COMMENTARY ON DECREES FROM THE CONGREGATION FOR CLERGY UPHOLDING PETITION FOR RECOURSE MADE BY THIRTEEN PARISHES OF THE CLEVELAND DIOCESE Kate Kuenstler, PHJC, JCD
Once a church is consecrated “the intent is that go into perpetuity,” she said. “It is not to be willy nilly deconsecrated,” Kuenstler said. “There has to be a grave reason. The bar is very high. And this decree clearly states that the bishop didn’t meet that bar.” Challenging bishops So why have hundreds, if not thousands, of Catholic churches, including several dozen in Western New York, been allowed to close during the past few decades? Simply put, it’s because bishops were not challenged on their decisions, and if they were, the people making the challenges did not follow procedural requirements as spelled out in canon law. “The people had no clue they could take recourse,” Kuenstler said. “Bishops were not telling them about it.”
"The Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced on Friday a restructuring initiative that could eventually close 70% of archdiocesan parishes." Why is your pastor immovable and dead set on recommending your parishes for Extinction? Perhaps because the restructuring was decided long before we were aware of it, presumably at great expense in hiring consulting firms. Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be made manifest: neither was it made secret, but that it may come abroad. https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/schnurr-gets-started
Erica's Monday Afternoon Stats, Hope, and Old Questions: The Archbishop of New Orleans is doing what the Archbishop of Cincinnati will not. That is, he's looking at parishes on an individual basis and making adjustments ONLY when or where necessary. IT CAN BE DONE! So why isn't it being done here?? I can't make sense of it. Only 13 of the 107 parishes are experiencing modification in NOLA, compared to 196 of the 208 in AoC. ***That's 12% vs. 94%!*** (94%!!!!) Can you imagine the decrease in trauma that would take place up here if AoC had taken the time to examine the need for parishes at an individual level? This could still be the course taken, but we're met with a hard line when we ask. Instead, we're swept into a giant plan and are called "fearful," "divisive," or "underminers of priestly authority," if we pipe up about what Holy Mother Church, in Her humility, allows us to do to questions such an objectification. (i.e. The mandates and appeals process that we're all hearing so much about.) In a nutshell, that's our beef: Our parishes are looked at as cogs in the machine and will be extincted carte blanche with no accommodation to our situations. (Don't be placated by the recent mentions of 'amendments' and 'accommodations' written in to the Decrees. It only takes a pdf document and one signature to undo any of that, if it can even be done in the first place.) Most patriotic Americans take issue with that on a civic level.... why is it so problematic to take issue with that on a religious institution level? https://youtu.be/pynOzt2myj8?si=MvHBQSICykThbw0D -A special thanks to a friend with the inside scoop, JRH of New Orleans Archdiocese.
Facebook Post: "This merger happened 13 years ago. We were forced to enter the merger because of the shortage of priests and we were given two options. 5 parishes joined in the merger. St Patrick's before this merger had a 5 PM Saturday and 10 am Sunday mass, well attended full pews. At the merger, St Patrick's was forced to give up the 10 am mass on Sunday. So there was one mass at parish number 3 and 1 at st patricks and 2 at all saints. 2 of the parishes were not as well attended as the other 3 but many many people paid for the upkeep of all 5 buildings. The 2 that were not as well attended were made chapels and had no weekend services with promises of staying open for weddings and funerals. Year 5 approaches. These two parishes no longer allowed to have weddings and funerals but people still put tons of money into their upkeep new roof was even installed. Year 8, parish number 3 receives word that they will close due to "mold" growing and will be demolished immediately even after people volunteering to clean up the mold. This leaves St Patrick's and all saints church with the only ones having weekend services. Fast forward to 2020, parish council to quit all services at st Patrick's due to COVID and they intentionally shut off the heating and air conditioning. Mold grows. 2022 it's announced that the 3 of the 4 remaining parishes will be demolished, using state funds for dilapidated eye sores to the community. St. Patrick's was the first to be demolished and the other 2 parishes that were made chapels are on this list as well. Money has never been an issue this entire time. This was deliberate sabotage, as the priest that was assigned at the merger has now been reassigned at the completion of this tragedy. This whole time, they took away things along the way, made combined CCD programs and all these other things that were promised to be separated. Now, in the coming weeks, only 1 of the 5 churches will remain open and standing."
A group of 3,100 Catholics has asked the Archdiocese of St. Louis to suspend a reorganization plan that could lead to the mergers or closures of dozens of parishes across the region. “We do not see how the pastoral plan will improve the pastoral care of the Faithful, encourage vocations, increase the evangelizing mission of the Church, revitalize parishes or bring advantage to the Church, reads a March 27 letter from former state Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, to Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski. “I have personally spoken with Catholics and been present in many meetings with hundreds of the Faithful expressing upset over the neglect they are experiencing in this process. Yet, decisions will be made that deeply impact their lives of Faith. The experience is scandalous to them, and only breeds mistrust toward Church authorities,” Onder wrote.
"The consolidation process, branded as “All Things New,” which is being administered by the Pennsylvania-based Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI), is very similar to ones undertaken by CLI in recent years in other major midwestern archdioceses, such as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. " Cincinnati calls this parish extinctive merger plan "Beacons of Light".