Post by concerned on Feb 10, 2008 12:25:00 GMT -5
In todays NYTimes there is an interesting artical concerning the closure on many Catholic parishes in the area, sadly due to the constant loss of population due to major industries leaving the area along with the loss of our young to areas with a brighter future.
www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/nyregion/10church.html?th&emc=th
Armed sheriff’s deputies removed the last man from the Catholic church here 10 days ago, pasting “No Trespassing” signs on the doors as they left and surrounding the perimeter of the grounds with crime-scene tape reading: “Do Not Cross.”
It was the end of a seven-month vigil by parishioners trying to keep the church open.
“We were told that if we go as far as the parking lot, we will be arrested,” said Mary Cargian, 78, who married at the church, St. Mary’s, in 1967 and had worshiped there ever since.
For 217 days, 100 volunteers took turns occupying St. Mary’s, where the door locks had been changed just before a priest celebrated the last Mass on June 30. When the Mass ended, some volunteers stayed, and then the occupants took turns. They gathered in the church for prayer services on Sundays, continued to raise donations and even filed an appeal with the Vatican, arguing that the 108-year-old church was worth saving.
The church is one of 30 that have been closed or merged by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse since last spring as part of a broad and turbulent reorganization expected to affect most of the diocese’s remaining 154 parishes in the coming years.
Over the past decade, dioceses nationwide have been consolidating parishes in the face of rising heating costs, aging priests and shrinking congregations, prompting angry sit-ins and protests in Boston, Chicago and Detroit. But the situation in Syracuse and other fading factory towns upstate is more acute, as the number of Catholics has shrunk even faster than the population in general.
We knew back in the early ’80s that we were going to have a diminished number of clergy, but what we didn’t realize was that upstate New York would take such a hit with the loss of business, industries and people,” said the Rev. James P. Lang, vicar of parishes for the Diocese of Syracuse.
The shifting demographics driving the church closings are most pronounced in the mid-Atlantic states, the upper Midwest and in old industrial hubs throughout the Northeast, where the Catholic immigrants who once made up a significant portion of the work force have decamped for the South and West since the manufacturing sector began its collapse in the 1970s.
“The loss in population is a political problem whose repercussions have been felt not just on the tax base and the infrastructure of those communities, but also in other areas, including religious institutions,” said Chester Gillis, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University. “The bottom line is simple,” Professor Gillis said. “If you have less people donating to the church, it becomes unrealistic — and it is financially irresponsible, really — to keep a church building open.”
In the dioceses of Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, which together cover 27 counties in central and western New York, the reshuffling has reached well beyond city limits — from inner-ring suburbs that have suffered from the spillover effects of the population drain to more stable communities like Jamesville, a hamlet of about 1,500 bordering the southeastern edge of Syracuse.
The Rochester diocese has, meanwhile, opened seven new churches in the past 30 years, in suburbs like Pittsford, one of the few communities upstate with a median family income above $100,000 and a median home value above $175,000, according to a 2005 study by the Buffalo-based newspaper Business First.
“These churches are all thriving,” said the diocese’s Mr. Mandelaro.
For many of St. Mary’s parishioners here in Jamesville, the closing has been confounding. The church — built by Irish immigrants in 1899 and enlarged 32 years later to make room for the Poles, Italians and Ukrainians who came to work at a local quarry — had a solid congregation and a healthy endowment that financed a food pantry for 1,200 people and a popular religious education program, said Ciarrai Eaton, president of the parish council
The above are some highlights
www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/nyregion/10church.html?th&emc=th
Armed sheriff’s deputies removed the last man from the Catholic church here 10 days ago, pasting “No Trespassing” signs on the doors as they left and surrounding the perimeter of the grounds with crime-scene tape reading: “Do Not Cross.”
It was the end of a seven-month vigil by parishioners trying to keep the church open.
“We were told that if we go as far as the parking lot, we will be arrested,” said Mary Cargian, 78, who married at the church, St. Mary’s, in 1967 and had worshiped there ever since.
For 217 days, 100 volunteers took turns occupying St. Mary’s, where the door locks had been changed just before a priest celebrated the last Mass on June 30. When the Mass ended, some volunteers stayed, and then the occupants took turns. They gathered in the church for prayer services on Sundays, continued to raise donations and even filed an appeal with the Vatican, arguing that the 108-year-old church was worth saving.
The church is one of 30 that have been closed or merged by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse since last spring as part of a broad and turbulent reorganization expected to affect most of the diocese’s remaining 154 parishes in the coming years.
Over the past decade, dioceses nationwide have been consolidating parishes in the face of rising heating costs, aging priests and shrinking congregations, prompting angry sit-ins and protests in Boston, Chicago and Detroit. But the situation in Syracuse and other fading factory towns upstate is more acute, as the number of Catholics has shrunk even faster than the population in general.
We knew back in the early ’80s that we were going to have a diminished number of clergy, but what we didn’t realize was that upstate New York would take such a hit with the loss of business, industries and people,” said the Rev. James P. Lang, vicar of parishes for the Diocese of Syracuse.
The shifting demographics driving the church closings are most pronounced in the mid-Atlantic states, the upper Midwest and in old industrial hubs throughout the Northeast, where the Catholic immigrants who once made up a significant portion of the work force have decamped for the South and West since the manufacturing sector began its collapse in the 1970s.
“The loss in population is a political problem whose repercussions have been felt not just on the tax base and the infrastructure of those communities, but also in other areas, including religious institutions,” said Chester Gillis, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University. “The bottom line is simple,” Professor Gillis said. “If you have less people donating to the church, it becomes unrealistic — and it is financially irresponsible, really — to keep a church building open.”
In the dioceses of Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, which together cover 27 counties in central and western New York, the reshuffling has reached well beyond city limits — from inner-ring suburbs that have suffered from the spillover effects of the population drain to more stable communities like Jamesville, a hamlet of about 1,500 bordering the southeastern edge of Syracuse.
The Rochester diocese has, meanwhile, opened seven new churches in the past 30 years, in suburbs like Pittsford, one of the few communities upstate with a median family income above $100,000 and a median home value above $175,000, according to a 2005 study by the Buffalo-based newspaper Business First.
“These churches are all thriving,” said the diocese’s Mr. Mandelaro.
For many of St. Mary’s parishioners here in Jamesville, the closing has been confounding. The church — built by Irish immigrants in 1899 and enlarged 32 years later to make room for the Poles, Italians and Ukrainians who came to work at a local quarry — had a solid congregation and a healthy endowment that financed a food pantry for 1,200 people and a popular religious education program, said Ciarrai Eaton, president of the parish council
The above are some highlights
