Vienna archdiocese to cut parishes by 75 per cent

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Quoting from the article
The archdiocese’s 660 parishes will be merged over the next decade into around 150 larger parishes, each served by three to five priests and offering regular Masses.
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[Michael Prüller, archdiocesan spokesman,] added that it would not alter the ratio of priests to lay Catholics and said other dioceses in France and Germany had also made “groundbreaking structural changes” and re-trained their parish teams.
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“It will be much more efficient and robust to have several priests working together, rather than priests left totally by themselves,” the spokesman said. “The local Christian communities will be counted on to take care of those needing help, such as the elderly, so that everyone can get to Mass.”
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It will be hard for parishioners, who are often emotionally attached to their local church. But perhaps it is healthier for the priests to be working together? Regardless, the shortage of priests seems to be driving this new plan.
 
I thought this was interesting:
Mr Prüller told the American Catholic News Service that falling numbers of clergy and laity had made the changes necessary. He said smaller affiliated communities within the parishes will be run by lay volunteers authorised to conduct the Liturgy of the Word.
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americancatholic.org/newsletters/cu/ac0999.asp

Like Sister Jane in the article at the link, they can have communion services. In 50 years, they will have a married “priesthood” of Deacons, female “ministers of Liturgy” deacons, and priests will be in Cathedrals confecting the Eucharist in wholesale lots.

Pope’s vision of a smaller church
 
Not good. People become detached to the faith because of this. People in this types of parishes tend to be unknown by the priests, and eventually fall away or just live on as nominal Christians.
 
I hope the architectural gems are kept and the ugly or mediocre ones closed and not a mixture.
 
I guess it has to happen but there will be so many beautiful churches lost. . . . 😦

Really sad.

Got to remember that the Church is the people, not the buildings.

Still sad though.
 
ringil said:
Got to remember that the Church is the people, not the buildings. Still sad though.
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Except for one thing; Catholics are obligated to attend mass. The Archdiocese of Vienna includes over 1.3 million Catholics which means, once they’re down to 150 operational churches, each church would have to be large enough to accommodate 9,000 parishioners each! :eek: Granted that some of the larger and older cathedrals in Europe have a seating capacity of thousands but there isn’t a single cathedral in Vienna that can hold 9000 people. How many will stop going when they find that they can’t get in at their preferred time?
 
I’ve never understood the desire to dumb-down the language of the Bible. I have a Douay Rheims and that is all I’ll ever use.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
Except for one thing; Catholics are obligated to attend mass. The Archdiocese of Vienna includes over 1.3 million Catholics which means, once they’re down to 150 operational churches, each church would have to be large enough to accommodate 9,000 parishioners each!
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My understanding is that Mass obligation will be met in churches without priests. Those churches will simply depend on priests to confect the Eucharist and distribute it to these churches ahead of time.

There are Catholic churches in the US which do much the same.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
Except for one thing; Catholics are obligated to attend mass. The Archdiocese of Vienna includes over 1.3 million Catholics which means, once they’re down to 150 operational churches, each church would have to be large enough to accommodate 9,000 parishioners each! :eek: Granted that some of the larger and older cathedrals in Europe have a seating capacity of thousands but there isn’t a single cathedral in Vienna that can hold 9000 people. How many will stop going when they find that they can’t get in at their preferred time?
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More than likely they will what a few parishes in my area do and have multiple Sunday Masses.
 
Dale_M said:
My understanding is that Mass obligation will be met in churches without priests. Those churches will simply depend on priests to confect the Eucharist and distribute it to these churches ahead of time.

There are Catholic churches in the US which do much the same.
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I believe the article referenced the model used in Africa. I go to Tanzania each summer to do some missionary work, and I have seen that model first hand.

The model will involve a large parish church in one of the major towns. It will be staffed by 3-4 priests, living in community.

That parish will serve 10-20 ‘outstations’ in villages too small to support a full parish.

The priests will make rounds at the outstations to say Mass and hear confessions.
 
Dale_M said:
My understanding is that Mass obligation will be met in churches without priests. Those churches will simply depend on priests to confect the Eucharist and distribute it to these churches ahead of time.

There are Catholic churches in the US which do much the same.
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Hard to imagine that Austria- a bastion of the Faith has been brought to this- the state of the US- which was formerly considered “mission territory”.
 
I only skimmed the article. But from what I saw, parishes are being merged. Churches themselves aren’t necessarily being closed. For example, the town I live in used to have three parishes. The parishes merged into one parish with three churches. Although for financial reasons they sold one of them. So in the archdiocese, they might be keeping all the churches themselves.
 
bpcatholic said:
I only skimmed the article. But from what I saw, parishes are being merged. Churches themselves aren’t necessarily being closed. For example, the town I live in used to have three parishes. The parishes merged into one parish with three churches. Although for financial reasons they sold one of them. So in the archdiocese, they might be keeping all the churches themselves.
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Yes, there are multiple ways to handle it. Churches may be kept open as weekly worship sites, without a pastor. Or they may be closed except on specific holidays. Or they may be closed and not sold. Etc.

In the rural county in which I grew up, all six parishes were merged into one several years ago. The intention of the diocese was to close the churches in the smaller towns and build one big church in the biggest town. However, parishioners have been resisting the closure of their local churches, so currently the three priests for the parish make rounds between the churches.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
Except for one thing; Catholics are obligated to attend mass. The Archdiocese of Vienna includes over 1.3 million Catholics which means, once they’re down to 150 operational churches, each church would have to be large enough to accommodate 9,000 parishioners each! :eek: Granted that some of the larger and older cathedrals in Europe have a seating capacity of thousands but there isn’t a single cathedral in Vienna that can hold 9000 people. How many will stop going when they find that they can’t get in at their preferred time?
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With 3 to 5 priests per parish
Each church will be capable of many masses each week end maybe at least 5 to to as many as 10
Thats a between1000 to 2000 per mass. Thats a medium to large Church or Small Cathedral.
We have a parish in az with 3 or 4 vigil masses in addition to 3 or for on Sunday because there are so many people attending.I believe they have three priests
It also good to see an atheist with so much concern for Catholics.
Even if he his logistically challenged.
 
:crying:

God help the Germanic countries. St. Boniface, pray for the Church!
 
Dale_M said:
My understanding is that Mass obligation will be met in churches without priests. Those churches will simply depend on priests to confect the Eucharist and distribute it to these churches ahead of time.

There are Catholic churches in the US which do much the same.
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This is chilling and a sign of the times. Contrast this to some bishops in the U.S. who have actually banned lay communion services in their diocese. As one bishop put it, reception of the sacrament is the culmination of participation in the sacrifice.
 
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