Posted on 11/01/2014 2:35:28 PM PDT by NYer
Let me be candid: there will soon be a real sense of grief at some of our parishes as we get set to announce publicly what we’ve been preparing for the last five years, namely, the merging of some of our beloved parishes. In a few places, there might even be a feeling that something has died.
Perhaps the feast days this Saturday and Sunday can set a spiritual tone for what will be, undeniably, a tough time for us all, especially for the parishioners of the affected parishes.
Saturday, November 1, is the feast of All Saints (or, the old term, “All Hallows,” thus “Halloween,” the eve before), as we gratefully recall the citizens of our eternal home, heaven.
Sunday, November 2, is the feast of All Souls, when we reverently remember those, especially among our family and friends, who have died, the “faithful departed,” asking Jesus to have mercy upon them, especially those in purgatory awaiting heaven.
“By dying, He destroyed our death, by rising, He restored our life.”
Dying and rising ... Jesus did it; we all do it in and through Him.
As we now come to the decision point of our Making All Things New strategic pastoral planning, which began years ago and intensified the last year-and-a-half, about 14% of our parishes will undergo a “purgatory,” with decisions to merge them with their welcoming neighbors.
Some of our people will be sad, upset, critical, and even angry. Very understandable…loyal Catholic people love their parishes, and consider them their spiritual home. To see them changed or merged, even with next door parishes, will be very difficult.
I wish it could be different. I’d rather be adding parishes, or expanding the ones we have—and, by the way, we will be!—instead of consolidating some.
Why do we have to go through this? For one, at 368, we simply have too many parishes, in areas that used to have huge Catholic numbers, where most of the people have since moved away. On Manhattan alone, for instance, we have 88 parishes, some only blocks apart. Do the math: we have about 25% of our parishes in an area where less than 12% of the 2.8 million Catholics of the archdiocese reside.
Two, we must be good stewards of our financial resources. God’s people have told us that they want their offerings spent on our schools, charities, outreach, elders, religious education, the poor, the immigrant, our pastoral services, or expanding parishes that are jammed. By merging parishes, we will make better use of human and financial resources.
Three, we can no longer staff them. While still, thank God, blessed with a good number of priests, aided by deacons, a dwindling number of sisters and brothers, and devoted lay pastoral leaders, their census is shrinking. Rectories built a century ago—now in disrepair—for six priests usually now house one or two. We no longer have the priests to serve 368 parishes.
What we’re talking about is realism. Families do it, our schools have done it, corporations do it—now our parishes must do it: we merge in the areas where the population has shrunk, and build and expand—both plants and ministries—in areas where the Catholic numbers are bustling.
Over these years of preparation for the tough decisions coming this week, everyone has commented: “We need to do something! We can’t go on like we’re still in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, as if we have the numbers, the resources, the priests that we used to. We’ll have to reduce the number of parishes.”
But that’s usually followed by, “But, don’t close mine!”
We have to ... a woman reassured me, “As long as I have a place for Mass, I’ll be fine.”
This “process” has been exhaustive. Each parish had two representatives, and the vast archdiocese was divided into “clusters” where the delegates, with their pastors, guided by professionals, studied their parishes and made recommendations. These were refined, discussed, debated, and finally went to the larger umbrella committee, which accepted almost all of them. The deans, priests’ council, pastoral council, and college of consultors were all involved. It all then came to me, and, along with my brother bishops, we’ve made the decisions. I’m happy to say almost all are consonant with what came from the grassroots.
I was with many of my brother bishops from around the country last week, a good number of whom have already gone through a similar process, and I asked them about their experience. One observed, “While there is no painless way to merge parishes, it can be less painful if the people have a big part in the process.” You have. (It’s already clear that some of the early complaints are coming from parishes that did not care to participate in the process.)
Pope St. John Paul II called us to the new evangelization: we cannot, he told us, be so exhausted by the maintenance of our parishes and institutions that we have no energy left for the mission!
Pope Benedict reminded us that “the vine must be pruned if it is to grow and produce fruit.”
Pope Francis exhorts us not to be only about buildings and structures, but about outreach, love, service.
That’s what this week is about: dying, to be sure, and I apologize that these decisions will cause hurt; but rising to a stronger, more vibrant Church! Thanks for your patience, understanding, and support.
It’s as peculiar as a hermit decrying how he has no children to will his possessions to.
Very good point. I, myself fall into this category. My hometown church in Westchester county is in a similar situation.
