For a long time, Catholic spatial and leadership structures were strongly localized and organized in small-scale. Every village was a parish with its priest as the leader of the religious community. This model is firmly anchored in both canon law and state-church law in Germany. In light of the increasing shortage of priests, financial resources and church members, as well as modern discussions on the involvement of laypeople in church leadership and the professionalization of church organizations, dioceses have adopted various strategies to address these sometimes contradictory principles. Church leaders and their administrations are challenged to find a way between pastoral ambitions, organizational limitations, and legal requirements. The paper examines the different manoeuvres of the Catholic dioceses to comply with the requirements and aspirations. In the presentation, we will (1) provide an overview and categorization of the different approaches among the German dioceses, (2) examine contrasting solutions further to identify organizational and religious effects, and (3) offer a brief assessment of the consequences of these pathways for the landscape of Christian Congregations in Germany.