Declining with Grace and Creativity

In the editorial that just went online at America, “A Spirit-Led Future,” the issue of declining church attendance and declining ordinations and professions and general institutional shrinkage is take up.

Today the church in much of the country is contracting. Schools have closed, hospitals merged, novitiates shuttered—moments rarely captured on film. With priestly and religious vocations and Mass attendance in decline, the church can no longer do all it once did.

If you want to discuss the issue in general, please go over to America and join up there. Here at Pray Tell, let’s hone in on the liturgical implications of shrinkage. (You’re forewarned: the editor has a delete button for non-liturgical comments.) What all issues are raised about liturgical planning, celebration, morale, finances, sense of community, and so forth? What solutions present themselves? Where is the Spirit leading us?

Editor

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

Please leave a reply.

Comments

47 responses to “Declining with Grace and Creativity”

  1. Karl Liam Saur

    One idea is that, in the non-rural USA, we need to consider how unusual the idea of having multiple Masses for a given parish is in the context of parochial Catholic history. That shift might be the thing that acts as counterpoint to the ghettoization by liturgical style one increasingly finds (or at least seeks if one wants it).

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  2. Scott Pluff

    With my parish’s “October count” numbers tallied, I made a chart of our Mass attendance from 1978 to present. The result is a steady decline with roughly half of the attendance today as in 1978. Pastors have come and gone, musical styles have changed and changed again–yet the decline has been quite steady.

    Yet we still have 4 weekend Masses for convenience sake. At our largest Mass of the weekend we half-fill the church, and at two Masses the church is less than a quarter full. Yet when we tried to consolidate to two Sunday Masses, many of our parishioners chose to go to Mass in neighboring parishes to keep their preferred time and routine. We changed back to having three Masses.

    Scattering 200 worshippers in our church that seats 1000 just reinforces the point that no one goes to Mass anymore. And good luck getting people to sing when they are separated by rows of empty pews. I’ve thought about the old “rope off the side sections” trick, but that seems contrived.

    What to do?

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  3. John Swencki

    Worth reading is Karl Rahner’s “Shape of the Church to Come”. In it he talks about the German CHurch but says it could apply to the entire church as well. The church to come, as he sees it, is the ‘church of the little flock’– greatly reduced in numbers.

    Rahner’s pages-long sentences make me wonder if his spirit had anything to do with…. nah.

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    1. Jeffrey Pinyan

      Ah, Karl Rahner, the source of Pope Benedict’s rallying cry to create a smaller, purer Church. </sarcasm>

      Seriously, though, has anyone taken Rahner’s remarks to mean that he endorses (and would want to hasten) the shrinking of the Church? Because that’s what people have done with Ratzinger’s comments in “Salt of the Earth”.

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      1. Marci Blue

        Because that’s what people have done with Ratzinger’s comments in “Salt of the Earth”.

        Jeffrey, could you expand on that a little? Tnx

      2. Jeffrey Pinyan

        Marci, my response was held up in the moderating queue. See it below: “Jeffrey Pinyan on December 2, 2011 – 1:12 pm”

  4. Michael O'Connor

    My own opinion is that the attitude of giving the people what (liturgically) they want can sometimes backfire, when what they really want is to not have to go to church. Protestant evangelical churches fill up just fine, but then again, they are not celebrating the Mass, but offering religious entertainment for the most part. I know that some would want to emulate their model, but at what price?

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  5. John Swencki

    Rahner isn’t suggesting we purposefully shrink the Church. His “little flock” will be that remnant that still holds to the faith out of conviction. Those who “practice” solely due to guilt or cooercion or habit or whatever will finally tire of ‘playing a game’ and, sadly, fall away. If we can increase membership while at the same time increasing the number of true disciples of Jesus, let’s go for it.

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  6. Jeffrey Pinyan

    Marci and John:

    I would not suspect Rahner was suggesting we shrink the Church, just like I do not think Ratzinger suggests or desires it.

    As for the “smaller, purer church” pseudo-quote that is mis-attributed to Ratzinger, see the following pages here at Pray Tell:

    https://praytell.blog/index.php/2010/04/21/sigh/#comment-3536 (comments 1-8, 51-53)

    https://praytell.blog/index.php/2010/08/22/faq-the-new-english-missal-translation/#comment-11853 (comment 33)

    https://praytell.blog/index.php/2010/11/11/who-leaked-the-internal-report/#comment-17527 (comments 16-17, 26-35)

    At least two people have commented that “Now Benedict gets his way – a smaller church” and “The Pope will undoubtedly get what he hopes for so ardently: a smaller congregation that thinks the way he tells them they should think,” evidence of acceptance of this pseudo-quote.