Why isn’t St. Michael’s a commuter church? My parish, St. Agnes, is right near Grand Central. It’s filled with worshipers. Of course, the Tridentine Mass on Sunday doesn’t bring them in but it does bring worshipers from places where there is no such Mass.
It's true through the northeast and midwest. In Georgia, one parish community grew so rapidly it was decided to build a new church. After reviewing some contemporary designs, it occurred to them that the cost of building could be applied to moving a magnificent church from Buffalo NY. You can read about the project here This is a win/win solution for both communities and ensures that an architectural treasure will find new life.
Esp. with Smilin' Tim at the helm.
Jesus needs to hurry up.
High taxes + contraception.
Dropping population, and closing parishes.
Very upsetting. I’m from Corpus Christi parish (Upper West Side, used to be the Columbia U parish) and, surprisingly enough, it looks as if Corpus Christi will survive and be the university parish once again.
But I’m associated with an historic site in Florida that is connected with St James Parish on the Lower East Side - founded in the early 19th century by a priest who is a Venerable now and will probably be declared a saint later, in the next papacy - which is probably going to be “merged,” as they politely say, even though it’s functional, has a priest, and has a congregation that can and wants to support it. But I guess unless you hit suburban level congregations, Cdl Dolan isn’t interested.
I hope St. Michael’s survives. It’s always been one of my favorite churches, and now that Fr Rutler is there, I always make an attempt to visit it for mass when I’m back in NY.
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Perhaps some of these cardinals should be pruned from the vine as well.
No...It's where the bible begins...There are many well catechized former Catholics who came out of your religion to become born again Christians...If you would allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you thru the scriptures instead of you relying on your catechism, it would likely happen to you as well...
If the original guests don’t want to come to the wedding, aren’t we supposed to go out into the streets and invite whoever, like in the parable?
Shouldn’t at least some of these parishes have thought about evangelization before they shrunk too much?
Shouldn’t we all be doing that?
Thank the Roman Catholic Church for giving the world the Holy Bible in the first place.
The good news is that the RCC is putting a greater importance on the Holy Bible. :)
....Yet the good news is that the USA will and is becoming a new missionary field for Christian Catholic missionaries from nations in the southern hemisphere.
Yes, I am concerned about Father Rutler too. The day after Easter, 2005, when we had come into the Catholic Church, we flew to NYC for the week. As we came up Park Avenue, we passed Our Savior (38th). You could peek in - it was dark, full of candles, just the most beautiful little church. I said, “That is the church I want to attend.” It was just as beautiful inside - dark and holy, full of candles. And then!! Father Rutler came out for Mass, our dear friend from EWTN.
We met with him after mass, and he told us about the beautiful painting over the altar - a copy of Christ Pantocrator, from St. Catherine’s in the Sinai. He had seen it at the Met and hired a Chinese artist to recreate it. When the man finished, he joined the Catholic Church.
Visit if you are ever in NYC.
“...The “hey day” of catholicism in NYC is history. Time to move on...”
It is never time for the full Truth found in the Catholic Church ALONE to move on.
The immigrant families that are now arriving from diverse countries and faith traditions and arrived since the 60’s (when the flight to suburbia began) should have been evangelized. This is the bad fruit of dreadful Vatican II ideology consisting of the entirely new novel and erroneous premise that our “separated brethren” did not need to be converted. The result? Closed churches in the inner cities that should have been thriving with activity by the new occupants of the neighborhoods.
Matthew 28:19 was deliberately ignored and the spiritual work of mercy to instruct the ignorant was abandoned.
The newcomers ought to have been converted through prayer, works of charity, instruction and patience. This happened all throughout the cities in upstate New York as well; the excuse that it is demographics and nothing can be done is a travesty (the liberal Bishops, not you personally). There is no excuse for any of these closings. Maybe now it is too late, however the Church leaders in the 70’s when it was starting ought to have known better.
More evil fruit from Vatican II. This should NEVER have happened.
St. John Neumann and St. Katharine Drexel, ora pro nobis.
- Cardinal Dolan
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Bravo! Good for him! /sarcasm
Any town that has turned into liberal USA, like NY City, Buffalo, Pitt, Boston, are closing down Catholic Churches left and right. Liberals by and large don’t go to church. The Catholic Church is growing in the South and Catholic Churches are being built not torn down or sold to Muslims and Buddists, as is the case in the Northeast.
If only they would let you read it on your own with the direction of the Holy Spirit...
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