Posted on 02/01/2014 11:40:35 PM PST by CorporateStepsister
"Playing off the idea of using social media to summon crowds for parties, Catholics have been attending some of the city's often sparsely attended churches."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.msn.com ...
This is brilliant and heartwarming, it’s one of those things that makes you slap your head and wonder why we didn’t think of this years ago.
What a fresh idea.
Brilliant idea. Let’s hope that some of the attendees will stick around and help rejuvenate these old churches. We no longer have the rule that confines us to a particular parish.
Mass mob ping
Thanks for this thread. Pretty cool stuff. Also I haven’t been attending church for awhile but I’ve just looked up a local catholic church-think I’ll go visit. My roots are catholic but most of my life been in non-denominational churches when I have attended.
I’ve had a desire to visit again the catholic church and this thread will kick-start me to do it. Danke...
awesome idea. Very happy about this...
Catholic and Christian young people are finding ways to meet potential marriage partners. Skip the Internet sites that require a 50-page questionnaire and just go meet one another. Great idea. The Catholic university alumni conference has become another hopeful marriage mill; it’s in a different city every year. Young Catholic singles took over the NYC pro-life Meetup—that wasn’t so nice, but hey. Whatever.
Welcome home!
Had to send this to Hubby. The church in Batavia in which he grew up and one exit before Buffalo on the NYS Thruway, is closed. Love this idea. Hope it spreads. Love to be part of it.
I have long been opposed to the tax exemption of churches, especially the exemption of county property taxes. When I drive through a small town and see five to ten churches all lined up within a four or five square block area, sometimes two or more of the same domination, I cannot help but wonder if their purpose is to serve God or maybe to serve the hierarchy of that church.
As a Catholic, I concur; the maintenance costs on old churches are enormous, and if there is no congregation to serve why not close it, sell the property, and use the proceeds to support other parishes/schools. Once they are no longer used as worship space, they would be subject to property taxes (which would be huge due to the size of the property/facilities).
As a Catholic, I concur; the maintenance costs on old churches are enormous, and if there is no congregation to serve why not close it, sell the property, and use the proceeds to support other parishes/schools.
Never happen the money is kept for the Rich Vatican they could care less about the cost of the schools or maintaining them. They rely on donations to keep the schools in working order.
“Never happen the money is kept for the Rich Vatican they could care less about the cost of the schools or maintaining them. They rely on donations to keep the schools in working order.”
Not true; in the NYC area dozens of schools close annually, and those that survive are often heavily subsidized by their dioceses (as parish collections can no longer cover their operating deficits). I don’t know that the Vatican sees any of this money, though I believe dioceses pay “taxes” of some sort to the Vatican. Catholic education is becoming a thing of the past here, and for empty churches the end is near as well.
Love it! What a great idea! Besides, it brings members of the body of Christ universal together to worship together and encourage one another!
May I assume they close schools every year? They do in my area (northern NJ); kind of kills the incentive to financially support your parish. When I was younger, my town had five Catholic grammar schools and a high school; a couple of years ago the last one closed (while the area is still predominantly “Catholic” in name - the “Anglo” Catholics have been replaced by Latino Catholics). At some point they may as well start closing the churches as well.
Welcome Home!
Get ready for a purple rage alert and thread crapping.
Here on Long Island, the Catholic grammar schools are having some hard times. I maintain this is due not so much to the tuition, but to the tuition ON TOP OF the outrageous property (school) taxes we have here.
And to top it off, our diocese is among those that opted to largely abandon truly Catholic education in favor of the odious Common Core Curriculum (and before that, the NYS curriculum).
That is not to say there isn’t a difference; there certainly is — notably in discipline and expected behavior. However, MANY parents choose to save money by sending their children to public elementary schools and THEN to Catholic high schools which are doing just fine here on the Island. I can think of only two that have closed in recent years: LaSalle Military Academy (they went all squishy and started to admit girls — that was the death knell), and St. Joseph’s Academy (run by the extremely squishy Sisters of St. Joseph. Now they lease it out to a Muslim school — no, I’m not joking http://www.newsday.com/long-island/catholic-campus-houses-suffolk-s-first-islamic-school-1.6159600 ).
I submit that your area may suffer from the same sort of problem, as I know NJ’s property taxes are pretty awful, too.
Regards,
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