Posted on 06/29/2014 6:36:59 PM PDT by rabidralph
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — One of the oldest Catholic churches in St. Paul had to close down because of a dwindling congregation, but it's been given new life as an Islamic community center.
The Church of St. John parish, built in 1886, closed in 2013. It reopened Friday as the Darul-Uloom Islamic Center, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported (http://bit.ly/1z0o5In ).
"There are a lot of East Africans in the area, and we want to give them a place to worship, a place to be educated, a community space," center spokesman Feisal M. Elmi said.
The former church held its last Mass in the summer of 2013, and has been vacant ever since. The congregation merged with the one at nearby St. Pascal's Church.
(Excerpt) Read more at winonadailynews.com ...
Once a denomination leaves a building it’s no longer part of their denomination. Didn’t you read what I wrote? And in answer to your question, what had the Catholic administration done to keep it Catholic? There’s a Catholic church in Italy that has been abandoned for over 30 years because of an earthquake that killed 3,000 of the town’s inhabitants. It’s a wreck. Is it still a church? The Bible describes the church as the people not the building.
You know, I think really the bigger part of the story is how the Catholic parish’s attendance declined to below having a critical mass.
We can complain all day about other religions “taking over”, but all they’re doing is filling a void if we’re not taking care of our own churches. People out there are STARVED spiritually, even if they aren’t aware of it. You see that every day with the cultural decay. They’ll go to what ever port in a storm that they see. The question is 1) are we going to keep our own, and also show others the positive aspects of Christianity and welcome them in, or 2) let someone else show them the “answers.”
Not to be abrasive about it, but it’s really that simple. We can’t just play defense trying to keep what few people are left in the church, but we need to go out into the world and bring new people in. I’m not just talking about funding missionaries out in the third world—that’s all well and good, but I’m talking about just the people next door in your own neighborhood.
Why not??? They are all brothers...
And why can’t we stop the importing of people who will never assimilate?
Good Golly, Somali!
And I have no idea about the growth/decline of the Catholic church (or any Christian) in the overall Minneapolis/Minnesota area - but neighborhoods change. And it is just a building. The only thing is that the Catholics and the Protestants (in the US anyway) don’t shoot each other or throw bombs. The muslims.....?
“The only thing is that the Catholics and the Protestants (in the US anyway) don’t shoot each other or throw bombs.”
They don’t need to. They have Freerepublic:-)
You mean Jesus.
AMEN!
Sad, but true.
Big difference is that in America, Americans are armed to the teeth.
That gave me a chuckle. Sort of. I used to be pretty anti-Catholic. As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate some of their stuff, and come to let some of it slide- partly on my own lack of knowledge. And a lot of that has been due to some of the more thoughtful Catholic posters on FR.
At some point we will need to put those differences behind us to combat the Liberals in our government, and at some point those who practice Islam.
Yep.
I know (or knew) that neighborhood. It’s a big old stone cathedral that’s simply too expensive to maintain in any dignity. Parishioners with comfortable incomes long ago moved to suburbs.
A few years in the hands of Third World muzzies and the place will have to be demolished.
the sadly funny thing is that at least in our area, Catholic Charities started bringing in muzzies in order to keep their Refugee resettlement arm alive after the end of the Vietnam war refugees.
No bureaucracy ever dies. But they do kill their hosts.
It’s more of the so-called “New Springtime” of Vatican II.
Yashua is the Hebrew name for Jesus.
Yes, that is true, but also expressing the reality of the graft branch.
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