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.
Last Tuesday the Steering Committee of the Eastern Greece/Charlotte Planning Group met and decided that Our Lady of Mercy Parish is no longer financially viable and that the planning group would propose that the parish be closed.
The Steering Committee will also propose that Holy Name of Jesus Parish be allowed to continue in existence for at least the next year.
These decisions are being publicly announced in all 6 parishes this weekend. They come on the heels of a determination by a finance sub-committee that both OLM and HNOJ lack long term financial viability and that both should therefore be closed (details here and here).
Fr. John Gagnier currently serves as pastor of both parishes. A source close to the steering committee tells me that Fr. Gagnier and a group of HNOJ parishioners have developed a financial plan that gives that parish a fair chance of surviving on its own. (Their intent to come up with such a plan is reported here.) Apparently, no similar attempt at a plan was made by Fr. Gagnier and OLM parishioners.
In addition to their pastor, both parishes share the services of several other staff members. Under its new plan, HNOJ will now have to shoulder the entire salaries of each of these staff people.
Last year's Average October Attendance for OLM was 276 while HNOJ's was 372. OLM's current debt is $24,000 and HNOJ's is $54,000.
Also, OLM presently has about $16,000 in unspent Partners in Faith funds. It is unclear what will become of this money, as the projects for which it was raised have all been completed and the PIF spending guidelines are rather inflexible as to alternate uses for the money.
Channel 10's Berkeley Brean aired a story tonight on the local effects of the ongoing Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious.
The investigation is making some nuns here in Rochester and around the country nervous. The investigation is to see if they're "living in fidelity."
Both the local congregations of the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Saint Joseph have been contacted. The RSMs are being mum for the time being, claiming that it's too early to comment, while a spokesperson for the SSJs feels that "the initial meeting with the investigating nun went very well and that good news was going back to Rome."
Brean also sought comments from Nazareth College religion professor Tim Thibodeau who told him that "the Vatican is investigating nuns because they may have drifted away from the church."
They're thinking about this as what have we done to warrant this kind of scrutiny, this kind of community by community investigation.
I think there's just this perception out there in some parts of the hierarchy that they may not be as faithful to the teaching of the church as they should be.
Perception? In many cases "documented fact" would be closer to the truth.
Anyway, according to the professor,
If people are going to approach them in a paternalistic condescending way they're in for a real surprise. It's a kind of catch 22 in that you don't want to alienate the female religious who are contributing so much to an increasingly female institution that's a real problem.
The good professor is absolutely correct. The Church, especially here in DOR, is becoming an increasingly female institution. That seems to have been Bishop Clark's plan for some time now.
Rochester native son Rich Leonardi recently received a comment from an Evangelical Protestant pastor. The full story can be found here, but I want to zoom in on just one part of that pastor's note.
I pastor a church in California that is over 60% former Catholics (100s each week). These former Catholics come to my church NOT because Catholic doctrine is necessarily wrong, BUT because they are coming from Catholic parishes who are unable or unwilling to teach Christ, and Him Cruficied.
Within just the last 8 years the Diocese of Rochester has lost over 27,000 of its weekend Mass attendees. If we are to believe the explanations coming out of Buffalo Rd., all those missing Catholics have either succumbed to societal pressures or have moved away to the sun belt.
If we are to believe this pastor - and many of his peers who are saying the same thing - a large portion of those 27,000 folks are now former Catholics and are attending non-Catholic churches.
I tend to believe the guys that are actually counting noses, not those who are searching for excuses.
Over 1900 years ago St. Paul offered the following admonition to his fellow bishop, Timothy.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
When are our leaders going to start taking St. Paul seriously?
The latest edition of the Catholic Courier contains an extensive Along the Way column. It is the first of two parts (part two is promised for next month) and is actually the text of an address recently given by Bishop Clark to the Rochester Rotary Club. According to the bishop, it is "a good summary" of his view of the state of the diocese.
The bishop acknowledges
That we have and will continue to face enormous challenges and change — sometimes controversial change.
He promises that we will deal with these challenges with "thoughtful, realistic and deliberate action" and
with some of the best minds in our area helping us through their good and wise counsel.
Now I'm starting to get worried. I sure hope this is a different set of "best minds" than the one which has been helping the bishop manage our decline thus far. If not, then 2012 cannot come soon enough.
What I really found interesting, though, was Bishop Clark's statement that
While it is no secret that Mass attendance has generally declined since the mid-1960s nationwide — not unlike attendance for other mainline Christian denominations — we saw last year in our own diocese a leveling off of that trend. I can only attribute that leveling off to our Spirit Alive-related efforts.
The bishop really needs to walk down the hall to the Pastoral Planning office and check his figures, as DOR's PPNM people have been reporting that 2008's Average October Attendance was 80,710. That's 3.92% less than 2007's AOA of 84,000. In other words, there has been no discernable change in our corporate slide into oblivion.
The bishop is right - in a way - about one thing. Spirit Alive!, DOR's touchy-feely attempt at spiritual renewal sans catechesis, is almost certainly playing a role. It's just not the role he imagines.
Bishop Clark concludes by saying that in the future
We may provide ministry in ways we have not before, but provide ministry we certainly will!
It sure looks like that "ministry" will include far fewer parishes, far fewer priests, far fewer Masses and other sacraments and ongoing benign neglect in the area of catechesis.
Heaven help us!
Greg Rupik is on his way to Rome to study for the priesthood. He has started Southern Tier Seminarian as a way to stay connected with the people back home.
From his profile ...
A native of the Chemung Valley, I am currently entering my first year of theology as a seminarian for the Diocese of Rochester. I will be residing at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University, for roughly the next 5 years. If everything goes exactly as planned, I will be ordained to the diocesan priesthood in June 2014. While nothing is impossible with God, He often has things turn out very differently than we plan them!
I'll be praying for him.
Eugene Michael is calling our attention to an interview given by Fr. John Corapi to Patrick Novecosky of Legatus Magazine.
... the vast majority of Catholics aren’t even going to Church, so we shouldn’t wonder that the Church has been losing its influence on an increasingly secularized society.
You have to ask yourself why people have drifted away. I’m sure there are a lot of societal reasons. We don’t have control over those reasons, but we have control over the reasons inside the Church. You can start with the top. There is an old saying: “The fish stinks from the head down.” Lousy leadership is a disaster.
