Vatican reviewing complaints against Cleveland bishop
Jason Berry draws a scathing portrait of Cleveland’s Bishop Richard Lennon in his new book, Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church for closing solvent parishes in Cleveland and, earlier, in Boston when he was an auxiliary bishop. He writes:
Lennon approached Cleveland like a banker redlining loans in poor neighborhoods. As chief executive officer he would follow the trail of prosperity, shift priests to suburban parishes, recapitalize the diocese. Shuttering inner-city churches and historic gems in old enclaves was pragmatism. In Boston he had suppressed wealthy parishes in order to sell churches in plugging a deficit that trailed back to the 1990s, exacerbated by the abuse cases. In Cleveland he would prevent deficits with early, tough chopping-block decisions.
So it is interesting to see that Bishop John M. Smith, bishop-emeritus of Trenton, is to visit the Cleveland diocese in behalf of the Holy See this week to review Lennon’s actions. Bishop Lennon explained it this way in a press release:
“While I am confident that I am faithfully handling the responsibilities entrusted to me, I personally made this request earlier this year because a number of persons have written to Rome expressing their concerns about my leadership of the Diocese. This visit will be an opportunity to gather extensive information on all aspects of the activities of the Diocese and will allow for an objective assessment of my leadership. I ask for prayers that this process will support the vibrancy and vitality of our Diocese going forward.”
Bishop Lennon was not the only one to request a Vatican investigation; according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a local pastor and others did as well. Many are embittered over the plan Lennon announced in 2009 to close 29 of the diocese’s 224 parishes and merge 41 more into others.
Is Bishop Lennon trampling the parishioners’ rights under canon law?
I thought the question should be is Bishop Lennon (of”poor little man” fame) handling the pastoral needs of his diocese appropriately?
Of course that might leade to questions of several other Bishops who are “reorganizing”, etc.
If we leave this to the canon lawyers, there’ll be lots of weight given to episcopal discretion, which begs the question of episcopal SERVICE.
” This visit will be an opportunity to gather extensive information on all aspects of the activities of the Diocese and will allow for an objective assessment of my leadership. ”
Now THAT’S how to welcome a Vatican visitation.
If bishop Smith says/finds anything remotely negative about bishop Lennon he had better find a better place to go than the next USCCB meeting. Say hello to the Poconos.
Jason Berry knows nothing about Cleveland, where I live. While a handful of the individual parish closing decisions made by Bishop Lennon seem questionable to me, there is no doubt that the overall process was absolutely necessary.
Back when Cleveland was the fifth largest city in the United States, hundreds of thousands of Catholics lived within the city’s boundaries, and each ethnic group had its own parish. My father was educated at the grade school at a Slovak parish, which was within walking distance of three Irish parishes, two German parishes, a Polish parish, and a Hungarian parish.
Sadly, Cleveland is no longer the fifth largest city in the United States. We’re just barely in the top thirty metro areas (or barely in the top twenty metro areas, if you add Akron). Three generations or more after Ellis Island, following widespread assimilation, there no longer is a need for multiple ethnic parishes within short distance of each other, particularly when most urban congregations are tiny and the Diocese of Cleveland, like other dioceses in the United States, no longer has the multitude of priests it once did. And the reality is that most Catholics in this area long ago left the city for the suburbs.
One other note about Bishop Lennon. In the many years I have worked in downtown Cleveland, I saw his predecessor celebrate one ordinary weekday Mass at the cathedral, and I do not remember ever seeing him in the confessional. Bishop Lennon regularly celebrates weekday Mass and hears confession at the cathedral. There was even a time when Lennon assigned himself the unenviable task of hearing confessions at 6:30 am on Wendesday mornings. I don’t know if he’s still hearing confessions then, but he is far more active as a priest for those of us who work or live downtown than Bishop Pilla ever was.
