My parish is in the process of consolidation right now, and I just sat through a "state of the union" message from the "Administrator" of my church. Basically, we have four former "parishes" that are relatively close together, and we were ordered to consolidate into one, with each church remaining pretty much as is. Now comes the difficult part. Two of the four churches will be limited to occasional use (funerals, weddings, special stuff), and the two largest will both remain fully functional, consolidated into a single "parish," with one office and one pastor.
There is a fairly accurate census of the four churches; three were recently completed and ours, the largest, has been maintained fairly accurately (we are the newest parish), but will be counted in the next month or so.
Three years ago, about 25-30% of the "parishioners" were attending Mass every week. At the height of Covid paranoia, about eleven percent of the Catholic population was going to church regularly. Now it's up to about 15%, and of course "we" are looking for ways to lure some people back. We anticipate that some of the people who are comfortable at the two churches that are being downgraded will either stop going to church or go someplace else. But if they remain Catholic, we are about the only game in town.
The Cajuna Virus was a dramatic blow to the Church. A lot of people stayed home and a lot of people just disengaged, stopping their regular contributions. Most are slowly coming back...but not all.
The other issue - the Elephant in the Room, so to speak - was the pedophilia scandal in the Church and the perception that Church leadership failed to deal with it appropriately, thus causing the abuse to continue and even expand after the problems were known.
The problem with the pedo scandal is that it is impossible to defend the institution. As soon as one says, "but those guys were an aberration, a small percentage of the total of priests, and they intentionally hid their activities from the hierarchy..." he is branded an enabler, making excuses, or worse. But that is the fact. The pedophile-priests betrayed the institution, intentionally using the mask of the priesthood to facilitate their perversion. Punishing the 95% of priests who remained and remain with the program, and punishing everyone else associated with the Church is...[wait for it]...perverse.
I have no doubt that many people who simply don't want to go to church, or don't want to contribute anything are using the scandal and, now, the Cajuna Virus as an excuse, but it's time to be adult about it. No institution is perfect, but the FAITH remains what it was before the scandal, before the virus, and priests who are in place right now are both courageous and admirable for their perseverence in the face of tremendous pressure and criticism. Who can go to work every day knowing that a large percentage of the population assumes you are a monster?
The Church is NEEDED in American society right now. The forces of evil are ascendant; if you can't see it you are either blind or not paying attention. Even if you don't strictly believe all of the articles of faith that you learned from the Baltimore Catechism, get your ass back to church.
I have spoken.
There is a fairly accurate census of the four churches; three were recently completed and ours, the largest, has been maintained fairly accurately (we are the newest parish), but will be counted in the next month or so.
Three years ago, about 25-30% of the "parishioners" were attending Mass every week. At the height of Covid paranoia, about eleven percent of the Catholic population was going to church regularly. Now it's up to about 15%, and of course "we" are looking for ways to lure some people back. We anticipate that some of the people who are comfortable at the two churches that are being downgraded will either stop going to church or go someplace else. But if they remain Catholic, we are about the only game in town.
The Cajuna Virus was a dramatic blow to the Church. A lot of people stayed home and a lot of people just disengaged, stopping their regular contributions. Most are slowly coming back...but not all.
The other issue - the Elephant in the Room, so to speak - was the pedophilia scandal in the Church and the perception that Church leadership failed to deal with it appropriately, thus causing the abuse to continue and even expand after the problems were known.
The problem with the pedo scandal is that it is impossible to defend the institution. As soon as one says, "but those guys were an aberration, a small percentage of the total of priests, and they intentionally hid their activities from the hierarchy..." he is branded an enabler, making excuses, or worse. But that is the fact. The pedophile-priests betrayed the institution, intentionally using the mask of the priesthood to facilitate their perversion. Punishing the 95% of priests who remained and remain with the program, and punishing everyone else associated with the Church is...[wait for it]...perverse.
I have no doubt that many people who simply don't want to go to church, or don't want to contribute anything are using the scandal and, now, the Cajuna Virus as an excuse, but it's time to be adult about it. No institution is perfect, but the FAITH remains what it was before the scandal, before the virus, and priests who are in place right now are both courageous and admirable for their perseverence in the face of tremendous pressure and criticism. Who can go to work every day knowing that a large percentage of the population assumes you are a monster?
The Church is NEEDED in American society right now. The forces of evil are ascendant; if you can't see it you are either blind or not paying attention. Even if you don't strictly believe all of the articles of faith that you learned from the Baltimore Catechism, get your ass back to church.
I have spoken.
