Churches locked outside of Mass

[TK421]

And other desecrations occurred as well across the country. 19th century America was not a welcoming or even safe place if you were a Catholic. Irish and Germans were harassed regularly for their faith.

Still, St John Neumann writes being moved by Providence to open chapels across the diocese (which stretched a long ways across the countryside, even to my hometown in central PA). Our Lord cares far more about tending to his flock then he does about violence done against him. He proved that a long time ago in Jerusalem and he hasn’t changed since then.

 

[JanR]

Our priest told us that it was a generally practiced rule that at least one of the doors to the church was supposed to remain open at all times. And they did that in our parish, until some vandal came in and desecrated the tabernacle and sanctuary. Then they started locking all of the doors.

Prior to that incident, I was able to stop by and enter our church through their side door, which was in a wing of the building that was secluded off of the street and couldn’t be seen from it. It meant walking around the Sacristy and into the internal garden areas, where that side door was located, and I appreciated the privacy.

It’s just too bad that parishioners can’t just stop in, anymore, to pray and honor Jesus. And all because of one person’s callous actions (they know who did it), all the rest of us have been denied that very special privilege. Doesn’t seem fair, but I certainly understand why they had to begin locking up.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

The Catholic League has a list of all the Catholic churches that were desecrated/vandalized last year. It’s horrible what some people are doing.

 

[JanR]

I think there are some people in some parishes who might be willing to volunteer to do that unpleasant job – for their church. Has anyone been asked?

 

[Bithynian]

I think there are some people in some parishes who might be willing to volunteer to do that unpleasant job – for their church. Has anyone been asked?

My previous (Anglican) parish operated a small emergency shelter that was staffed by volunteers. While we do have overnight paid cleaners, the shelter vacates shortly before morning Mass on Sundays, so I volunteered to also clean the toilets to make it presentable.

Cleaning toilets is honestly never pleasant work. But in the end I found it a spiritually fortifying experience while doing it for the parish: St John of the Cross and other ascetics often wrote of finding the divine in the unpleasantness of mundane affairs. That, and the parishioners were greatly appreciate of hygienic restrooms.

With that in mind, if a parish does decide to enlist a volunteer, there is much to commend in providing the volunteer with the best cleaning supplies to make the job as pleasant (insofar as it’s possible) and efficient. And it can also be helpful to put a friendly notice on the restroom and stall doors to remind parishioners and guests that volunteers clean the facilities, and to please tidy up after themselves as much as possible.

 

[Phemie]

Vandalism, theft (parishes where I have worked, we have had items of furniture stolen during Mass time, or between the 8 am and 9:30 AM Masses!), it is for security reasons.

At the same time, every parish I know, if during office hours a staff member will happily open the Church for anyone who comes to the office and asks. No questions, no ID required.

Same here when I was secretary. At the time the Pastor was also usually in his office during most of the day. These days there is no secretary and the priest doesn’t usually come to the church except to say Mass and for the hour of confessions on Saturday. He doesn’t use the office at the church at all but works from the rectory,

 

[Cirdan_XII]

As to the danger of these practices dying out, I went 15 years without seeing a benediction or adoration in this part of the country (78-93). In the Midwestern town of my in-laws, it is still rare. It happened once, it can happen again, especially as the type of folks who gained ascendancy in Church affairs seem to be making another push for control these days. You will excuse my caution.

At my dad’s parish they have a rota that somebody is in the church at all times that it is unlocked. Just having somebody sitting there is typically enough to dissuade theives and vandals. They manage to keep that church open during most daylight hours all week. The volunteers all do one to four hours a week. My dad says he sometimes just takes a book to read, which he would be doing at home anyway so no real inconvenience. Sometimes people ask him questions and he will do ad-hoc guided tours of the building. He is quite knowledgeable on its history.

 

[Phemie]

While I can’t recall anything going missing from the church itself, my attached office was broken into three times during the 11 years I worked there, twice by the same guy. The amazing thing is that the priests were sleeping about 120 feet from the office in the same building.

The first time he broke a window in the outside door, got into my unlocked office on a Sunday night. He must have been there a good half hour. He found the keys to the filing cabinet, unlocked it, took out the bag with the collection, opened all the envelopes, took the bills and left all the coins. I joked with the cops that he could at least have written the amounts on the envelopes.

The next time he came in by forcing open the living room window, about 10 feet away from the sleeping Pastor’s bedroom. He helped himself to a bottle of wine, the few bucks that were in the filing cabinet (by that time we were doing the deposit right after Sunday Mass), the keys to two vehicles. He tried to start the SUV but couldn’t so he stole the car a parishioner had left with us for safekeeping while he was on holidays. The police happened to be going by as he left the parking lot and gave chase. They caught him, asked him if he’d done the other break-in and he said he had.

In the third break-in my office was left a mess but we didn’t think anything had gone missing. That is, until we got a call from the police some time later to say they’d found one of our chequebooks. Turns out it was one for a rarely used acct which we had kept buried in the bottom of the file cabinet. The thief had made out two cheques to himself (filling in “Bingo prize” in the appropriate section) for a total of over $2000. Though a window had been broken, the hole was way too small for him to have gone through, he just wanted to cover up the fact that he’d hidden in the church after Mass.

Then there was the seminarian who filled out a deposit slip in front of me but took another which he filled later with only the cheques and pocketed the cash and then blamed me for taking the money. He also forged his mentor’s signature on a $1500 cheque to himself.

Now my co-worker wonders why I don’t trust anyone.

 

[Phemie]

tafan2:

As to the danger of these practices dying out, I went 15 years without seeing a benediction or adoration in this part of the country (78-93). In the Midwestern town of my in-laws, it is still rare. It happened once, it can happen again, especially as the type of folks who gained ascendancy in Church affairs seem to be making another push for control these days. You will excuse my caution.

At my dad’s parish they have a rota that somebody is in the church at all times that it is unlocked. Just having somebody sitting there is typically enough to dissuade theives and vandals. They manage to keep that church open during most daylight hours all week. The volunteers all do one to four hours a week. My dad says he sometimes just takes a book to read, which he would be doing at home anyway so no real inconvenience. Sometimes people ask him questions and he will do ad-hoc guided tours of the building. He is quite knowledgeable on its history.

Here we simply have Adoration and Benediction, along with the Rosary and the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy before each Mass.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Talk to the people in your parish office. Very small parishes usually have many volunteers. A parish of any size, they beg simply to get ushers, we beg to get overnight coverage during the Triduum altar of repose, let alone 24X7 bathroom cleaners. Heck, it is not unusual for the bathrooms to be so bad that the paid cleaners refuse to go in there.