Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A question for the bishop

If we were opening churches during the Depression, why are we closing churches and schools now?

This is the question posed by a St. Cecilia Church parishioner when interviewed by a Messenger Press reporter about possible Catholic church closings in Irondequoit.

Full story here.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
In the choir loft said...

I'm standing up to fight.

Another question I would ask Bishop Clark is - why did he change his episcopal motto from "His Love Endures Forever" to "God's Love Endures Forever"? So very politically correct.

You will notice the change on his diocesan stationery from when he was first installed in 1979, and then somewhere along the line, he changed it.

I was never a big fan of Bishop Clark ever. I knew he was a "Jadot" appointment and that told me everything right there.

I think somebody like the auxilary bishop in Chicago, Joseph Perry, might be a good choice for next bishop. I know that there are plenty of good priests nowadays, that would make splendid bishops. Let's pray that we get someone as orthodox as Clark has been heterodox.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
In the choir loft said...

Dr. K - I'm not sure when Bishop Clark changed his motto, but it seem that "God's Love Endures Forever" is more inclusive and less sexist. Both are major themes of his episcopacy.

Maybe someone else who reads this blog could tell us. I'll try and find out still though.

Oremus pro invicem.

The Well Done Review said...

Hey Dr K

What is CF?

sorry for my ignorance!

-Arialdus

Anonymous said...

CF is the "Cleansing Fire" blog, located here: http://cleansingfiredor.blogspot.com/

~Dr. K

The Well Done Review said...

ahhh, cleansing fire is you? got it! I wasn't sure if there was some local blog i didnt know about that
was worth reading!

Luckily, that's already on my daily reading list

-Arialdus

Rob said...

The answer is that we have a priest shortage which is going to get much worse. The DoR will soon be comprised of a few large liberal mega-churches with 4-5 priests assigned to each. This will absolutely kill the Diocese of Rochester.

Interstate Catholic said...

Just got back from a "the church is people not buildings sermon." And I wasn't even in Irondequoit.

Must be the DOR company line.

Mike Shea said...

Rob,

Things sure seem to be going in that direction.

However, I have heard of a possible plan that might buy some parishes some time until a new bishop gets himself named, installed and up to speed.

I don't think I should say any more at this point, as I don't want to throw a potential monkey wrench into the works. But I will be blogging about it just as soon as I think it safe.

Mike Shea said...

Interstate,

I've been hearing a version of that for at least the last 5 years.

Not only does it make its way into homilies but it was almost a mantra among the staff (both diocesan and parish level) at the PPNM meetings I used to chair up until a couple of years ago.

FWIW, not very many of the average people I know are buying it.

In the choir loft said...

One of the things that really irks me about Bishop Clark is that many years ago (at least 10), he was offered 25 priests from Poland to serve in the DoR, but he turned them down. Apparently his rationale was it would be too difficult to acculturate these priests into American way-of-life. Well, if that's true, how come Clark has priests from Africa/India serving in the diocese?

Mike Shea said...

Choir,

You're not the first person I've heard mention that Bishop Clark a number of years ago turned down an offer of a substantial number of Polish priests to serve in DOR.

I wonder if there's any truth to this story or if it's just an urban legend.

Does anyone have any facts on this?

In the choir loft said...

I got my info from one of the previous pastor @ St. Stan's. Either Father Mitch or +Father Andrew.