Just a couple of weeks after it was desecrated by a protest during Mass, a New Orleans parish has been re-opened by the archdiocese. St. Augustine parish was supposed to have been merged with a neighboring parish, with only a Sunday Mass remaining in the building. Because of the massive cost of rebuilding the archdiocese and the small membership of the parish, St. Augustine was deemed appropriate for closing.
Protesters organized by an outside group occupied the rectory and then a couple of weeks ago they interrupted Mass with protest signs and marching up and down aisles. Archbishop Hughes closed the parish outright and declared that the church had been desecrated.
Now, after negotiating with the protesters, he re-opened the parish on Sunday and lifted the merger order with certain conditions. Canon law says that every parish must offer religious education for its parishioners and that wasn’t something they weren’t doing before. Now they will have to set up a program. They’ll also have add 300-400 families to the parish rolls and become financially self-supporting. They will re-visit the situation in 18 months to see if they’ve met those goals.
I hope they can meet them, but I’m skeptical. There’s probably a reason why the parish was in the state it was before and after the initial rush of attention, things should settle back into a normal pattern. At that point they’ll have a better idea of survival. Not to mention the difficulty of expanding a parish in the midst of the Katrina recovery when a quarter of the city’s population has gone.
I don’t like it when it appears a bishop is caving to those who use the worst tactics to get their way, but perhaps Hughes is making the best of a bad situation. Now when the re-assessment rolls around in 18 months no one can say that the closing was arbitrary.
What if the reassessment in 18 months says “keep it open”?
Unfortunately, I think part of the parish closing process is, ‘How big a stink will the parishoners and locals make if it is shut down’. The result is those that protest less are more likely to get closed.
There needs to be a more even handed and balanced process to Parish closing and consolidation. With their track record on this issue in the US, the hierarchy is not much trusted on this.
JBP
Posted by John Powers [ip: 24.13.84.218] on 04/10/06 at 12:01 PM
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Desecrated New Orleans church re-opened
Just a couple of weeks after it was desecrated by a protest during Mass, a New Orleans parish has been re-opened by the archdiocese. St. Augustine parish was supposed to have been merged with a neighboring parish, with only a Sunday Mass remaining in the building. Because of the massive cost of rebuilding the archdiocese and the small membership of the parish, St. Augustine was deemed appropriate for closing.
Protesters organized by an outside group occupied the rectory and then a couple of weeks ago they interrupted Mass with protest signs and marching up and down aisles. Archbishop Hughes closed the parish outright and declared that the church had been desecrated.
Now, after negotiating with the protesters, he re-opened the parish on Sunday and lifted the merger order with certain conditions. Canon law says that every parish must offer religious education for its parishioners and that wasn’t something they weren’t doing before. Now they will have to set up a program. They’ll also have add 300-400 families to the parish rolls and become financially self-supporting. They will re-visit the situation in 18 months to see if they’ve met those goals.
I hope they can meet them, but I’m skeptical. There’s probably a reason why the parish was in the state it was before and after the initial rush of attention, things should settle back into a normal pattern. At that point they’ll have a better idea of survival. Not to mention the difficulty of expanding a parish in the midst of the Katrina recovery when a quarter of the city’s population has gone.
I don’t like it when it appears a bishop is caving to those who use the worst tactics to get their way, but perhaps Hughes is making the best of a bad situation. Now when the re-assessment rolls around in 18 months no one can say that the closing was arbitrary.
Technorati Tags: New Orleans, parish closing
COMMENTS
What if the reassessment in 18 months says “keep it open”?
Unfortunately, I think part of the parish closing process is, ‘How big a stink will the parishoners and locals make if it is shut down’. The result is those that protest less are more likely to get closed.
There needs to be a more even handed and balanced process to Parish closing and consolidation. With their track record on this issue in the US, the hierarchy is not much trusted on this.
JBP
Posted by John Powers [ip: 24.13.84.218] on 04/10/06 at 12:01 PM
Comments are being moderated. After you submit your comment it could take up to a couple hours, but usually only a few minutes, before it will appear. Thank you for your patience. If you have any questions, you may contact Domenico Bettinelli.