    The problem is that the phrase “smaller, purer church” often shows up quoted in proximity to Ratzinger, leading people to think it’s a direct quote from him, although the articles never actually provide such a quote.

    Rita Ferrone better describes it (in the last of those three posts I linked) as a summary of Ratzinger’s prognosis of the Church rather than his prescription for the Church.

    What Ratzinger did say, in the 1997 publication of an interview with him by Peter Seewald entitled “Salt of the Earth”, is this:

    “Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the church’s history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intense struggle against evil and bring good into the world – that let God in.”

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    1. Steve Millies

      You would agree, though, that many on the right have taken Ratzinger’s appraisal as a call to a smaller, purer Church, too, right? I can cite examples, if there is any doubt.

      If it wasn’t what Ratzinger meant, that may no longer be the point. Many on the left suspect there is an agenda driving the Church in a smaller, purer direction because many on the right have been comforted in their desire for a smaller, purer Church by Ratzinger’s interview.

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  7. Dunstan Harding

    The decline and consolidation of parishes may be a blessing in disguise, in that shared facilities with other churches now makes a whole lot of practical sense, particularly from a financial standpoint. From an ecumenical perspective, it will help to break down barriers in small and very big ways even more quickly.
    Will it lead eventually to shared liturgies and inter-communion, especially with Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans? In time, yes. With the Orthodox, it may take considerably more time.

    I think most Orthodox are much less inclined to share their holy mysteries with “heretical Latins”, than we are prepared to share our holy mysteries with them, but with shared facilities misunderstandings and divisions may start to melt away more quickly and joint activities are possible at levels other than simply the liturgical.

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  8. Donna Eschenauer

    A smaller church means we won’t sell out to a consumer mentality; we will gather for Sunday Eucharist in one place, at one time. No options for convenience. In the same way we gather for the Triduum.

    Karl Rahner’s words resound here, “The devout Christian of the future will either be be a ‘mystic’ one who has experienced something, or he will cease to be anything at all.”

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    1. Jeffrey Pinyan

      [W]e will gather for Sunday Eucharist in one place, at one time. No options for convenience.

      Unfortunately, many who take advantage (I mean that in a positive way) of the Saturday evening Mass might perceive a “one weekend Mass on Sunday” policy to be unpastoral. It’s not a matter of convenience for them, so much as a matter of necessity.

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  9. Charles Culbreth

    One particularly notable demographic shift that every wag bandies about is the fragile stability of a nominal Catholic census dependant upon steady increases in Latino/Hispanic/American and others, such as SE Asian and Filipino American sub-set communities. Where I’ve noticed a distinct liturgical shift due to these cultural aspects is typified by the musings and celebrational championing of scribes like Mr. Palmo that feasts of our Lady of Guadalupe, Simbang gabi/Gallo novenas and such are elevated to a holyday status in the USA that exceeds the “popularity” of Christmas, not to mention even Easter. One might be hard-pressed to deny the influence of enculturation that has Ash Wednesday population explosions that rival Easter.
    Please note, I’m only observing here, not advocating nor decrying this perception or reality.
    But as Rocco loves to point out, OLOG has become the devotional, liturgical centerpiece of American Catholicism from Bangor Maine to Seattle WA to San Deigo and Miami with Dallas to the Twin Cities, This means something liturgically for all of us to consider. I remember watching the beatification Mass of S. Juan Diego and regarding those nativic aspects as wholly appropriate for this singular situation. But, as we all know, there is a dynamic and fundamental dissonance between fully enculturated Masses universally and what the Latinate Church would typify as its own native culture (a clearly European one encompassing various geographical rites under a Gregorian/Roman umbrella.)
    I know my thoughts and Mike O’C’s above have been on this wavelength for some years now, as one is not likely to hear Victoria or Morales sung on OLOG, and that the popular and aboriginal aspects of these celebrations become pasteurized into common practice for 52 weeks of the year.
    This, of course, isn’t new. It’s just a different set of cultures of the new Balkans.
    And if you’re part of a large, non-declining multi-ethinic parish, a bear to manage.

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  10. Jack Rakosky

    For being a sociologist and psychologist by training, my primary candidate for explaining the decline is liturgical and its solution is liturgical.

