The faithful rattled by planned closing of three Catholic churches in Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT -- From Boston to Chicago, from Vermont to Maryland, scores of Catholic churches are closing as bishops juggle the needs of the faithful with the harsh realities of empty pews and dwindling contributions.

That reality hit home this month with the announcement that three Roman Catholic churches in Bridgeport -- out of a total of 16 in the city -- will all but close by mid-January: St. Raphael's, Holy Rosary and St. Ambrose. The announcement was a bitter pill to swallow for those who have gone to the three churches for decades.

"I think we're getting a raw deal," said Mike Rodriguez, outside of Mass last Sunday at St. Ambrose. He has been attending Mass there for nearly 20 years. "They could have given us more time. We can make it work. The people here are devastated."

He's not alone. Many parishioners from the churches affected said they were upset by the announcement.

St. Ambrose, Holy Rosary and St. Raphael will have to open at least once a month to preserve their tax-exempt status, church officials said. They will be open for funerals, weddings and the like, but that was little comfort for some congregants.

"I just feel it's pure greed," said Pat Rinko after Mass at St. Ambrose. "How can you just take people's churches away? Why would they send me to a church in Stratford? Nobody understands why."

The scene was similar outside of Holy Rosary on the city's East Side, a block from Washington Park.

"I've been coming here forever -- since I was a little girl," said Jean Daniels.

Daniels still attends Holy Rosary even though she has lived in Trumbull for years.

"When my parents first came here, it was a wooden church," she said. "They were married here. Nobody here is happy anymore."

Holy Rosary parishioners have formed a committee and consulted a lawyer to determine if any action can be taken to prevent the closing of their church, according to church members.

Parishioner Antoinette Piantedosi said closing St. Raphael, where she has been attending since the 1940s, "doesn't make any sense." She said the 12:30 Mass in Spanish is packed, and there are families with small children, who are the future of the church.

"It's always hurtful to the people it's happening to, but these closures in Bridgeport are certainly more limited than it might have been," said Paul Lakeland, professor of religious studies at Fairfield University. "Catholics don't go to church every week like they used to. Today we're seeing about 25 percent of Catholics go to church at least once a week, quite a significant drop-off from what it was 50 years ago."

"Back then, every Mass was packed," said Charles Brilvitch, the city's former historian and a lifelong city resident. "You'd walk into church and it was standing-room only."

Bridgeport might consider itself lucky that only three churches are closing for Mass. In Cleveland, for example, 50 Roman Catholic churches have been shuttered or combined in the last five years, and one has been razed; others may be torn down, too. At its peak, Cleveland had 224 parishes; only 174 remain today. The story is the same in many cities of the Northeast and the Midwest's Rust Belt. In July, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis said it will close four of the 14 churches in Terre Haute by the end of 2012.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has closed seven churches since 2000. In North Pownal, Vt., Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated its last Mass on Oct. 1.

In Springfield, Mass., parishioners have been staging a sit-in protest after the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., announced it plans to close the Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke. More Roman Catholic churches there are set to close. Ten churches in the western part of Massachusetts were shuttered on Jan. 1.

Closer to home, the Diocese of Norwich has begun an eight-month study on closing some of its shoreline parishes between East Lyme and the Rhode Island line. And it's expected that officials in the Bridgeport diocese will soon begin looking hard at other poorly-attended Catholic churches in Fairfield County.

Surprisingly to some, one church that escaped the padlock was Sts. Cyril & Methodius Church. It towers over the East Side and arguably has the most beautiful and ornate interior of any church in the city. It opened in 1907 as a Slovak church; today, it's the last one in the city that offers a Latin Mass.

Much of the neighborhood it once served no longer exists. The Father Panik Village housing project across the street was cleared away in the early 1990s. And a few blocks to the south, scores of homes and apartments were leveled for the long-awaited Steelpointe Harbor project that city officials maintain will eventually be built.

"Back in the 1950s and '60s, it was a different city," said Msgr. Jerald A. Doyle of the Diocese of Bridgeport. "Sts. Cyril & Methodius is a big church with a very small congregation, but Msgr. (Joseph) Pekar is doing a great job there. It's the only place in the city that has the Latin Mass. So as long as he's doing that, we're able to sustain it."

That Latin Mass, Sundays at 10:15 a.m., is attracting the faithful from the suburbs, church officials say, even though the church is in one of the most beleaguered parts of Bridgeport.