“there no longer is a need for multiple ethnic parishes within short distance of each other,”
I think that is a problem in the City of Philadelphia as well. The parish school I once attended closed because of underenrollment several years ago. Within the parish boundaries, there was an ethnic Italian parish which had its own school and which drew off Italian-Americans from our parish. The Italian Church was not serving new Americans; its congregation was people who were born here and who were fully integrated into the community. (There was also a Ukrainian Rite church in our neighborhood that had its own school as well).
I don’t think the ethnic Italian parish makes sense any more for my old neighborhood; it should merge into the conventional parish. I’m sure that would cause quite a lot of outrage among parishioners if that happened, but I think over time a united parish would do more to build community.
Apparently the people who have written to Rome have some clout which gives cause to wonder about motivation. Except for when a bishop callously closes churches, as Egan did in New York, it is hard to fault bishops for closing parishes who have hardly any parishioners left. In my view many churches should have closed years ago. The reform movement should be wary of getting into these battles unless it does its homework. Just because people are objecting to what a bishop does does not ipso facto mean he is wrong.
I would like to have more information in this case. There are without question serious problems with the administration of church finances. In this case, neither Berry nor anyone else appears to come up with sufficient data to back the assertions. I have to finish this book by Berry. So far it does not seem to have the clear facts that his earlier works have.
As an urban planner with considerable demographic experience, I mostly agree with the trend of these comments. As neighborhood change occurs, parochial needs may also change. However, there are other questions to ask: E.g., What is the basic motivation for the parish closings? Is it to raise money? For what purpose? Will the parishes be “merged” (in which case they can take their money, etc. with them) or will they be “alienated” (in which case the diocese takes all)? The answers to questions like these may be very telling.
I had a sudden insight the other day, in another context; but it may apply here, too: There are about 30 million former Catholics in the U.S.: Consider if each of these 30 million put only one dollar in the collection only once a month, on average. As Senator Everett Dirksen used to say, “Pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of money.” That would be $360 million/year. If those same 30 million Catholics averaged only one dollar PER WEEK, the total would be a staggering $1.56 BILLION per year. Perhaps this explains why the bishops may find themselves so short of cash that they feel the need to take various drastic actions.
If the bishops think that things are going to get better, they are probably dreaming (given the current climate of opinion about the Catholic Church, both within and without). All things considered, it is probably best to try to avoid riling up the faithful we still have left.
Is the Church in the rest of the developed world as much in danger of disappearing as the American church? It’s amazing the effect the social changes in the second half of the century had on the community of believers. My guess is that the older generations didn’t change much but that the incoming generations were totally different.
Same in other ways for society as a whole, probably. There must be a gold mine here waiting to be explored in hindsight by sociologists in future generations. I wonder what name they’ll select to describe that dramatic sea change – rift, break, earthquake, transformation, displacement, shift, schism, canyon? What will be seen as the primary causes? The phenomemon will probably shine a strong light on the nature – and the fragility – of such things as belief and trust. We in the generations immediately before that of the Boomers are in the privileged position of living on both sides of the change. Fascinating.
Jason Berry knows a very great deal about Cleveland, having investigated the archdiocese and written extensively about it since 1987.
He covers financial matters in Cleveland at length in the new book, indicating to me when he was writing it, that he thought he’d never get out of Cleveland. The nuncio has been flooded with letters about Lennon’s leadership, more than any other diocese, according to Sambi.
Lennon is highly unpopular, part of it being his personal style. I’ve heard repeatedly how sour the atmosphere is. Police protection has sometimes become necessary at final masses.
“Dick Leonard was an introvert. Although he made public appearances, he typically got to his desk before dawn, toiling some nights until eleven.
His formal manner was often brusque; the thick Boston accent held few hints of joy. At a meeting for clergy dialogue he spoke for nearly three hours, leaving a brief window for priests’ comments…Lennon was cold…”
In addition, “The Diocese of Cleveland fails to provide parishioners with the audited financial information needed to assess the economic state of the diocese,” comments Western Michigan University professor of accountancy Jack Ruhl, an authority on diocesan financial statements.
