocese, to address the declining enrollment and participation in the Catholic faith.

The district includes central Butler County and southern Lawrence County, with eight church buildings across six parishes: St. Andrew in Center Township, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen in Lyndora, St. Gregory in Evans City, St. Michael the Archangel in Butler, St. Paul in Butler and St. Peter in Butler.

Each of the 7.5 priests in the district is responsible for about 780 parishioners, according to district figures. The district also has five deacons, 10 full time lay ecclesial ministers and 22 part-time ministers.

One proposed solution is Draft Model 38, which would merge the six parishes and three others from other districts into two parishes.

Parish A would include St. Andrew, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Paul and St. Peter with one pastor, one parochial vicar, one priest chaplain, two deacons and five ministers for 46,000 total population and 3,700 estimated weekly Mass-goers.

Parish B would include three campuses for St. Gregory, St. Cecilia, Holy Family and Holy Redeemer, with the last three coming from other districts, Therrien said. This second parish would have one pastor, one parochial vicar, one priest chaplain, three deacons and five ministers for 70,000 total population and 3,100 Mass attendees.

The other model, Draft Model 39, would merge the six parishes into one, along with a seventh parish from another district, Holy Redeemer in Ellwood City.

The single-parish model would include one pastor, two parochial vicars, two priest chaplains, four deacons and seven ministers for 90,100 total population and 5,800 weekly Mass-goers, Therrien said.

In a poll that compared the two options, more than 80 percent of those people at the meeting said they would choose Draft Model 38.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is seeking feedback from parishioners through 2017. No decisions will be made until the first quarter of 2018, Therrien said.