The Modern Diocese

Words you never expect to hear: Your parish is being closed. It is happening more and more yet, the impact, when it happens to you is devastating.

After the initial shock and, yes, tears, you begin to ask questions. Is the parish a financial drain on the diocese? Is attendance down? Are spiritual and physical needs not being met? And you check into these questions and discover that not only is the church mortgage covered, there is a surplus in the parish account. Many of the Masses have standing room only. Morning Mass, early as it is, has it’s faithful attendees. There are prayer groups, various parish associations, and charity workers. The bishop, however, wants to close the parish and consolidate it with another one. One would assume the co-parish in consolidation is going through many of the same heartbreaks and pain.

On the bishop’s plus side, he would be able to provide the parishes more adequately with pastors given the current vocation crisis. Instead of the several‘small’ parishes, he would have a few megaparishes, newly-built, and a icon to modern progressiveness. Where are the people in this plan?

Closing local parishes and moving them to an advantageous location for all people, leaves many people behind. Will these people find another parish? This seems unlikely as the consolidation effectively moves several parishes out of reach. Human nature indicates that many people would just stop attending Mass, perhaps, migrating to a local church, possibly not Catholic. Was this possibility figured into the bishop’s calculations? Should it be a matter of concern?

On the other hand, there would be the people who wander from parish to parish every Sunday, never daring to settle in, merely fulfilling their Sunday obligation, and tossing in a token dollar for the collection. They haven’t any loyalty to one particular parish now. Their time, talents, and treasures will not find a place in the Church. Seems that would be a big impact on diocesan finances eventually. Was this possibility figured into the bishop’s calculations? Should it be a matter of concern?

A new church that seats over 2,000 is an impressive sight. Being part of the masses at Mass makes you more of a number, however, rather than a soul. Would your pastor even know you actually exist? When he greets people after Mass, will he remember a face or merely cope with this weekly exercise of handshaking more people than he can count. Would you be merely an envelope number in the office bookkeeping?

Bishops continually speak of the Catholic parish, the church community. Many parishes facing closure have a long history of community. Children have grown up in them and now-elderly parents find comfort in the pews. They are a parish. They are known. If they aren’t at Mass, someone will notice, care, and investigate. Building community is not a quick growing event. It takes years of small building blocks of humanity to just begin to perfect it . . . and it will never be perfect but the foundation is there. You close churches, you close off a lot of established life. You close off community. You wonder if the bishop views community and parish life in the same way you have experienced it in action?

One can understand the bishop’s panic at the lack of vocations. It doesn’t look good when you don’t have enough qualified men studying to step in the void. It’s a shame the parish churches have to take on the burden. Many dioceses are experiencing rapid growth in vocations to the point where every parish will be covered and then some. Instead of closing down parishes in progress, a bishop might take time to study what is bringing in vocations in other dioceses and, perhaps, work towards that end first. Megaparishes may look impressive but will our young people find examples in the crowds that will lead them to a sacrificial life?

Megaparishes will solve the bishop’s immediate problems, to a point. They won’t promote vocations. And, to be honest, most people will, eventually, migrate way up the road to the modern hulk on the hill featuring comfortable stadium seating for hundreds. The bishop will pull in the majority and the smaller groups of people left behind in the closures will be minimal compared with the ‘big’ picture. The bishop will have the larger number of Catholics safely within the confines of their Faith. You can’t sacrifice the ‘greater good’ for a few, right? Jesus spoke of that in his parable about the Good Shepherd. I wonder what He thinks about all this?