The Finance Office has been so narrowly defined that financial reports for it exclude ‘troublesome’ accounts…They don’t list (them). This is not transparent financial reporting. Too much remains hidden.”
Parishes could be determined by viability, even if there’s one on every block. Thirty fully tithing families can support one full-time minister, so it would seem the lower limit is fairly small.
A wiser course of action would be to let parishes themselves determine if they stay open or will shutter.
Beyond that, given that the viri probati option is off the table, the diocese might be able to promise a resident pastor for as many clergy as it has available. For parishes under that limit, their option is to share a pastor with another parish or hire a retired priest for Sunday Mass. Links and merging could happen by pastoral council-level negotiations followed by a petition to the bishop or personnel board.
The diocese probably should have a lower standard for keeping parishes open, but I wouldn’t think that would include loans, subsidies, or such until a long-term viability without a priest was determined.
Another option would be evangelization. Target inactive Catholics and/or a strong catechumenate.
Chanceries closing parishes betrays an immaturity all around. Bishops making unpopular decisions. Lay people allowing themselves to be victims. If it were made clear that operating a parish was hard work, the determining factor would be how hard the parishioners were willing to work to make it happen. In my diocese, a few parishes have closed voluntarily, and nearly every small-town parish shares a priest. It’s the solution that works best on the parish-level, and it’s been in the works for fifteen years. There are more adult ways to handle these situations.
I’ve observed a sort of “hollowing out” process throughout the upper Midwest, and I believe the same pattern holds along the East Coast as well:
* Through the first half of the 20th century, the church serves Catholics who tend to be urban poor. Lots of investment made in parish plant – churches, schools – in the urban core areas
* Due in no small part to those investments, urban Catholics prosper. Starting in the 2nd half of the 20th century, they migrate to middle-class neighborhoods on the edges of the city; inner-ring suburbs; and then to outer suburbs and exurbs.
* The church follows the migration, building or, more frequently, expanding existing parishes to serve the middle-class and upper-middle-class descendants of the urban poor.
* The urban neighborhoods from which those urban poor Catholics moved away, or to which their descendants did not return after army or college, experience demographic change – frequently enough, African-American or Spanish-speaking poor move into those houses and apartments.
* As a sort of “clean-up”, the church at the end of the 20th century and beginning of 21st century determines what to do about the old urban plant, which no longer is economically sustainable, and which the church now lacks the clergy and religious to administer; and about the demographically changed, and frequently diminished, faith communities that continue to worship in those churches.
There is nothing remarkable about what I’ve described here. But I am of the opinion that the Catholic church in the US doesn’t ask itself nearly enough, ‘We used to be a church of the poor. We did so well that those poor are no longer poor. Now we’re a church of the middle-class – by the standards of the developing world, a rich church. There are newer, different poor in the urban core where we still have parishes planted. Why aren’t those churches full? Why aren’t we also still a church of the poor? Is it good for the church that we’re no longer primarily a church of the poor? ‘
As a denizen of a fat and happy suburb, I do need to ask myself from time to time, ‘how can I do unto the least of my brothers if I never encounter him?’
Ms. Disco,
Do you live in Cleveland? Does Berry? Or are you and he interested in Cleveland merely as part of an ongoing compaign against the American bishops?
I don’t doubt that lots of letters have been written complaining about Lennon; no one wants to see his parish closed. But, unlike his predecessor, Lennon has made the tough decisions necessary for the long-term viability of the Diocese. If you and Berry have a magic wand you could wave that will bring back the hundreds of thousands of people who have left the City of Cleveland and again make it sensible to have six or seven parishes all within walking distance of each other, please wave it.
@Jim P., I am in one of those old urban parishes.
Some reasons the new population does not fill the church are (1) many of the newer immigrants are Muslim, (2) many of the newer immigrants from traditionally Catholic countries (e.g., Haiti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador) are Pentecostal, (3) African-Americans are predominantly Protestant, (4) the vicinity has become largely student ghetto and the students go to the Newman Center on their campus if they go to mass at all.