    Both mainline churches and Catholicism are in decline in attendance and numbers. The common characteristic is an emphasis on the liturgical year. Conservative Protestant churches are not declining in attendance or numbers. They emphasize attendance every Sunday and provide a uniformly high quality service.

    What is the problem with the liturgical year? Simply that since the sixties there is increasing competition both inside the home and outside the home for Sunday worship time. That makes liturgical churches more vulnerable because people can go to church during the “important” times and do other things on Sunday in the less important times and still think they go to church regularly.

    Attending mainly in Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter paves the way to attending only at Christmas and Easter. That is consistent with recent data which has been showing declines not only in weekly attendance but in monthly attendance.

    What is the answer? Very simply emphasize weekly attendance rather than the liturgical year, and a highly quality service year around.

    JPII encyclical Dies Domini provides a find theology for emphasis upon that Lord’s Day that is consistent with the liturgical year.

    The sociological data says that those who attend church regularly are healthier, happier and contribute more in money and time to their society as well as their churches. Good motivation even for an atheist!

    Of course my explanation lays responsibility clearly on church management and church employees. I am not shifting the blame to society or the people. The people spoke in the Vibrant Parish Life Study. Their top priority is liturgy, but they say it is mediocre. A top priority is a pastoral staff that listens; they put that near the bottom of the list in being well done!

    Try growing creativity.

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    1. Marci Blue

      Jack, I am so glad that you took a look at this from the point of view of your professional background because I’ve been thinking pretty much the same way. I’m an industrial marketing consultant (which means I work with companies and not consumers) but what is most important is that a product is only successful so long as it provides superior value to the customer with respect to some alternative. In the case of Catholics, prior to the new translation, the alternative to Mass might simply have been staying home. To those of us who have been regular churchgoers because we have found Mass to be a rewarding form of worship, we may now seek an alternative product. Since we have been regular churchgoers it is not likely that we will forgo Sunday worship but would rather search for a more “Christian-friendly” product bundle at a non-Catholic church.

      Now, this might also play into what Jeffrey mentioned about Ratzinger and the smaller church. Maybe he didn’t actually say anything about desiring such a thing in his writings but a brief look at his papacy certainly seems to support the notion that he would like to get rid of the “cafeteria Catholics” and just keep the “institutionalized Catholics”.

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      1. Joe O'Leary

        “my primary candidate for explaining the decline is liturgical and its solution is liturgical.”

        Absolutely on target. If people do not go to church the reason is obvious: they get nothing out of the experience. Our protestant brethren understood this and made sure that the Sunday service would include good preaching, proper reading of Scripture, beautiful music (such that some come primarily for aesthetic reasons, and why not?).

    2. Bill deHaas

      Jack – would add one clarification. Your comments apply to the northern hemisphere and its nations (Australia being an exception).

      The Catholic Church is growing by leaps and bounds almost everywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere.

      Rahner’s last book was specifically about Germany – appears that his observations were prescient. Believe that he was also talking more about a people who had advanced culturally and societally to a degree that impacted large denominational worship and institutions. His “smaller, etc.” has to be taken in that context and linked to his other statements that “faith” in the 21st century will develop in a more mystical way (ecumenically, across ethnic, racial, and religious boundaries).

      Most of the comments here do not reflect the church’s current experience in the southern hemisphere.

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      1. Jack Rakosky

        Bill,

        The situation in the Global South (agrarian and industrial) is completely different than the Global North (consumer societies). Catholicism was successful in the USA as an industrial society. The Church provided many things (health care, education) and there was not non-religious competition for Sunday morning. I suspect the same is true in Africa today.

        Many sociologists attribute the terrible state of Christianity in Europe to the lack of competition among denominations. Most countries have state churches or state supported churches, and actively discourage religious competition. In Ireland and Poland, monopoly Catholicism succeeded mainly because it became deeply identified with the nation. We now see the downsides of that in Ireland.

        The Catholic Church in Africa has to be very competitive because of the Evangelical Protestants. The Latin American Church is waking up from an unhealthy monopoly like Europe because of the Evangelical Protestants. The American Church was very competitive during the immigration period because the bishops (especially the Irish ones) were afraid of loosing Catholics to Protestants. We Catholics should be very grateful to Protestants because their competition is the only thing that threatens our Church management into giving us better services.