Along with the church closings, there are other changes as well. St. Augustine Cathedral, the mother church of the Bridgeport diocese on Washington Avenue, is being merged with St. Patrick, about a mile away on North Avenue. Both will remain open, but staffs will be consolidated where possible. Both will still have Mass on Sundays and other days of the week.

"The goal is to be more efficient and build things up," said Brian Wallace, the spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport. "St. Patrick's is a beautiful church that was restored recently. Now, when the bishop has a diocesan-wide liturgy and it's packed with people from all over Fairfield County, it'll work really well to give the people from the St. Augustine's Cathedral the option of having Mass there instead."

The union of St. Augustine and St. Patrick will be called the Cathedral Parish under the realignment.

Also merging will be two North End churches, Our Lady of Good Council and St. Andrew. Our Lady of Good Council will remain open, and it will retain its name, but it will be a chapel of St. Andrew's.

"The bishop would like to see people pull together and work out some of these details themselves," Wallace said. "We have to understand that Bishop (William E.) Lori inherited an infrastructure that's about a hundred years old. Now it's the 21st century."

Doyle, who was reared in Bridgeport, notes it's not just the Catholic churches that have empty pews.

"Just about all of the mainline churches are struggling in the city," he said. "In the 1950s, factories like GE and Remington employed thousands. Now, that's all gone."

As with many Catholic churches in the city, Holy Rosary Church, in the city's East End, was established in the early 20th century. The present church was completed in 1932; it was first established in 1903 in what was then the Diocese of Hartford. Through much of its history, Italian-Americans made up most of the congregation, although this is no longer the case. It was formerly known as the "Holy Rosary Italian Catholic Church," according to records.

The Diocese of Bridgeport was established in 1953, the year the Holy Rosary celebrated its 50th anniversary. The attached Holy Rosary School, established in 1961, will remain open, as will the schools attached to St. Ambrose and St. Raphael.

St. Ambrose Church, established in 1928 in the Mill Hill district in the city's upper East End, is sometimes called the "Church on the Hill." It was dedicated on April 14, 1940. Its parish school, which will remain open, was dedicated in 1951. It was named after St. Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan who lived 340 to 397.

St. Raphael was dedicated on Dec. 12, 1926, but it was almost entirely rebuilt in 1953, and there was a major renovation about a decade ago. It was named after Raphael, who in the Christian faith is one of the seven Archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord.

Those who now attend both Holy Rosary and St. Raphael will be asked to attend Mass at the Shrine of St. Margaret on Park Avenue.

The last Roman Catholic church in Bridgeport to close was St. John Nepomucene on the East Side, on the corner of Brooks and Jane streets. It closed in November 1991, and its dwindling parish was merged with Holy Name in Stratford. It's still owned by the diocese, but it's now operated by the Victory Outreach Church. In return, Victory Outreach is taking care of the building, according to its pastor, Patrick Robbers.

In February 1991, the diocese shuttered St. Anthony on Colorado Avenue in the West End. That parish was merged with St. Peter's, a few blocks up the street, and the small, wooden church just south of State Street was razed.

The closing of St. Anthony was not met with much resistance. After its final Mass, its icons were marched up Colorado Avenue to St. Peter's in what could be described as a celebration.

Many faith communities, including some Catholic parishes, are thriving. But many are not. Wether its a diocese with hundreds of parishes or a storefront church next door to a bodega, those in charge are painfully aware of the fact that income largely comes from voluntary donations. Churches can't take their flocks to court for not contributing.

"This is a problem that many, many Christian denominations have faced," said Brian Bodt, president of the Greater Bridgeport Council of Churches.

"In my own faith, Methodist, we used to have at least six churches in Bridgeport in 1969 and today we have two. I know that Bishop Lori was giving it a lot of thought and study," Bodt said. "It's always extremely hard for the people who go to a church that has to close."

For local members who have tied their identities to a particular church for decades, the news of its impending demise hits hard.

"When I first came here 15 years ago -- I had been away from church for awhile -- the sun was shining in on the alter and there were a couple sparrows that had somehow gotten inside that were flying around the altar -- it was almost magical," said Pat Rinko last Sunday outside of St. Ambrose, tears welling up in her eyes. "When Father Dennis hugged me, well, that did it for me. It's like a family here -- the happy times, the sad times, everyone is here for you."

Bridgeport diocesan officials didn't release attendance figures, but they did say that baptism numbers have plummeted. At Holy Rosary, only 18 babies were baptized over the last three years; in the 1960s, that number would have been in the triple digits.
"It's always hurtful to the people it's happening to, but these closures in Bridgeport are certainly more limited than it might have been," said Paul Lakeland, professor of religious studies at Fairfield University. "Catholics don't go to church every week like they used to. Today we're seeing about 25 percent of Catholics go to church at least once a week, quite a significant drop-off from what it was 50 years ago."
It was a different picture back in the 1960s.
"Back then, every Mass was packed," said Charles Brilvitch, the city's former historian and a lifelong city resident. "You'd walk into church and it was standing-room only"....

