Churches locked outside of Mass

  • Thread starter Thread starter snavemarc
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
We’ll make it one. That’s not too hard. Spend a 1000 bucks and fix the problem.
 
That’s not the procedure available in a couple of Churches in this area that are locked. Locked means licked, you don’t get in unless an parish staff member is with you who has a key
 
Understood, but it does leave a hole in your defense of locked churches, at least in the instance you cited.
 
tafan2 said:
I know for a fact that parishes that leave their church locked have far less people making ad hoc visits to Blessed Sacrament, fewer time of exposition , fewer times if confession, empty parking lots on most weekday evenings.
Click to expand...
Of course they have fewer people making “ad hoc” visits because people can’t just drop in any old time. The rest of your post makes no sense and is not my experience. Confession times have nothing to do with the church being locked during the day. Empty parking lots at night?Adoration is often taking place in a chapel separate from the church; I know of at least four parishes where this is the case.

I lived through the 70s, 80s and 90s in the Midwest too. 1993 was almost 30 years ago and things have changed quite a bit. Also, I learned to go to Adoration in the late 70s when our pastor instituted it at our Parish in the Midwest in a building separate from the church. I am not sure if the pastor after him continued it, but the next pastor (current pastor) still has it 2 days a week.

It’s one thing to say that we need a place for ad hoc visits, another thing to claim that Adoration is dying out everywhere in the States and that churches that don’t stay unlocked - which in my experience is none of the 35 or 40 churches I’ve regularly attended in USA - are somehow less “busy”.
 
Last edited:
I think pastors and everyone else would benefit from common sense on this one. The Pope does not expect us to leave churches unlocked all night and cause a security risk to Jesus, the church structure, or any people inside. I suspect some churches couldn’t even get insurance if they did that.

The Pope means we should not start being less welcoming or making fortress-like security settings out of fear of terrorism. Not that we should take risks that we wouldn’t even take with our own homes.
 
This isn’t the 1950s anymore when Churches were open around the clock, at least according to what my folks told me. If they were open unsupervised these days they’d end up with all the valuables stolen.
 
tafan2 said:
I don’t doubt this is a problem in places, but in my experience it is way overstated.
Click to expand...
All it takes is one. One time, one person.

I think some parishes lock the church as a temporary solution and that becomes a long term solution because few are in the habit of visits. If they were they were in the habit, they were usually very active in the parish and had a key.
 
Our church is open from about 6:30 am to 9:00 pm daily. We have an old historic church building in an older part of town. While not exactly a high crime area we do have a homeless and transient population near by. We have very few problems regarding theft or vandalism, although we do have an occasional person sleep in the pews. We do have one homeless man who has taken it upon himself to make rounds of the church, checking things out. He has been doing this for years and is harmless.

Of course the sacristy is always locked as well as the tabernacle. We have a perpetual adoration chapel that is unlocked during the day but once the church is locked at night one must use a code to get in.

I love the idea that our church can remain open to all during the day. We have many people who come to pray, spend time with the blessed sacrament, or just find peace.
 
I’m in Australia, and it’s fairly variable as to whether a church is locked outside of Mass (or another service). Rural and suburban churches tend to be locked, mostly due to a lack of staff on premises. Larger parishes with an attached school or a parish office are generally unlocked (as is my parish).

When I was a communicant with the Anglican church, my parish was in a downtown area and was open everyday. We usually had vergers, but the interior of the church could be monitored via CCTV from the adjacent parish office. Incidents did occur. Candlesticks and other brassware were sometimes stolen. The rector would visit the local pawnshops and retrieve them.

An incident in recent memory was concerned with a gentleman who came into the church on a quiet weekday afternoon, emptied a container of flammable liquid on the back pews and set them on fire.

Even then, the parish remained open daily outside services.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Not that we should take risks that we wouldn’t even take with our own homes
Click to expand...
So it’s your opinion almost every Catholic church should be locked if not attended by a staff person (staff person beig analogous to a family member). That only parishioners ( family members ) and invited guests should attend a mass (family meal)?

What the pope says is clear, nothing near as radical as every church should be treated as securely as our homes.
 
We are in a small town. We have security cameras all over the grounds, as well as someone living on the grounds. Very active parish.

In the past couple of months someone broke into one of our metal storage buildings, they did not break the lock, they pryed an entire wall off the structure and carried out everything of any value over a couple of days. The opening was in back of the building, not visible to the cameras nor anyone on the grounds.

There was a locked trailer of food for our Thanksgiving meals for the needy. Someone broke into the trailer and stole the food.

A worker rides a bike every day, bike was stolen from inside the property.

People steal things. Maybe your parish is wealthy and can afford to replace everything when it is stolen, ours is not.
 
My parish is the opposite of wealthy, but our church is never empty.
 
No.one has advocated leaving them unlocked 24/7. My very first post specified “during the day”. I am the only one on this thread who is arguing for unlocked churches. So I am sure your post is intended to me. Why a stawman argument against my position, presenting my position as 3xtreme. The extreme position are those who think every Catholic Church should be locked if mass is not going on.
I am simply echoing Pope Francis’s position. Security concerns should not be the overriding factor.
 
To be fair, as a parent I’m not sure if I’d want people to be able to access the church unless they went full outdoor electronically controlled security doors, and the church would need like 3 of them.
 
No 9ne has posted that. Speculating that someone will, despite all evidence is almost the definition of a straw man argument.
 
Pope Francis is right.

Where I am, within the Diocese , there are rural and remote churches locked, people do know who has the key. In regional cities, the main Churches/Cathedral are unlocked during the day, have alarms and security cameras operating.
Sure we have all walks of life, both in and out of the Churches. Just because someone is homeless it does not mean they are engaged in criminal behaviour.
The issue of criminal behaviour in Churches is not a 21st century issue, it goes right back to early christianity.

We must trust in God, one of the Dogmas is the Church will survive.
 
Last edited:
What does being a parent have to do with this? I’m a parent as well as a grandparent of 6. Our church is open from about 6:30 am to 9:00 pm daily. I see people in the church all the time but I never see children alone in there.

This is not like a Protestant church where no one is home and no one has a reason to go inside outside of service hours. This is a place where Jesus is 24/7. People want to spend time in close proximity to him and they should be able to.

The idea that there should be electronically controlled security doors at the entrances to a church is not welcoming at all. That is not who the Catholic Church is.

In one parish I belonged to years ago, there were two churches, one was locked outside of Mass and the other was open during the day.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top