Some problems with the church are (1) it’s old and falling apart, (2) safety codes are more stringent than they used to be, which makes renovations necessary and expensive, (3) some of the materials (marble, limestone) needed are much more expensive than the were a hundred years ago, (4) it costs a fortune to heat it in winter (heating oil is expensive) and it costs just as much to heat it for a congregation of thirty as for a congregation of a thousand.
It’s not unusual for the guy in charge, who may or may not be firing on all cylinders, to mess things up. What is unusual is that in the Church, such actions are unmitigated. Parishes and diocese are at the almost complete mercy of one man; there is little way to temper any bad behavior and little way to contribute any creative problem solving. Diocese are like feudal fiefdoms. In this day and age that’s ridiculous beyond belief. It’s killing the Church.
TF: “Thirty fully tithing families can support one full-time minister, so it would seem the lower limit is fairly small.”
As noted by Felapton, the cost of maintaining a parish far exceeds the salary of a single priest. In addition to heating/cooling, upkeep and renovations of the facilities to meet codes, you also have insurance and lawsuits. Every time someone slips on an icy front step, there’s a potential lawsuit.
This is before one has even considered the price of purchasing new hymnals for the 3rd Ed. Roman Missal, chasubles and stoles for the presider, monstrances, chalices, hosts, altar wine, etc. And if you want a musician for Sunday Mass, that will cost money, as will any additional personnel around the office, e.g. an administrative assistant in the rectory or pastoral associate for sacramental prep.
There are two parts to this thread:
-the situation in Clebeland.
Jason Berry is a skilled and honored repoter in matters Church and whether he lives in Cleveland or not is irrelevant to his knowledgability of the Bishop.
It should be remembered that Bishop Lennon is one of the Cardinal Law devotees promoted out of the Boston chancery and, as noted, not particularly noted for his pastoral skills,
-the issue of parish closings on a broad scale is a complex matter that surely includes some closing/repirganization of closeby ethnic churches, but also faces the real issue of how to fiscally meet the Church’s responsibility of serving the poor, especially as the Church (and the country) becomes more brown.
In those difficult tensions, IMO, the importance of lay ministry and how it is supported will be critical….
and, demand real pastoral vision from the policy makers in that diocese.
Greg Fried has give us more substantial facts to work with. I know there are parishes who average $15-20,000 per week. Some over forty and fifty thousand. Nevertheless $5000 is respectable. Especially in Cleveland. My parish here in Yonkers which supports school and many other activities averages between six to seven thousand a week. These facts weaken those of you who claim to live and are experts on Cleveland. In fact the conclusion can now be drawn is that it is now only about money. Jason Berry, however, does not show these facts in his book as far as I can see. He may have the right conclusion. But he might have provided more details.
At the request of Greg Friedl, we removed his comment reproducing his letter to Archbishop John Smith.
Hi, Felapton, what you describe definitely strikes a chord with my experience in Chicago.
One thing I’m wondering is, Are parishes the right *kind* of presence in these demographically changed neighborhoods. Maybe there are equally (or more) effective, and also cost-effective, ways the church can be present without needing to maintain parish property and staff, particularly when the plant was sized for a congregation that is five or more times larger than the current Catholic population.
I don’t know exactly what a transformed, non-parish presence would be, but it would need to be something that encompasses:
* Mission/proclamation
* Sacraments
* Education
* Social outreach/services
Jim – there are examples of alternative approaches that have been successful. Here is an example of the Vincentian staffed/owned St. Joseph’s Church/Parish in downtown New Orleans. St. Joseph’s is the largest church in the south built in the 19th century on cotton bales so that it “floats” given that the subsoil is below sea level. There is a history of “Save St. Joseph” group – a church legal case that went to Rome in the 1970-80′s trying to move ownership to the diocese, etc. Long story that is off the point. But, circumstances have forced the parishioners to be creative.
