Working with people outside of the country

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JoeShlabotnik

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I hear and read about Catholics, all the time, who make trips to work with Catholics in Guatemala, Columbia, or some other place in the world.
Why are there not trips taken within the United States to work with struggling parishes that need help?
We read of Church attendance falling off in this country.
Should we Catholics not be working with some of these parishes to try to help build them back up?
I have nothing with those who wish to travel out of the country to help those in impoverished places. More power to them.
But, why not help parishes located in our own country, as well?
 
For some unknown reason, Catholics dont want to acknowledge or talk about the fact that we need more priests and what can we do about this.
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
Why are there not trips taken within the United States to work with struggling parishes that need help?
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There are. Often the trip consists of driving an hour to another part of the diocese.

Also, parishes having a drop-off in attendance are often that way because of demographics, such as residents dying or moving away. It’s not something that charitable efforts can usually fix.
 
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I don’t know that we can say that people are not helping other parishes; certainly the Jesuit Volunteer Corp has done so.

However,while you are correct about Church attendance falling off, working with a parish is not going to reach those who are no longer part of a parish. Mass attendance hovers somewhere around 25%, +/- of baptized Catholics, and among the young population (18 to 29) it was determined to be around 18% several years ago by CARA.

Certainly, reaching that group who has up and left is critical; so is reaching the group, starting about at the level of middle school and through high school is also critical as they will be the ones moving out of the house and quitting the Church in the next few years. However, it does not take going to another parish to work on that; there is plenty of work to be done right where we are.
 
Sometimes priests from other countries come over and visit parishes here.
 
My parish does a mission trip every year and they stay in the United States.
 
Good to know. I guess I just have not heard of these things anywhere near the parish that I attend.
 
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