        We have to remember that before the 1960s (the consumer society) Mainline Protestants like Catholics were very competitive in our religious economy. In fact many Conservative Protestants converted to Mainline Protestants when they became upwardly mobile.

        The whole thing has changed since the advent of the consumer economy. The formerly successful Mainline Protestants and Catholics are dinosaurs of the industrial age with top heavy bureaucracies. They have failed to see the disadvantages of their traditional emphasis on the liturgical year. They do not have independent congregations with entrepreneurial pastors who give the people what they want.

  11. Tony Corvaia

    Churches were full in my parents’ day because of three things: family pressure, societal pressure and fear of going to hell. I daresay most of those Catholics didn’t go to church because they found the liturgy faith-enriching, life-enhancing and/or a great aesthetic experience.

    I notice that a lot of gen Xers, unless they are evangelical or belong to smaller, tightly knit sect, don’t see a need for regular worship. The rituals of Catholicism are lost on them. It’s almost as if there is too much to believe in Catholicism, too much to understand, too much to do. Traditional religion just doesn’t work for them. Yet most of them are ideal parents, doting on their children, generous to all kinds of charitable causes, peace loving, patriotic and upstanding. I don’t think they understand how faith can enrich their lives, especially when they witness inter-denominational warfare and even infra-denominational strife.

    Add to this the poor record the RCC has on evangelization. This is not our strong suit. Even the stats on the RCIA are pretty abysmal. And we certainly are pretty bad at evangelizing through liturgy. Protestants who are used to good music and good preaching (and interestingly enough, not a lot of congregational participation except for hymn singing) are likely to be disappointed (if not appalled) at the average Mass. There are bright spots of course in parishes who make liturgy a priority, but are there enough of them?

    Smaller congregations mean fewer liturgical resources: smaller choirs (read: no choirs), fewer severs, cantors and readers. Less money to pay for qualified choir directors, worship aids, music, liturgists. And that results in more burn-out among those who continue to serve in some liturgical capacity.

    Is the answer to simplify? I’m beginning to think that our liturgies need to be simpler, more spiritually focused, more monastic in a way, but certainly no less solemn and reverent, emphasizing scripture, preaching, music and…

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    1. Tony Corvaia

      impactful ritual (ran out of space).

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    2. Jack Rakosky

      Tony,

      The Conservative Protestants are successful because their pastors give the people what they want.

      The Vibrant Parish Life Study identified these as an excellent liturgy and a community that cares. Catholics say that both are mediocre in their parishes.

      Besides an excellent liturgy Conservative Protestants make sure that people experience a community that cares, and are given opportunities to care for others, e.g. small groups, etc.

      One of the three strongest characteristics of Conservative Protestants, besides a belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible, and being born again, is that they invite others to share their experience (71%). In fact more report that they try to convert others than report “born again” experiences for themselves.

      Makes sense, most Catholics would probably invite others to become Catholic if we had an excellent liturgy and parishes that are real communities. The research has consistently shown that Catholics parishes do more poorly at these than Protestant Congregations. This is due to more than our average larger size, although that is also a factor.

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  12. Bryon Gordon

    Because there is also a growing shrinkage of ordained presbyters to serve in parishes, it might be both advisable and practical to reduce the number of Masses not only on Sundays but weekdays as well. Perhaps on weekdays, only one Mass is celebrated and the Liturgy of the Hours could be used.

    The Divine Office, another major component of our communal prayer life, is so under utilized in most parishes, except in a few places during Advent or Lent, and in those seasons it is usually Vespers. Why not open this up more? Leaders of this prayer do not have to be ordained, nor is this prayer restricted only to the ordained and religious–it is the prayer of the whole Church.

    For more on this, see John M. Huels’s “Reducing the Number of Masses” (pp57ff) in “Disputed Questions in the Liturgy Today” and “Daily Mass: Law and Spirituality” (pp73ff); “The Liturgy of the Hours in Parishes”(pp85ff) both found in his “More Disputed Questions in the Liturgy.”

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    1. Tony Corvaia

      Great idea on the Hours, however I think the current version is still too monastic (I’m contradicting myself on the monastic part, see my previous post) – multiplicity of antiphons, propers, commons, etc. A parochial version would be nice, something more along the lines of Morning Prayer and Evensong in the Anglican/Episcopalian tradition. There is a lot of flexibility in the current Hours, but my experience has been that using that flexibility to simplify the office has sometimes rendered it unrecognizable. Unfortunately Catholics have been trained to think that worship = Mass. Will they be able to comfortably substitute the Hours?

