The New York archdiocese has announced its plan for closing parishes and schools. Like in Boston, the changes reflect the move of Catholics away from the city and into the suburbs.
The 10-county Archdiocese of New York plans to open or expand about a dozen parishes in its northern half, while reducing the number of full-scale parishes in its southern half by close to two dozen, according to an article by Cardinal Edward Egan in the edition of Catholic New York released yesterday.
In addition, about a dozen Catholic schools could be closed, with all but one located in the southern half of the archdiocese.
It’s not just that Catholics are abandoning the faith, but also that the entire look of our nation is changing. In the decades when these East Coast dioceses experienced their biggest expansions, the population was heavily urban. You had parishes built nearly on top of each other. And the fact that so many immigrants were from so many different Catholic countries meant many nationality-specific churches.
The times have changed. People are moving out of the cities (an article today said the county that encompasses Boston experienced the greatest decline in population in the past year and the past five years in the country) and they’re not as tied to a particular ethnicity when it comes to going to Mass. We need churches and schools where the people are.
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Does the article detail where schools and churches are being built?
Certainly there are none going up in Worcester County or near Boston.
Actually, new churches have been built in recent years in several areas outside of Boston. I believe they include Andover, Stoneham, and others. (That’s just off the top of my head.)
They could make up some of the loss by converting more of the locals, yes? What’s being done in that vein?
Catholicism is growing in other parts of the world. We’re losing most Catholics to consumerism and materialism. We do have to be more vocal in our witnesses, and not be afraid of who we are. I’ve really come to the point, to accept the criticism I might originally get for being oh so Catholic.
I love you for trying to put a silver lining on this. But Catholic schools should be bursting. Everywhere. Urban, rural…it doesn’t matter. We should be building a new church or school building every day!
If Priests REALLY preached the Gospel, AND the dangers of sending our kids to public schools, the Catholic schools would be growing exponentially.
I’ll wait until I actually HEAR the Gospel from a Catholic Church, before I’ll change my opinion. I apologize to those good Priests that are actually trying. Not to those that say they can’t talk about the real Gospel, or they’d lose their congregation.
And the post before this one was about eight more priests being laicized. This is a problem of our own making. And when I say “OUR”, I mean those with the authority to do something about it.
The destruction of the Priesthood, Catholic Universities, Church architecture, Catholic schools, catachesis…on and on..it’s all part of the same problem.
Kevin, you mean like processing them against their will? A neighborhood at a time? Because that’s what it would take. Some catholic schools in big cities have virtually no catholic kids in them at all.
I agree, DaVinci. But then if what you describe were to come to pass, we would have all new schools, bought and paid for, in the suburbs where all the catholics are. And the catholic kids would be in them. And they would be fit for catholic kids to be in. Sadly, more than sadly, we’re not there on so many counts.
But in the suburbs, families pay too much in property taxes to fund the public schools to ever pay for private Catholic. Most families decide on what town or city to live based on the public school system.
Perhaps, Renee. Just one more indication of where their hearts are, I’d say.
First, you have to make Catholic schools, Catholic and worth sacrificing for.
And yes, we need to hear the Gospel and remain in adoration of God Who lives in our Churches so often abandoned by His own.