The Observation Deck

Dee

I'm sorry if my post was insensitive to your plight, as well as that of the other parishoners affected. I'm certainly not thrilled with the idea of any vacant buildings, much less churches (for many of the reasons cited by Mr. Warren). I'm not relishing the process of redevelopment, but I do recognize that there is going to be a need to include that issue in the painful discussions, lest you have no input in the eventual use. Hence my (somewhat) tongue in cheek original post.

Jeff

After the closing of St. Augustine Academy, I'm not surprised by anything the diocese does anymore. I had a feeling in 2006, when Lennon was named bishop that church closings would soon follow.

Being a kid that grew up in North Ridgeville, the fact that Lakewood was a city of churches fascinated me. I was envious. When I was little, I would sit by the window in my great grandparents's house, looking out across the street, wishing I could attend St. James so I could play with the other children on recess. Lakewood is such a small area and to have that many churches in such an area is unique. I've had friends from around the US and the World visit Lakewood and they've marveled at how many churches were in this small area. It's what they remember: Lakewood is a city of churches.

Those churches aren't just buildings that can be converted to luxury apartments or office space. They are more than prime pieces of real estate or buildings. They were built by people with love for their faith and their community. I remember hearing stories of how my great great grandparents came over from Europe with nothing more than their faith. In such a foreign place, their faith was their refuge and they found that refuge in their community church. Their success in America became the church's success. They donated large amounts of their time and money to maintain their parish. They lived their lives around their parish--birth, death, marriage, and even graduation.

I'm currently attending medical school in Des Moines, Iowa. As I left Mass one day, I wondered, "What makes our diocese so different?" The vibrancy of Catholic parish life in that diocese is something I wish our diocese had. I've attended small churches and large churches and the amount of laity involved is staggering. It isn't the parish dependent on the diocese--it is the parish dependent on itself. The parishes have incorporated new immigrant populations from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Sudan and yet maintain the needs for the entire parish. It does not matter the wealth of the neighborhood--a majority migrant worker population or wealthy West Des Moines--the churches on Saturday and Sunday are filled (as I've found that getting to Mass 15 minutes early isn't good enough). In my search for a church, I attended Sacred Heart, which has a large migrant population. I was surprised at the large amount of activities because I reasoned it would be a poorer church, but as I read the pamphlet about monthly health screenings it dawned on me: "Duh, the med school is down the street." The church was using the community. It was a win-win situation: the church was putting people in the seats, the people were being screened for blood pressure/etc, and the med students were getting that precious patient contact time. It doesn't have to cost a dime. Med students are free and we've all had to buy our equipment. Why, just mention, "It'll look good for residency" and the churches would have more volunteers than they need. This area has at least two medical schools (Case and OCPM)--not to mention the many students that come home for summer--and the plethora of nursing schools--LCCC, Tri-C, Case, and Ursuline to name a few.

The excuse of people moving to the suburbs and that is the reason of dwindling population on Sundays is half true. Yes, they've moved away, but someone has just moved in. What are the churches doing to make the newcomers feel welcome?

Jennie

Lennon has a track record of closing churches...Hand of God spells it out.

For clarity, it should be said that Bp. Pilla started this process more than 5 years ago. Bp. Lennon is inheriting the situation. I will give him credit in that he could have simply come in and closed churches as he saw fit, but stayed the course with Pilla's plan to let the people of the diocese work it out.

It's not what we want to do, but we have to do something. As I said, the recent and projected numbers are astounding.

As I am involved in this process, I won't tolerate rumours and innuendo circulating about what's happening. We have serious work to do.

Paul Schrimpf wrote: As I am involved in this process, I won't tolerate rumours and innuendo circulating about what's happening. We have serious work to do.

What rumours and innuendo are you referring to?

There's been a lot of talk that Lennon was brought in to the diocese to be the hatchet man. Despite his record in Boston, I'd like to afford him the opportunity to settle in the job. This movement to consolidate was Pilla's creation, driven by staggering drops in parish size. Just ensuring that all readers to this post have the record straight. The "rumors and innuendo" is in reference more to future posts on this board than what's been written so far. I wasn't calling your fact out -- undeniably, Lennon did close a lot of parishes in Boston. But it didn;t start with him

While it's painful to see a church close, the thing is ... times do change, and the outward movement of people from the city is really a continuing issue that we have to grapple with ... but with few easy solutions. I always thought it was interesting, that in Europe, the model is rather different; there, THE place to be is in the city, while the "bad areas" are actually in the suburbs. In America, it's the other way around. But while there are reams of studies from hordes of sociologists and economists about why people move to the 'burbs, the sad truth is that movement is really been a part of America since the first days. We're a nation of people that moved from somewhere else (and even the Native Americans were from somewhere else, albeit tens of thousands of years ago), and from the founding of this country, our culture was always about moving ... go west young man. And America did, and continues to do so (judging by recent census studies), as well as going south.

Those of us who haven't moved (though admittedly, I too have moved west ... from the East Side!), now have to deal with the ramifications, and closing some churches is one of them. And it's going to be painful, because the church is a part of the community, a friend, a neighbor, an anchor, a provider, a place of worship, a place of social interaction, and literally a place that provides "cradle to grave" service. No one wants to see them go.

Back in the early 1990s, I spent some time working for the National Park Service in central Pennsylvania, and the folks there were going through the same thing, because many of the small coal-mining towns and railroad towns had greatly dropped in population, so their gorgeous churches were underused, and the local dioceses ordered them consolidated. But the reaction was interesting, because it really angered a lot of people; THEIR ancestors built those churches with their money and in many cases, physical labor and craftsmenship ... and the diocese, a bunch of "outsiders" (in their view) were telling them that the church had to close. It got ugly ... and eventually, a number of parishes essentially up and quit the Roman Catholic Church (and got excommunicated), and instead switched over to the Polish National Church (which was started by Polish-Americans who were tired of non-Polish bishops who were not permitting them to conduct mass in Polish, or offer Polish-language education classes ... and the key thing was also the ownership of the actual church building and property ... the Polish-Americans felt that since THEY raised the money to build the church, and THEY often performed the labor to own the church, that THEY owned the church, NOT the diocese! So they splintered off ... and today the Polish National Church still follows most of the Catholic practices and beliefs, BUT allows each individual parish to own their own building and property. They also allow priests to marry, interestingly enough). The diocese of course were able to keep the original church buildings (and won several lawsuits to that effect), but the parish members up and quit and ended up buying some former protestant churches. In many cases, several nearby parish groups combined to buy a church and open a combined parish. It was interesting to observe, to say the least, but those folks were darn determined that they were not going to have some Bishop or diocesean official tell them what to do.

I'm not suggesting it should happen here, but it does bring up the whole issue of the hierarchy of the church and the issue of property. I always thought it was odd that the diocese would tell a group wanting to start a parish that they had to raise the money themselves to build the church building ... but that the diocese ended up owning the building and could decide to close it if they wanted to. That just seemed rather odd and unfair to me.

But then again, I'm Polish.

Dee

We are working on a project to fix this problem. it should be ready in the next week or so.

You can get a sneak peek this week.

It is a FREE website, discussion board for every church and non-profit in town.

A package that ties into the paper and many of our functions.

It is easily worth $2,000 a year or more to EVERY church and non-profit.

The money and time for this effort has been donaed through the Observer and a couple of our largest advertisers.

FWIW



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