The Church Alive

[ShastaRose]

Our diocese is grouping churches together and considering them all one parish. Usually one of the three is a small church in danger of being closed in a couple of years. Is this happening in many dioceses? How is this affecting Catholic church-goers in these area? The main difference in our parish seems to be that our priest is now “administrator” of several churches and is kept hopping around among the three. I think the smallest of the three in our parish should be closed immediately, as the handwriting is already on the wall, and the priest is in danger of dropping from overwork. Is this happening in many other parishes?

 

[TK421]

It’s happening in very rural areas.

We need to create one-man fuel-injected rocket pads at these rural sites so the priest can traverse parishes at speeds of up to 4,450 kph.

 

[anna]

It happened here in Philly in my parish grouping the church and school with another parish, our records being sent there. There are alot of people. being merged into one parish, and only two priests to handle Masses, home visits. devotions etc. I was surprised this happened as both parishes seem to de doing fine. I wish our parish had been the one to stay open, as I loved the church,We abide by the decision of the diocese. God bless .

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I don’t know where you are, but Pittsburgh (not my diocese but I buried my husband there) just got done doing that. The relevant parish concerned there had already been consolidated some years ago with three others and was fortunate to get three priests plus a deacon assigned to them in the latest round. They can keep up their normal Mass schedule, keep up their nursing home ministry and keep up another little parish that is isolated and has people in it that would have difficulty getting to Mass elsewhere. So for now they are thrilled as they were expecting a much worse outcome, like losing members of their team instead of actually getting a third priest assigned.

“Mission for the Church Alive” seems to be some weird corporate-speak. I’m not sure what a good alternative language would be though.

 

[dochawk]

I’ve moved this to Catholic Living, as it is a general rather than traditional topic, and there is no specifically church structure or hierarchy section.

hawk

 

[UpUpAndAway]

the priest is in danger of dropping from overwork.

This is happening right now in my parish, the organization of which is the result of a three-parish merger some fifteen or so years ago. Due to declining health, our pastor is transferring out of the parish in September in favor of a less demanding mission (meaning that wherever he ends up he will not be the pastor). He has been with us for eight years and always maintained that the hardest part of his responsibility as pastor is juggling the three churches. It’s madness. For the past two years I’ve had the impression that I’m watching him work himself literally to death, and while I’m sad to see Father go I’m also relieved he isn’t going to die here, crushed under his immense workload.

Even after all this time, the parishioners tend to cling to whichever church they attended before the merger. Efforts to strengthen ties between the respective congregations have mostly been unsuccessful. There is animosity between the churches - perpetuated only by a few, but their attitude tends to affect everyone they come in contact with. To those of us who moved to the parish long after the merger this bitterness is nonsensical, so hopefully it will dissipate over time.

All three churches have thriving communities, but the merger was largely motivated by a lack of priests. When a diocese loses 22 or so priests each year but only ordains 1-3 (or, in the case of this year, none) in the same amount of time, the numbers eventually catch up with it.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

From a pure business perspective, there has got to be some reason that some dioceses are producing a large number of priests per capita and others are producing zero. They need some consultants to look at that situation and make some changes.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

The parish I am in now went through a merger a couple of years back and there is still a bit of a ‘them and us’ vibe amongst some of the older parishioners.

We face another merger and I think it’s going to be similar. There are also practical concerns, the church only has a small car park, very little street parking and not a lot of busses on Sunday so I think some parishioners will struggle to switch where they go for mass.

 

[GodSpawned]

Happened to the Catholic church where my parents live. Happened to my wife’s church before we moved here and is in the process of merging again.

Before they moved they shut the other church but kept the building (now basically a community center). Don’t know what the plans are for the current merger.

 

[Rob2]

Yes , @ShastaRose , it’s happening in our diocese also .

We had a diocesan consultation about how the parishes could be reorganised .

The final details were published about 9 months ago , so that every parish now knows what the future holds if a priest retires , is moved , falls sick etc .

6 months ago our parish was amalgamated with a neighbouring parish whose priest was being moved . The two churches are still being used , with our priest being parish priest of the new parish .

In some instances churches are being closed .

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=31724

 

[Norseman82]

It’s starting in Chicago. The process is called “Renew My Church”.