Posted on 10/09/2011 1:19:05 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
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.
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."
BRIDGEPORT ISN'T ALONE
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.
DODGING THE AX
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.
CATHEDRAL PARISH
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."
HISTORIC ROOTS
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.
NOT THE FIRST TO CLOSE
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.
FINANCING THE FAITH
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."
Which seems quite a common occurence for knee-jerk anti-Catholicism. Some groups just see what they want to see.
The articles you post are bad fiction.
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And some groups just eat kielbasa and sit in judgement. Those are the groups that apologies are wasted on.
THANKS, Quix! It can just wear a person out, apologizing to one when a thousand were pinged...;)
I went to Catholic school in the Northeast. Neighborhoods changed from Irish Catholic or Italian Catholic & like a poster posted earlier, they were packed on Sunday’s, standing room only. Plus all the kids went to Catholic school. The jobs left and neighbors moved out.
It’s not unsimilar to ethnic cleaning. Over the course of a decade, one neighborhood after another fell.
Section 8 housing put the ethnic cleansing on the fast course.
Most of these neighborhoods now are complete cesspools. Make no mistake many elderly black and white are prisoners in their own homes. It’s really pitiful.
I know that feeling! LOL.
False apologies are false apologies. To persistently mis-read anything so that it fits in with their anti-Christian agenda as your group does is hypocritical
Furthermore, why not come out straight and admit that your group does not believe in the Trinity, eh?
I’ll pray for you. Wisdom is a gift. May God bless you richly.
2. Those of us of Italian ancestry don't like being lumped in with the Irish, who came before we did, and were not very nice to my ancestors.
3. The fastest growing populations in Bridgeport for the past 20 years have been the Hispanics and Brazilians, who are as much cafeteria Catholics as the white "Catholics" who live in suburban Fairfield County.
The northeast in general has become rapidly secularized, which has become more pronounced as the pre-boomers die off and their parochial allegiances with them.
Thanks, but I believe in our Christian God — your group does not. If your cult wishes to worship whatever, go ahead. We Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, etc. etc) will continue worshipping our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.
That would be this one - Veteran reporter debunks myths surrounding the Vatican. Per author John Allen:
The annual operating budget of the Vatican City State is $270 million, he said, comparing that with the annual operating budget of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., which is $1.2 billion. The Catholic Church in the United States collects $200 million a week, almost enough to fund the Vatican for a year, he said.
Thanks! Although, if you read the rest of this thread...
Ahhh, but at least the Vatican, unlike Notre Shame, is actually Catholic.
I would love if it worked out that we could go waste money at Starbucks together.
And MANY thanks for the prayers. I sort of want to (win the lottery and then) lay on a huge party (and holy hour, of course) if they actually let me make the promises.
I REALLY have to work on the whole mortification thing. :-)
>>Our parish is SRO on what we call the “last chance Mass” 5:15 Sunday PM<<
*snicker* Last chance?
Our last Mass on Sunday is 8:30 pm.
>>I’ll pray for you. Wisdom is a gift. May God bless you richly.<<
That was actually a very nice thing to say. May God bless you as well.
Although we seem to stand on either side of a proverbial line, when one of us is big enough to say, “Ooops, pardon me.” that should be recognized.
Lord love you!
My favorite retort is:
Well (harrumph, harrumph) you've certainly got a lot to be sorry about!
For a moment's seriousness:
I think one of the most difficult chores of the adult Christian is to apple "[Charity] rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth,...." (Paul, under the guidance of the Spirit, really was a remarkably insightful guy!)
In my (mostly failing) efforts to live as though I Cor 13 actually mattered, it's helpful to me to remember the saying, "If it's too good to be true, it's probably not true." I guess a corollary is "If it's about my opponents and it's too deliciously wicked to be true ...."
But the real spiritual opportunity, in my view, is to notice that there's a part of me that really wants terrible things to be true about my opponents, that is disappointed when they are better people than I thought.
Children of the Lord, THAT is messed up!
INDEED. And well put.
I greatly agree. Thankfully, God is not finished with me yet.
John Wimber quoted in
EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY talks a lot about such issues.
He really was a very humble man. More so now, I’d bet. LOL.
Folks kept trying to give him titles and he always refused. “Just call me John.”
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