....Many faith communities, including some Catholic parishes, are thriving. But many are not. Wether its a diocese with hundreds of parishes or a storefront church next door to a bodega, those in charge are painfully aware of the fact that income largely comes from voluntary donations. Churches can't take their flocks to court for not contributing.

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I don't know what the OP's motive is but this paragraph is music to my ears:

Sorry to hear about the others, though.

I wonder if the local bishop would be willing to accept the idea of a sole corporation Catholic church “accessory or missionary” and separate from his sole corporation diocesan property?

That is, it would be separate from the diocese property, and thus insulated against any debts or judgments against it, and would have special rules, perhaps with services by “visiting clergy”, or affiliation, but not ownership to a religious order.

A real blend, in other words. Part private chapel, part monastic annex, part church, operated and managed by a board of directors, under guidance from the bishop, etc.

A single wealthy person might be the owner of the private corporation, with the idea that there are not enough regular congregants to support a whole church, but enough so that travel for them would be burdensome.

Yet, I understand that Seminaries are full... Can we turn this around? It seems to me that we need to double down on high school and college, instill a new set of values in the youth (rather than parties and electronic gadgets). I heard a little bit about that at Mass this morning. We have a very successful, exceptional Catholic school system in inner city Milwaukee run by the Capuchins. A school system within a school system, so to speak. They just announced that they were going to start emphasizing education for everyone in the schools (K through 12) rather than just the brightest. I’m not sure quite what Father (a visiting priest) meant, but I’m sure that I will hear more about it as the year goes on.

We are in the suburbs, and we seem to lose many of the young people as they go to college. They relocate to other cities upon graduation and don’t come back to church until their children are ready for the sacraments — if then. They are chasing the almighty dollar, rather than save their souls.

There used to be a lot of Irish and Italians and other Catholics in Bridgeport. As in many other cities, most of them moved or were driven out by an influx of blacks, during the period of forced integration.

These used to be neighborhood churches, in basically all-Catholic neighborhoods. Now the ethnic neighborhoods have been destroyed. That’s the chief reason why attendance is down so much.

There are a few black Catholics, but not many. So the neighborhoods are no longer Catholic. Something has got to give, but of course, no one wants it to be THEIR church, and you can’t really blame them. But that’s the way it is.

” What steps would need to be taken in order to meet at someone’s house?”

Simply, since priests do have masses at parishioners homes from time to time, nothing.

The priest will bring his traveling case which contains a chalice and hosts. The wine is supplied as is the water which must be added to the wine. It signifies Christ's nature, human and divine.

That's it.

Mass has been said at my home once in the past.

We have Small Christian Communities which meet at homes as well as prayer and bible studies which meet at home.

As far as the churches, I know of many other denominations that have closed doors because the demographics have changed. Detroit is a case in point because of the many immigrants from Islam.

Most parishes are kept up by the parishioners. Our parish has its cleaning, repair, maintenance and grounds done by the parish members.

Interestingly enough, my husband and our friend painted a Pentecostal rectory, or whatever you call the minister's home for free and did repairs gratis.

They did it because their Pentecostal friend was unable to help because of illness and the congregation is old.

Some people do believe that Christians should help other Christians.

BTW, Mass is WORSHIP is it not something singular.

It is the highest form of adoration.

The mass at my home was for an extraordinary purpose.
Sunday mass is the gathering of all the community for the purpose of adoring the God.

We haven’t had any Churches close here... yet! We have seen several parochial elementary schools close though. That certainly doesn’t bode well for the future of the Church.

My wife is pastor of a small Methodist Church and has been tormented by the decline in attendance there. I spent an hour or so talking with her Bishop a couple of years ago and he indicated that Churches of all denominations have the same problem.

Perhaps the time is coming...

“..and yet the Vatican takes in $200 MILLION a week from the United States”

Where is your cite for that because I have 2010’s figures which are:

The 2010 financial report for the Holy See yielded some good news for a change when it was published last weekend. This is Peter’s Pence collection from the worldwide churches which is done once a year.

For the last three years the Vatican had made a succession of losses but for the 2010 financial year the Holy See... total revenue of €245.2 million against total expenses of €235.3 million.

http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=8718

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