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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