This parish obviously has changed demographics; cultures; neighborhoods, etc. and even more so after Hurricane Katrina – flooded the church basement for months.
Some links and copy/paste descriptions:
The Rebuild Center was founded in New Orleans in response to the many needs of the poor following Hurricane Katrina. The Rebuild Center at St. Joseph’s Church is a collaborative effort of partnering agencies to serve the poor made homeless by Katrina, and also the chronically homeless and immigrants from Mexico and Central America. The center serves over 250 people weekly with food, laundry, showers, medical assistance, legal counsel and more.
Work on the Rebuild Center at St. Joseph Church in New Orleans continues to progress, with an eye toward opening late this summer. It will contain many ministries and services for people who are returning to New Orleans and seeking assistance as they rebuild their community. The Congregation of the Mission Southern Province is involved with other religious and social agencies in this recovery outreach.
This spring has seen a beehive of activity as artist Margot Datz and historical renovator Tom Haines paint panels of a large outdoor mural for the new center. The installation will consist of six panels that are eight feet tall and a total of 25 feet wide. Each panel is separated by painted palm trees, and the entire work will stand in an outdoor, canopied courtyard.
According to an article by Christine Bordelon in the Clarion Herald, the Archdiocese of New Orleans newspaper, the artist “conceptualized the theme of water in the mural after chatting with Father Perry Henry, CM, pastor of St. Joseph Church, and parishioners and stakeholders in the new Rebuild Center. Father Henry showed Datz the church’s exterior water line left behind after Hurricane Katrina and discussed the theme of resurrection in St. Joseph Parish and the city.”
Discussing her work’s symbolism, Datz explains, “Water plays a major theme in New Orleans, from its positioning on the Mighty Mississippi, to its function as a port to the Gulf of Mexico, from its rain and humidity that render the city so verdant, to the catastrophic impact of Katrina.
“And water also appears in the Bible, as a vehicle of cataclysm, change, and renewal. In my mural for the recovery center, I have combined the various roles water has played in scripture, moving left to right from crisis to healing,” she says.
Link to more extensive description: http://www.vincentian.org/newsletter/archive/0307/provincial.html
This diocesan, religious communities, social agencies, and parish collaboration won an architect award: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/rebuild_center_wins_architects.html
Realize that not every parish could benefit or avail themselves of this type of effort but on a smaller scale something similar can be done.
Jim – a good example from 25 years ago would be your own archdiocese’s St. Sabina and Fr. Pfleger. And, altho not on the same scale and for different reasons (paying for abuse settlements) the current bishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico worked with his parishes and staffs to organize fundraising for the purpose of avoiding parish closures and selling property. He was successful.
A South African bishop wanted to fully ordain married deacons and have them team ministry with three men and their families in villages without any sacramental services. That kind of thinking should be on the table instead of all the church closings world wide. Protestant evangelical and Episcopal clergy would go nuts having that many parishioners as we have in the parishes we close. How long will we be stuck with poor management of people, resources and vision.???
Cardinal Schoeborn has 300 Austrian priests asking for change. He may be the answer in the next conclave if he handles this right… meanwhile the leaving-bleeding continues. say hello to Blockbuster.. if they are still around in your neighborhood.
” — the cost of maintaining a parish far exceeds the salary of a single priest. In addition to heating/cooling, upkeep and renovations of the facilities to meet codes, you also have insurance and lawsuits. Every time someone slips on an icy front step, there’s a potential lawsuit.
This is before one has even considered the price of purchasing new hymnals for the 3rd Ed. Roman Missal, chasubles and stoles for the presider, monstrances, chalices, hosts, altar wine, etc. And if you want a musician for Sunday Mass, that will cost money, as will any additional personnel around the office, e.g. an administrative assistant in the rectory or pastoral associate for sacramental prep.”
