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To: Kolokotronis
To cite an example of how poorly this is being managed, my Maronite Catholic pastor approached the diocese to acquire a closed church. He was given the run around and eventually purchased a boarded up Methodist Church. It is a long, tedious and costly process to restore the building and convert it into a Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the diocese sold one of its properties to an Evangelical minister who is desperately trying to sell the gorgeous stained glass windows. It makes no sense.
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From an Orthodox perspective, I too lament your loss of such gorgeous churches that were built with the pride and financial sacrifices of generations of faithful.

Here in WV, the bishop of Wheeling simply closed an Italian Roman Catholic Church after there was some damage from mining subsidence, and kept the $1,000,000 insuance payout, for his own needs. It has been destroyed, of course. I also lament the attempt to homogenize the church. (You should see the horrible architecture at the new "award-winning" gray box of a Roman Catholic church in the next town.)

In the next town over, his predecessor closed the Polish/Slovak Catholic church for no known reason, and went so far to tramp out any sense of heritage that he forbade the Polish and Slovak ethnic associations ever to meet there in the future even after it had been closed as a church and was being used for community meetings. It is now a beautiful concert hall, used several times a year for concerts.

And who can forget the historic Croatian Catholic church on the north side of the river across from downtown Pittsburgh, the earliest such church in the country, which the bishop of Pittsburgh closed against the protests of the faithful, despite no falloff in either attendance or donations; and insisted on proposing to tear down despite its historic landmark significance being recognized by generations of Pittsburghers.

21 posted on 01/18/2009 11:10:53 AM PST by wildandcrazyrussian
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To: wildandcrazyrussian; NYer

Did you mean for post #21 for NYer?


24 posted on 01/18/2009 1:35:18 PM PST by Kolokotronis ( Christ is Born! Glorify Him!)
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