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  13. Sandi Brough

    The major liturgical change, obviously, will come with the rapidly approaching end of the ceremonial, clericalized priesthood. When the last jail cell door slams shut on the last priest, the church will finally be in a position to focus on human relationships and justice.

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    1. Fritz Bauerschmidt

      the church will finally be in a position to focus on human relationships and justice.

      Why would one need a Church in order to do that?

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      1. Sandi Brough

        To quote you, “Yawn.”

      2. Fritz Bauerschmidt

        You may not be particularly interested in the question, but it’s still a legitimate one. What does the Church have to offer in the realm of human relationships and justice that secular groups and worldviews do not? I have some of my own ideas, but they tend to involved the hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo that, as I recall, you would like to lock away along with the priests. So why bother? Certainly Christianity does not have a monopoly on right human relationship and justice.

      3. Jack Rakosky

        Fritz,

        Considerable research evidence shows that weekly church attendance is associated with better health, greater life satisfaction, and contributing more time and money to your community as well as your church.

        American Grace provided good evidence that these positive life effects are likely caused by religious social networks of families, close friends, and small groups. The religious nature of these social networks is important. They are in the words of American Grace “supercharged” they provide much stronger effects than social networks which are not religious.

        Going to church weekly without these social networks provides little or none of these strong positive effects.

        It is very unlikely that religious beliefs and values provide any of these strong effects. There is no evidence that any specific beliefs and values have much effect. Nor is having friends and family with the same religious beliefs responsible for these effects.

        It also seems that just having these religious networks (and even praying at home and small groups without going to weekly church weekly) fails to provide these effects. (evidence not quite as strong here).

        So empirically to get the benefits one needs to:
        1. Go to church worship weekly
        2. Foster as much as possible religious networks of family, close friends and small groups.

        I doubt that you have to go to the same church on a weekly basis. Or that religious networks have to be sponsored by parishes, or meet on church property. I would encourage people in religious networks to worship together frequently even if not always with the same people or at the same place.

        The difficulty for Catholics as well documented by Vibrant Parish Life and other studies is that parishes fail to provide high quality worship or high quality social networking opportunities. Catholics should be unremitting critical of our leadership until they recognize this. The problem is not our society nor our people but our leaders.

      4. Dr. Dale Rodriguez

        Fritz, you might not want to use “hocus pocus”. It originally was intended as a slam against Catholicism.

    2. Fr. Steve Sanchez

      Sandi,
      I hope your words are an observation of news headlines together with an underlying personal despair (for which I will pray for you), as opposed to an uncharitable and therefore unchristian desire against the very priesthood of Jesus Christ made sacramentally present in the men that have received the power to do what Jesus supernaturally did at the Last Supper.

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      1. Chris Grady

        Yeah, Steve, that’s exactly the attitude we need. I bet your parish reverses the decline trend.

    3. Rita Ferrone

      Sandi, I have known a lot of really wonderful priests, who are deeply committed to justice, and have done much to foster good for human relationships, as well as to contribute to the flourishing of society. Perhaps you have not known such men, and I am sorry if you haven’t.

      Given my own experience, my question therefore is: How can we help their tribe (the good ones) to increase? Why is it that it seems so many of the up and coming clergy are obsessed with clothing and protecting their sacerdotal privileges, and less concerned with social justice, yet an earlier generation did at least somewhat better on all this?

      There have always been, I think, dull clergy. It’s human nature that every profession attracts some people who are cowardly or lazy or not gifted, or even scoundrels of one sort or another. We see this among doctors, lawyers, politicians, teachers, and so forth. Why not the Church? We’d like to think our system would weed them out, but it doesn’t. We haven’t even had success with weeding out the ones who are really scandelous. Anti-clericalism is old as the hills, because this sort of stuff has happened before.

      But the real question, istm, is how to recruit and keep the best, the most virtuous, the ones with genuine spiritual gifts and leadership capacity and loving hearts. Your proposal of putting every priest in jail is a ridiculous proposal, and is neither just nor loving, if I may say so. What we need instead is some way to change the system so that it produces what the Church needs, fosters excellence, and does not create sinecures for the worst.

