Don’t know where you live but I get constant news articles from family in NY of Parish consolidations, school closures and property sell offs. Maybe you live in an area benefiting from consolidation. Or a populous Roman Catholic area. Maybe it is a North East issue.
On the other hand in Florida the Roman Catholic churches seem to be growing with the baby boomers retiring down there. Funny note is my mom noted how many new young people were in her church. She is mid 80s and was referring to all the youngsters in their 60s and 70s:)
I have had other FR Catholics admit that there is something seriously wrong in the dioceses in NYS, WNY in particular, although I wouldn’t be surprised in the least to find NYC in that mix.
New York is getting new Bishops. Hang tight for the time being.
Indeed, this is the situation throughout the northeast. Keep in mind that many of these churches were constructed in the 19th century by immigrants who moved here for manufacturing jobs. To put this into perspective, here in NY's Hudson Valley, there are several small cities within close proximity to each other. Watervliet and Cohoes are on the left side of the Hudson River with Troy on the right side. Watervliet is home to the US Army's oldest arsenal; Troy was once known as the "collar city" because men's shirt collars were manufactured there. Just north in Cohoes, there were manufacturing mills for clothing, fabric, etc Each of these cities was home to Irish, German, French, Italian and a mixture of Russian and Middle Eastern immigrants. In the small city of Watervliet alone, there were 5 churches!! After the initial wave of immigrants, their descendants moved further west or south. When men's shirt collars were no longer the fad, those manufacturing plants closed. The churches remained but their congregations shrank. About 5 years ago, the RC Diocese of Albany announced that they could no longer support the maintenance of so many churches. Watervliet merged 5 churches into one! The other properties were sold off or torn down. This process was repeated in Troy, Cohoes, Albany and other parts of the Hudson Valley.
Essentially, America is a mobile society and population shifts to accommodate the trends. Where once there were no churches, new ones are being constructed. It is sad to watch the old churches being closed but that is the result of multiple factors. Added to this burden, is a shortage of priests in this particular diocese.