Posted on 07/03/2014 8:46:09 AM PDT by Welchie25
The Hole Bevilacqua & Rigali was enourmous... parishioners moved out to suburbs and New Jersey decades ago..
Parishioners attending weekly mass had dropped to 70-110 250 attendees weekly in inner city along Cobbs creek parkway..
The suburbs have been paying in 40% weekly collections to sustain HQ & city parishes.
They can’t afford 10k a month in overhead with $300 in collections.
Chaput is increasing Vocations..
Chaput was $350 Million in the hole.
Chaput arrived with a $350 million dollar deficit..Lay pensions Priest pensions.
They had Inner cities parishes bad debt on HQ loans of $100million plus
The $145 million is not the final number they will net out accounts receivable from People who owe monthly payment over last 50 YRS! like $50 million
1st thing he did was sell his Cardinal residence moved into seminary!
It’s a big gap, but I think he’s doing what needs to be done. I had the opportunity to meet him a few months ago. I found him to be a witty and humble man - not something one finds too often in a leadership role of any kind.
It’s terrible, but I think that in the case of these city parishes, they need to think of ways of (a) getting more people into them (which might mean making converts or at least stop losing groups who are already Catholic, such as Hispanics) and (b) making them seriously Catholic and attractive to young people.
Part of the problem, of course, is that any new bishop only has the priests he has when he comes in, and these were the very same priests who, under the bad leadership of the former bishops, got the Church into such a sorry state. So a springtime of evangelization is not likely to bloom with these guys. (Also, a lot of them are elderly.)
I know Chaput is good on vocations; it takes a while to see the effect, though, and he hasn’t been there that long, so he’s at a difficult point.
As for the suburbs supporting the parishes, for a long time prosperous city parishes supported rural and small town or missionary parishes in a diocese, so I don’t see anything wrong with it now that the suburbs are more prosperous.
If anything, it gives people in the suburban parish some reason to have an interest and a significant influence on the city parish that they are supporting, which could be good for both sides.
I lived in Acapulco mexico... I don’t understand how all the Bishops expect Hispanics to help the Church.
In Mexico The Archbishop of Acapulco told my Boss that in Mexico City less than 1% attend weekly mass the rest of the country less than 5%. Guadalajara has 40% attendance weekly!
I noticed it 1st hand at my parish .
Our Parish has had 5 diocesan vocations last 3 years we had 3 new priest 2 in St Charles Seminary one with Capuchin s in Pittsburgh and 2 dropped out!
We have 2 parishioners who support 2 inner city parishes.
The Knights of Columbus go 6 times a year and help inner city parishes and the last 3 years we have helped fund new desks and redid classrooms at our parish school. Our Parish founded 1792
Selling his mansion was an eye opener for most people that he was serious... look even Pope Francis followed his lead! haha
Selling The Priest house at shore for disabled priest.. Selling land re-organizing Don Guanella.. ec
What was amazing was saving ALL Diocesan HS and many grade schools with his Foundations! The Foundation Idea was 30 years late..
Reorganizing the approach to catholic charities was excellent. Rigali had a Young head to copy what was done In St Louis but Cardinal Rigali couldn’t pull the trigger..
That’s wonderful , that’s what needs to be done.
One thing that people don’t understand is that Mexico is technically a socialist, atheist country. Clergy were not even allowed to wear clerical garb on the street until a few years ago - actually, I’m not sure they’re allowed to wear it routinely even now - and the Church depends on the sufferance of the government of the moment.
Strangely enough, when I was in Mexico City the last time (this spring) I noticed a lot of young people at mass and there were actually many from what I would think of as the intellectual crowd who seemed very devout. Maybe the Church has become counter cultural enough to become trendy again!
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