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  14. Brigid Rauch

    When my own parish was downsized, people worked on planning committees for years only to be ignored and overridden by the Chancery. The worship space most people preferred was closed in favor of a building most people disliked. All the staff members from my parish, including the choir director, were fired. People didn’t see a new combined parish, they saw their parish closed in favor of another. People from my parish had no connection to the new parish – they didn’t like the building, they didn’t like the music and I’m sorry to say they really, really didn’t like the pastor. Very few joined the new parish. Some went to other parishes, some to Protestant congregations and many, too many, now do their praying alone at home.
    I guess the conclusion must be that if people perceive the downsizing as being imposed from above with no respect for their concerns, no liturgy however well done can save the situation.

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  15. Joe O'Leary

    Human relationships and justice are at the center of the Gospel (as the Gospel of Luke in particular shows). A Church that fails to enrich our experience of human relationships and guide our passion for justice is failing to be a Christian church.

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    1. Fritz Bauerschmidt

      Joe,

      I don’t deny that at all, but, as I said to Sandi above, certainly that is not all the Church is. They may be necessary conditions for the Gospel, but are they sufficient?

      My question was about 1) what else is the Church about and 2) how are the Church’s notions of right human relationships and justice different, if at all, from secular or non-Christian ones.

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  16. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

    Although it is painful to consolidate parishes, sometimes that is necessary for viability. My former parish in Augusta was consolidated in 1970, two other viable parishes were closed and moved into the historic but less viable parish Church of the Most Holy Trinity (aka St. Patrick). One parish that was closed was a black parish, but their elementary school was kept open. The other parish that was closed was all white with an elementary school, both were closed. The black parish had about 300 families, the white parish had about 500 and the parish church that was kept had about 80 families (but was the oldest/most historic and easiest to maintain/renovate). These were downtown parishes and most Catholics had move to three other suburban parishes. While some of the parishioners of the closed parishes either refused to go to the consolidated one or left the Church altogether, ultimately the consolidated parish became very vibrant and very integrated. By 2000 this parish had 1300 families but had become by default a non-territorial parish with people driving miles and past their “geographical” parish to attend there. The reasons for its success was that it was hospitable to those who were deemed trouble makers in their geographical parish, it had a strong choir and music program, traditional architecture and liturgy (also had one Mass with a Gospel choir)was integrated and had a strong outreach to the poor especially through its elementary school. If the consolidation had not happened, one would have had to close and there would be two weaker parishes and integration would not have taken place at the same level.

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    1. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

      I should also add that in Augusta about four years ago, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and Ascension Health Care sold a very wonderful small Catholic hospital opened in the 1950’s to a secular for-profit hospital corporation. That was painful. The hospital was called St. Joseph but after it was sold, the corporation wanted to advertise it as Augusta’s only “faith-based” hospital, but the Sisters of St. Joseph wouldn’t let them keep the name, so it was renamed “Trinity Hospital.” All the statues, crucifixes in rooms and the Catholic Chapel were allowed to remain and the parish in which the hospital is provides daily Mass in the chapel.
      The for-profit corporation turned the hospital around in terms of making a profit. Now why that couldn’t have happened with it maintaining its Catholic ownership I don’t know. The loss of religious sisters in great numbers certainly impacted the decision to sell the hospital along with profitability as a non-profit. But in this age of ministry of the laity, why some coalition of committed Catholic laity couldn’t have formed some sort of corporation to run the hospital and keep its Catholic identity is sad.

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      1. Mary Burke

        Fr Allan,
        “I weep for you, the Walrus said,
        I deeply sympathise.
        With tear and sobs he sorted out
        those of the largest size,
        Holiding his pocket handkerchief
        Before his streaming eyes.”

    2. Brigid Rauch

      1. What was different about the consolidated parish that attracted about 400 new families? (Or did more people move into the area since the 1970’s?)

      2. How does the size of the parishes that closed compare to the size of nearby viable Protestant congregations? I have observed dioceses closing parishes that are “too small” that would dwarf near-by Protestant congregations. It’s not simply a matter of not enough priests. Catholics don’t give financial support to their parishes the way Protestants do. It’s time to start exploring that difference!