By every normal standard, my urban parish of 400 people (people, not families) should be closed. We have a full-time pastor, a paid pastoral associate, a paid business manager, a paid music director and all of usual expenses related to keeping up a 105 year old physical plant. (It recently cost $145,000 to repaint the church and rectory) We average $5,000 per week in offerings, We recently paid off a $2.5 million building debt in 12 years. I was srecently on the Finance Council and our per-capita weekend offering was about $16.50 per head. When we had the building debt we paid it off to the tune of $15,000 per month over and above weekly general offerings.
The point of this is: where there is the will, there is a way. The will comes from being treated like valued, intelligent adults who will act like adults when asked and expected to d so. And, yes, the usual ratio applies: 20% of the work is done by 80% of the people. Our parish is middle class with the usual spread of well-to-do (not too hard to be that in a city where an investment in one’s home in the 1970s has paid off handsomely) and not so well-to-do.
The Boston Archdiocese seems to be a little trigger-shy about closing more parishes, (The last round of parish closings generated a lot of animosity.) but it’s clear they have to do it. So the plan seems to be to designate sets of parishes “super-parishes,” assign the pastoral staff to the super-parish and let them decide which buildings should be deactivated.
In principle, this leaves open the possibility that the outlying churches could continue to provide sacraments, social outreach and schools. But in practice, most super-parishes will probably be down to one church within a few years. The archdiocese seems to be hoping they can push the responsibility for those decisions on the super-pastors, and disguise the magnitude of the realignment by making it happen piecemeal.
I think this does not affect my parish, because we belong to the Redemptorists. And the nearest parish to us is run by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.
I have one more detail to add to Jim Pauwel’s excellent remarks on parish closing: Henry Ford invented the automobile in 1900. My wife grew up in a town of 5,000 in Pennsylvania that had three ethnic parishes within a mile, with 6+ more parishes in easy walking distance; my brother lives in a city of 50,000 in Oregon that has two parishes. Whatever differences there are in today’s Church, I think a major factor in this difference is the mobility of the founders.
Tornielli’s new Vatican website has an interesting article on problems in the US:
http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/chiesa-americana-vaticano-papa-pedofiliaus-church-vatican-pope-pedophiliaiglesia-vaticano/
(I found it by searching for Cleveland on the Vaticaninsider home page, in case the link does not work.)
While there, I notice that Sambi is being recalled and Abp Vigano is being sent as the new nuncio to the US.
Wasn’t the parish system was originally designed for a time and place when ecclesiastical authority and secular authority were not really separate and it was assumed the vast majority of the population was nominally Catholic? Maybe it has simply outlived its usefulness.
I would have thought the parish system was a natural outgrowth of the need to have churches in neighborhoods, where people could walk to services. Probably both. Two reasons for rethinking it. Few people walk to church now and there is little obedience to Church authority. Maybe the Church in America today is best served by television, the internet, a few large elementary schools, and soup kitchens. Bishops could be outsourced to India.
Parishes are for the already-evangelized. Jesus did not found parishes, because his ministry was to proclaim the kingdom and gather disciples who would take his ministry to the next step. Stable Christian communities were not possible until the full meaning of Christ’s life, death and resurrection were witnessed and understood. It was after the Ascension and Pentecost that the apostles established permanent Christian communities, in the wake of their missionary activity. The pattern was proclaim -> baptize -> order communities.
It seems to me that the Eucharistic life presupposes a stable community in which it is celebrated. That stable community is the parish.
In the suburbs where I live, parishes are quite viable. By and large, and by most dimensions, they are healthy. They are indispensable to the church’s mission in those areas. Especially in a society in which many other mediating institutions are weakened or have disappeared altogether, parishes are some of the primary social institutions. They are, quite literally, the sacramental center of their people’s lives.
In these old, formerly ethnic Catholic but now demographically changed urban neighborhoods, the stable community of Catholic disciples has dissolved, and with it, the prerequisite for a stable, sacramental life. It is not a new insight to suppose that they may be thought of more as mission territories than parish-affiliated communities. Felapton worships at a Redemptorist parish. In Chicago, too, the religious orders are found in the inner city. Even Mother Theresa’s order has a convent in urban Chicago.
