We had a small crew on Friday since many of our number wanted to attend the last Friday noon Mass at St. Joachim. After that they were going to demonstrate on Frankford Avenue to make sure that all the people know that St. Joachim and Mater Dolorosa are being closed by the Archdiocese.
A photographer came to take some pictures for a story to run in the Daily News on Saturday. It hit philly.com this morning. You can find it at this link and is in the print edition of the Daily News available today and tomorrow.
I was standing near the driveway to the Archiocesan building yesterday when I met a distinguished looking gentleman walking down 17th Street and as he was about to go into the parking lot, he came over and asked about what the sign that I was holding. I had the one that says Archbishop Chaput please don’t abandon us.
So I told him the Archdiocese was closing all the churches in Frankford and of course he asked where is Frankford.
So I explained and he got a pained expression and asked is your church all filled. So I explained our demographics etc and he pointed to the upper floors of the building and said he can’t fill the seats for you, meaning the Archbishop couldn’t help with that.
Then he said “where are the young people”. Why aren’t they coming? You can’t keep churches open that are failing.
I said they were closing all the churches, not merging the two into one, to make a single stronger parish.
He wasn’t satisfied with that and said if you can’t fill the seats then what do you expect.
I said that closing the churches doesn’t fill the seats either.
After he left, I wondered if maybe he is right about what the Church is aiming to do. The logic of his argument is to close all the churches except a few and fill the seats. Run the Church like the Kimmel Center and consider yourself successful if you have a full house.
Is that what it’s come to? Is that the work of the church? Is there no greater mission for the Catholic Church in Philadelphia except to pack a full house?
Here is a slide show recap of some of our demonstrators during the last few weeks. This is a fraction of our movement because most are working people and others unable to travel.
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- We Believe
Be warned now, this is coming from Brian and Brian only:
It is sad that people see “success” for a church as numbers. Here is a parish that is a pillar of the community and I do not need to get into any of the details on how the parish is standing on its own financially, that story is well known. But let’s look at Christ’s promise of “where two or more are gathered in my name.” Amazing how people today want to have an opinion on what “success” is based on a figure of bodies and not a body of work. St. Joachim has been more successful in managing its books, outreaching to the community, and taking care of its own more than any other parish / congregation that I know of. They seem to do more work than a church of 1000 plus. To me that is a successful church. It doesn’t matter how many people sit in the pews because they see it as “their duty” or “its just what we do every Sunday” no, St. Joachim has it right, they have been led right by the Oblates, and they are a true example of Christ going out to those who can not come to Him or know of Him. I see many people who want to fall on the side of the argument of butts in the pews as the drones. They mindlessly get up and attend Mass because they feel that will save their souls. Yes, it is not by works alone or faith alone that you are saved. A practice of the two is what Christ is looking for in a follower and the people of Frankford are just that. Believers and doers. This man I feel for, to me if he is going along the lines of numbers then he is either jealous of the mega churches he sees on TV or his faith is just hollow with no actions. St. Joachim, Mater Dolorosa, Frankford Faithful…… stay strong, stay united, and keep up the work you have done whether the archdiocese wants you to be a parish or not. They can take away the bank accounts, they can steal and sell of the properties, but they can never kill the light that you you all carry in Frankford and have carried generation after generation for 168 years.
Yes. In their stupid published parish closing criteria they claim that they take things like this into account, but obviously they don’t. Because of practical obstacles it may be that some reduction in the number of parishes is necessary, but I think it’s exactly right that the Kimmel Center can’t be the goal. I think that’s a great image of where we shouldn’t want to go.
The thing that bothers me about this guy is that he doesn’t know where Frankford is. I myself do not really disagree with the idea that it would be better if the Archdiocese had fewer parishes. I have lots of objections to the way the reduction is being done. The worst thing in my mind about it is the the program has been outsourced to people who consistently make horrible decisions. See the Philadelphia Church Project Blog for many examples. They have an awful non-Catholic ideology and enjoy excercising their power arbitrarily.