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      1. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

        Actually, more Catholics have left the downtown area. In the parish boundaries there would only be maybe 200 or so Catholic families registered (could be more not registered).
        First Baptist Church moved to the suburbs in the 1970’s and closed their historic Church which was the Birth Place of the Southern Baptist Convention. The liberal wing of the Presbyterian Church closed its doors about five years ago, but the conservative First Presbyterian Church is booming although smaller than the Catholic downtown parish. The Episcopalians, Methodists and First Christian Church all have viable congregations but smaller than the Catholic one.
        The attraction is/was the architecture and history of the church and parish, it is integrated, good traditional liturgy with good music, social outreach to the poor and also with the integrated Catholic school. People drive upward to 40 miles one way to attend.
        We also promoted Catholic stewardship of time, talent and treasure and our Catholics responded wonderfully in all three areas making the parish # 4 in offertory in the diocese.
        In other cases I think it would be good to simply hand the parish over to a Board of Trustees responsible for its upkeep and maintenance and then allow them to share a priest for Liturgies, weddings, funerals etc. The large Catholic Church that was closed (and very beautiful) was purchased by a Methodist philanthropist who rallied the community, formed a board of trustees and restored the building. It still looks like a Catholic Church, but no pews, but can be rented for any sort of occasions including religious ones, but unfortunately Catholics can’t even for weddings or funerals. I would personally see no problem in that and did Catholic weddings (outside of Mass) there before it was prohibited by the diocese. But Catholics can rent it for wedding receptions and that is quite common and also weird.

  17. Bryon Gordon

    Tony, thank you for your insightful comment to my post (#20) on the Hours. I really do believe there is a good opportunity here to develop mature growth in our communal prayer life. The Hours orient us to towards Sunday. As I said above, we tend to only experience this in two seasons. It needs to be sustained throughout the liturgical year.

    Yes, we need those “bright spots” as you suggest, but will they have a reception? For two years I’ve tried to suggest how to enliven the liturgical life in my parish. I was met with silence by the pastor and his confreres. Twenty years ago we used to have vibrant liturgy committees in most of the parishes in my archdiocese. They have been suppressed in those places where they once existed; therefore, without a forum, how do these “bright spots” get a hearing?

    Reply
  18. Brigid Rauch

    “The attraction is/was the architecture and history of the church and parish, it is integrated, good traditional liturgy with good music, social outreach to the poor and also with the integrated Catholic school. People drive upward to 40 miles one way to attend.
    We also promoted Catholic stewardship of time, talent and treasure and our Catholics responded wonderfully in all three areas making the parish # 4 in offertory in the diocese.
    In other cases I think it would be good to simply hand the parish over to a Board of Trustees responsible for its upkeep and maintenance and then allow them to share a priest for Liturgies, weddings, funerals etc. ”

    I suspect that the key is buried in the phrase “simply hand the parish over to a Board of Trustees responsible for its upkeep and maintenance”

    An attitude that allows lay persons to apply their talents where appropriate goes far in attracting people, besides freeing a pastor’s time to devote to living out his special vocation! I may be wrong, but I think one translation of “liturgy” is “people’s work”. Making a parish a communal enterprise instead of a one man show (in many senses of that phrase!) makes for a healthy parish. Congratulations.

    Reply
    1. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

      You must be clairvoyant for I just taught the RCIA on Thursday on Liturgy as being the “people’s work” and I just had a conversation at lunch just now with my newly ordained parochial vicar that parishes should not have pastors/priests who form the “cult of the personality” where everything revolves around the pastor or priest. Our private Catholic High School which is owned by the Sisters of Mercy, but no more sisters whatsoever, has moved to a “Board of Trustees” model of operation at the motivation/direction of the Sisters of Mercy. They make all the decisions and the school is doing extremely well and they’ve hired an excellent President/Headmaster who is doing a wonderful job with its Catholic identity.

      Reply
  19. Sandi Brough

    Hey everybody, while you’re here make sure your go over to “Father” Zuhlsdorf’s place and pad his little poll about handholding. I’m sure his head will spin a full circle if he sees an uptick in evil heathens who actually recognize God in one another. 😉

    http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/12/wdtprs-poll-holding-hands-during-the-our-father-your-preference/

    Reply
    1. Christopher Francis

      Whew! All these years of being a Catholic and I finally learn the secret: one “actually” recognizes “God in one another” by holding hands during the Our Father.

      Reply
  20. Peg Conway

    I’m sorry to see the liturgical year getting a bad rap. Awareness of the seasons and their themes is foundational to my practice of the faith. We reinforce them at home with the use of symbols like the Advent wreath, creche display, bowl of ashes and/or crucifix during Lent, saint icons throughout the year, etc. Also, I try to use tablecloths that relate to the liturgical season in our breakfast room where we eat our daily meals.

    Reply

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