NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter
Peter Feuerherd | Sep. 23, 2015
NEW YORK Cardinal Timothy Dolan, appointed to lead the New York archdiocese six years ago, didn’t need his doctorate in U.S. Catholic history to realize he was made chief steward of a grand legacy.
There was the massive St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ornate churches scattered around Manhattan and throughout the archdiocese, and small churches, barely noticeable, tucked away amidst apartments and office buildings, whose history dates to ethnic groups who have long moved on.
Impressive, yes, but not always helpful for the modern era. Over the past year, Dolan has unleashed a series of parish consolidations, closings and mergers, affecting a sizeable chunk of the archdiocese’s 368 parishes. After a listening process titled “Making All Things New,” the results landed towards the end of this summer as 112 parishes involved in that process were merged into 55, with 31 churches shuttered permanently.
The goal is a financially stable, revitalized church better able to evangelize a secularized culture, in an archdiocese where only about 12 percent of some 2.8 million Catholics can be found at Sunday Mass. It’s been on Dolan’s mind for a while.
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