..must not comment...You’re KILLING me here!
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.
Sorry to hear about the others, though.
Not surprising. The population of Bridgeport has declined by 15% and the white population by 30%: all the Irish and Italians have headed for the suburbs - it’s not as if all these parishioners have decided to become Warren/Osteen clowns.
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.