It’s redolent, in some ways, of the Middle Ages: have the religious orders establish a beachhead, an island of Christianity, in a sea of humanity, in the form of an abbey or monastery, and from that beachhead, reach outward into the community to preach, to teach, to educate, to convert. In the US, some of those islands of Christianity are able to occupy old parish buildings.
If I’m right about that model, then it might make sense for dioceses to acknowledge it and embrace that reality. Close and consolidate the parishes and schools, sell off the old buildings, unburden the human and financial capital wrapped up in the obsolete parishes, so that the church can easily support a model that is more appropriate in those areas. Maybe, in a hundred years, the new evangelizing activity will give birth to new, stable communities of disciples. There will be different parishes with different boundaries. St. Rocco’s will be long gone, but St. Joseph Bernardin’s will be serving the same city blocks.
If you live in a large city, you probably still walk to parish for Mass, unless your new pastor, for example, has caused you to Church shop.
Many poor or immigrants are in cities where they may not drive to Church, but what do they matter?
If people don’t listen to authority, it’s because authority has and continues to be badly used,
So blame the people and screw the poor.
Let’s keep on keping on with the new model super parish.
Cardinal Sean is closing six parishes (including vigil parishes) in Boston.Despite Peter Borre, I see little hope because (as with that former Bostonian) Lennon in cleveland, the power structure holds the cards and sets its own rules (canon law- which as we know from the sex abjuse matter, is “sacred.”)
As in that sex abuse matter, I think the governance of the Church in “reorganization” is driven by one consideration mainly and it’s not the service of God’s people.
PS see the review of Jason Berry’s book at Boston.com today.
Two Philly parishes just closed by merging into other parishes. The Churches remain open though as “worship sites”. Does that work, or is it just delaying the inevitable?
http://cst-phl.com/immaculate-conception-and-st-casimir-close-p2665-1.htm
Irene (7/15) 1:19 pm:
What does that mean? No tabernacle? Are the doors left open? If so, what days and for what hours?
Obviously, parishes have to close. It’s how that’s done that can make all the difference. Just merging two or three adjoining parishes and stopping there would be pretty insensitive. Big efforts should be made at the incoming parish to be welcoming, to ask how people feel and what might be changed to accommodate both those remaining and the newcomers. Explain what happened to their collection money at the old parish. Be sure there’s plenty of parking, ask people to join mailing lists, make new opportunities for volunteering, and so forth.
Jim P said: “Parishes are for the already-evangelized.”
That may have been true in the past, but times change. There are so many Catholics of little or no interest in the organization for a variety of reasons. Many of them, if treated properly, listened to, and given a reason to try coming back, will possibly do so.
A good evangelizing parish can do that. But it will take a change of attitude on the part of so many Catholics. No more of this “we are here; all they have to do is come back” attitude! And a once a year “Come Home” pallid effort will not work. This has to be a 24/7 attitude change that is prepared for results happening in the long haul, not within a couple of weeks.
It this that the operative mission philosophy of a true 21st century parish should be what is found here: Mt 18:12–14, Lk 15:3–7 and 15:8-10. But I’m not going to hold my breath that this attitude takes hold very soon.
Thorin’s post is spot-on. The distribution of churches in the diocese was wildly uneven, reflecting the distribution of population in 1950, not 2011, when most Catholics now live in the suburbs and exurbs. In the central city, the ratio of parishes to parishioners was higher than the diocese could afford. There are only so many priests to go around.
Bishop Lennon does say weekday Mass and hear confessions at the cathedral, often — and has a reputation as a good confessor. On Wednesdays, a few picketers sometimes come as a group to the 5:10 pm Mass and sit up front, wearing their Keep Our Churches Open T-shirts, and at Communion the bishop administers the Sacrament to them, no drama. To know him is to respect him even if you disagree with him.
… [Trackback] …
[...] Read More here: commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=14405…