Chinese communists tearing down crosses ...
More than 1200 crosses have been torn down by authorities in the past two years sparking anger and street protests.ISIS blows up Christian churches and monasteries.
Yesterday, dozens of Catholic churches in the New York City area celebrated Sunday Mass for the final time.
The pastor of Our Saviour in Midtown Manhattan, Fr. Robbins finally acknowledged, on Facebook, that, yes, he was purging Our Saviour of its icons. [Unnecessary 'restoration' of a parish church at the expense of the faithful.]
The destruction continues.
It is very discouraging and demoralizing - Catholics without a home, sheep without a shepherd... scattering the sheep.
Remember that line in The Nun's Story when Sr. Augustine and Sr. Luke are sailing to the Congo and Sr. Augustine says, "But we carry our chapels in our hearts, Sister Luke." In a sense it is true.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean I am OK with it. My in-law's parish is closing in 3 months. I've tried to write a comment five times and now I need a Kleenex.
I do remember - in fact I've been thinking of Sr. Luke leaving - how her mind was made up before she ever talked to M. Emmanuel. But the comment about the chapel in our hearts is true - all the saints say that.
DeleteAll the closings, and the renovation at OS makes me really sad though. I've been praying about it and I can't get it out of my mind.
One reason why my in-law's parish is closing is that their bishop had to resign. Many parishioners (including family) stopped going to church because they refused to put any money into the collection in case it went to fighting the bishop's legal battle. The people that left don't understand the Sacraments but in my opinion that's more tragic than churches closing or being dismantled. If every Catholic truly understood their faith it would be a very different nation, seminaries would be bursting, convents overflowing, new churches being built, etc. Simplistic, I know....I am ever the optimist!
ReplyDeleteI hope my parish doesn't close just because the bishops resigned!
ReplyDeleteNan, it's much more involved and ugly than that but it wouldn't be right to talk about it here.
DeleteSo, how can one man dismantle what hundreds of faithful has built? Why? The story is always the same. A new design fashion comes into vogue. The old is thrown out and the new look is called modernization. The parish attendance numbers drop and the pastor moves onto to repeat the same pattern. We all know we can worship in a barn, in the forest or even the parking lot for that matter, but we cannot replace art and the devotion it inspires. This is a sad story Terry, but all too familiar in every community in our nation. I love architecture, but most "modern" churches are nothing more then auditoriums to me. Where is the Archbishop in this matter?
ReplyDeleteOur former pastor did get rid of most of the felt banners and did renovate our 1970s church but I just found out he also asked the Rosary Group to stop praying the prayer of St. Michael after the rosary. Huh? He felt it was a personal devotion. My question is: when does something obviously Catholic become 'personal'?
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. I know a priest who once forbade a group of women praying the rosary out loud after Mass - "Not in my church!"
DeleteIt's not his church.
The rosary is approved as popular piety - it isn't private devotion, neither is the St. Michael prayer.