BishopAccountability.org
	Church Closings More Than a Numbers Game By John E. Usalis The Republican & Herald January 13, 2008 http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19193912&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=532624&rfi=6 Last weekend the first announcements were made about what are being called parish "mergers" in the Catholic Diocese of Allentown. Of course, what will really happen is that certain Catholic churches will be closed and others will remain open, but "merger" sounds better. It's all about the spin, you know, when dealing with bad news. I'm not faulting the diocese for using the word, considering what needs to be done, but for those people who are very attached to their particular parish, exchanging one six-letter word — closed — with another six-letter word — merged — isn't going to ease the pain too much. Before I go any further, let me be clear about one thing. This column is not going to beat up on Bishop Edward Cullen or the diocese. That is not the intention. I have not agreed with the decision-making from Allentown in many cases, especially recently with regard to Catholic schools in northern Schuylkill County, and the same goes for how policies have been implemented. And even if the bishop really doesn't much like us, as some alleged comments attributed to him indicate, to turn everything into "The bishop hates us" is simplistic and unfair. So, if you are looking for an editorial brickbat here, look elsewhere to read something more to your liking. It was reported this past week that the six churches in and around McAdoo would merge into one parish. Composing Region II in the North Schuylkill Deanery, the announcement was made without saying which church would become the new home church. Parishioners in four of the churches in Region IV, which includes the parishes in and around Shenandoah, were also told of the merger prospects. According to the report, Region IV, which also includes Ringtown and Sheppton, will have three priests. Since the plan is to only have one church per priest, the actual number of priests stays the same, since there are already three priests serving the nine Roman Catholic parishes. Basically, the number of parishioners per priest will remain about the same, but the responsibilities will be reduced to operating and maintaining one church building and any buildings that are part of that parish rather than three or four churches. There is a savings in expenses, to be sure, but the question becomes will new territorial parishes be as effective as the individual ethnic parishes, where national pride many times goes hand-in-hand with spiritual fervor. Separating one from the other may not work out, any more than taking the three Catholic elementary schools and merging them in to one or closing one Catholic high school. True, the economics supported the decision to some degree, but the loss of students involved in Catholic education in the process is something that can't be quantified on a graph or a pie chart or a balance sheet. Of course, we have to look at the practical, as well. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the coal region, especially the northern part of Schuylkill County, has experienced a radical population drop, while other areas of the diocese are growing. Influx of people means increases in the amount of parishioners, for the most part. What do you do when towns with many churches don't have the populations they once had? Take Shenandoah, for example. At its peak, the borough had more than 30,000 people. The usual population high is estimated at around 33,000, but that came between censuses. It was the most populated square mile on earth at one time. In addition to St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church, the oldest Eastern Rite Catholic church in America, Shenandoah had eight other Catholic parishes. Two parishes with German and Syrian congregations closed many years ago. If plans would have been completed, there might have been another Lithuanian parish. And there are many non-Catholic denominations in town. It would be safe to say that their parish's censuses aren't anywhere near their peaks either. Here are the churches, here are the steeples, open the doors but where are the people? Move forward to today. The borough population has dropped from 30,000 to a bit over 6,000. Crunching the numbers, that's an 80 percent decrease in population. Other towns have population drops, although maybe not as much percentage-wise. Looking back to the time when the area was flourishing, each church had more than one priest, and many had their own schools. A quick drive through most of the towns will easily point out the empty school buildings and convents. Some buildings are being used for other purposes, but used or not, they are remnants of bygone days. Not only have the populations decreased, so have the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious or consecrated life. The number of diocesan and religious (those in religious orders) priests have dropped dramatically, as have vocations to the religious orders of sisters. Each school had their own teaching orders, which kept costs down for students. When my sister and I attended St. George Parochial School in the '60s, which was operated by the Sisters of St. Casimir, a Lithuanian teaching order, the tuition was quite low. How low was it? Try $8 per student. That is not a typo. $8. My mother used to pay for the tuition, which was really to pay for books, by saving pennies throughout the year. When September came, she had the $16 for the tuition. Times have changed, haven't they? It a complex problem. Fewer men and women answering the vocation call to religious life, a severe drop in population and, unfortunately, a lack of interest by many Catholics to support their parishes through collections and other ways has promulgated the current situation. Some parishes are self-sufficient and are stable financially. There is support out there, but when you look at the percentage of participation by members, the numbers aren't so good. Everybody is stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is a shortage of priests, and bringing in missionary priests from Africa, Poland and other places could be a potential answer, but will it really help or will it just delay the inevitable if there are no population increase and/or the people just don't come to church? No easy answers are coming soon. The diocesan plan is heavily based on assigning a certain amount of parishioners to each available priest. The priest shortage is the main impetus we are told. And that may be the reason. It's usually not good or wise to judge motives. That gets you into trouble. But taking away the factor of population decrease, can the question be asked whether we deserve to have more priests? Please bear with me on this one. Since the 1960s, there has been plenty of turmoil in the Catholic church, a lot of the problems stemming from outright disobedience or disagreement with what the Church teaches. While there are many, many lay people, clergy and religious who have remained faithful since Vatican II, the dissension has been fairly widespread in all those areas. Where there used to be several daily Masses at most churches, now you are lucky if there is just one. People stopped going to them. Sunday Masses are rarely full. Midnight Masses at Christmas that used to be standing room only are not that way any more. There are lines of people going to Communion but none at Confession. There are exceptions, but not many. Looking at examples from the Old Testament, God raises up holy men and women to take care of His people. When His people cease to be holy, cease to be the people He expects them to be, then God removes His blessings. Another word for blessings is graces. If Catholic people are not going to live according to what the Catholic Church teaches, or at least do so in the best way they can, why should we expect to have men and women hear the call to the consecrated life? Why should God call them in the first place? And if they are called, how many of them are encouraged by family, friends and others to become a priest or nun/sister? How many reading this have thought about a son or daughter entering religious life and actually promote the idea? Maybe we're getting the amount of vocations that we deserve. Scary thought, huh? In all the number-crunching going on, there seems to be an apparent neglect of the spiritual aspect to some extent. Again, as with the school closings and mergers, what are the plans after the smoke clears and the number of parishes are reduced to only one or two in each town, if that? What will be done about encouraging vocations? What ways are being considered to get people who only show up at church for Christmas and Easter and a few other special days into church at least weekly? A number of years ago, a priest in Hazleton described them as "PAT" Catholics (Palms, Ashes, Throats). Masses become social or traditional events rather than spiritual ones. The closings or mergers are pretty much inevitable at this point, but there must be a spiritual revival started. If nothing is done, expect to find even more closings at a future time.
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