STEUBENVILLE — Diocese of Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton is exploring the possibility of a merger with the Diocese of Columbus, a spokesman confirmed Monday.

“It’s a long process,” Communications Director Dino Orsatti said. “He brought everybody together this afternoon (Monday) — priests, deacons — retired and active, chancery staff … and he brought all the figures out showing the loss of population, the loss of Catholics (in the diocese.) We have an aging population of Catholics, an aging population (in general), and aging priests. Looking five or 10 years down the road, half are going to be eligible to retire. There are a lot of factors to consider, he doesn’t know if it will be viable.”

The theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the former diocesan comptroller and vicar general also were a factor, he said, though far from the biggest: David Franklin, the former comptroller, admitted paying himself nearly $300,000 in performance bonuses he hadn’t earned, and failing to report his extra income to the IRS. He also failed to turn over payroll taxes he’d collected from employees of the diocese, the Office of Social Ministry and the Mount Calvary Cemetery Association, costing the diocese an additional $999,713 in interest and penalties that were assessed by the IRS when it covered the nearly $2.8 million payroll tax debt plus the employer portion of the tax.

Franklin was sentenced to a year in federal prison, after which he was to serve the balance of an 18-month state prison sentence.

In 2021, Monsignor Kurt Kemo admitted he’d diverted nearly $300,000 in funds intended for various projects in the diocese, including charitable endeavors, to subsidize his extravagant lifestyle. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated theft without consent, two counts of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and falsifying financial records and spent six months in Eastern Ohio Correction Center, followed by two years of community control on each count.

“It was just a combination of everything, and the pandemic didn’t help,” Orsatti added. “When you close churches up, 20 percent of Catholics don’t come back when they open back up. It’s just a struggle — we’re the fourth smallest diocese in the country, as far as number of Catholics.”

The Diocese of Steubenville was established in 1944, carved out of the Diocese of Columbus.

Orsatti said back in 1950, there were around 60,000 Catholics in the diocese.

“Now we have less than 30,000,” he said. “It’s just a trend of fewer people going to Mass because we have fewer people. We have an aging population, an aging Catholic base … we’re getting a lot more funerals than baptisms.”

He said the bishop will “survey all the parishioners, get their thoughts, talk to the Ohio bishops.”

“If the Ohio bishops think it’s a good idea, he’ll present it to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They meet next month in Baltimore,” Orsatti said

If the USCCB thinks it makes sense, then it goes to the Vatican, he said.

“The pope is the only person who can make this decision — it has to come from the Vatican if it’s going to happen, whether we’ll be a satellite office of diocese or what.”

He said there’s no timeline.

“We don’t have one,” he said. “We’re dealing with the Vatican, it’s not a decision we’re doing so there’s no timeline.”

The diocese’s 13 counties have a population of 490,000, about 7 percent of it — nearly 30,000 — Catholic. It’s currently home to 50 parishes and 36 priests.