Not a religious post but very good news for our churches

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Two years ago our bishop closed 50 of our churches, most of them very old, ornate churches built by immigrants to this city many years ago. It left many parts of the city without churches and the parishioners were told to go to other churches, some too far for the people to get to. One parish in particular took their membership and priest and began worshiping in an old warehouse, but they were threatened with excommunication and the priest was defrocked. There was an Irish, Polish, Hungarian, and others that were closed. These parishes did a huge amount of outreach programs in their areas, some of the poorest in the city. That left the people with no church and no one who cared. It left a huge void in the city and there has been very hard feelings ever since.

Thirteen of those parishes appealed the closings to the Vatican and guess what? Yesterday the Vatican ruled that they were closed in error and must be reopened. This is the first time in history that the Vatican ever did this and there is no precedent for how to reopen them. Needless to say the parishioners who appealed these closings are extremely happy with this decision and this is a good thing for our city.

It was very sad to see these parishes closed over the past two years, padlocked, some sold and their artifacts auctioned off. Fortunately the thirteen parishes in questioned were frozen until the end of the case.

This is just another example of what people can do when they feel strongly about something. It was an uphill battle all the way and no one expected the Vatican to overrule the decision. Hopefully this will help our city return to some of the vitality it had.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
I'm sure these parishioners will bring their hard work and dedication back to their neighborhoods and impact the community as a whole.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
This makes me smile. It doesn't matter that I don't agree with organized religion. I don't see that as having much to do with it. It hurts any faith to have their places of worship closed down, especially when done on such a large scale.

It also makes me smile because I can imagine what those old lovely churches look like........and I'm a sucker for grand old architecture , the type that was done with skill, love of the craft, and pride.

Also happy because those people will have a place of their own to go to once again. :)
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Lisa they were beautiful ornate churches, built by hand of the hard working immigrants. Filled with marbleand stone and stained glass and statues like you can imagine.

Nancy
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I am so happy for them that all their efforts paid off and that their churches will remain open! It is just heartbreaking to see all those beautiful old churches closing their doors!

This happened in the old neighborhood where we lived in St. Louis. Although my brothers and I weren't raised Catholic, my dad's whole side of the family was and they all went to the same big old neighborhood church, starting with my grandparents almost a hundred years ago. For all those years they went to services there, got married there, had all the baptisms and family funerals there. My dad and all my aunts, uncles and cousins went to school there. Then the family grew and scattered and the demographics of the neighborhood slowly changed and the church membership got smaller and smaller. First the school closed ... and then finally a few years ago the whole parish closed down. What a heartbreak! The same thing happened at the beautiful old Lutheran church in the same neighborhood that we attended as kids. I still remember it so well. It smelled old even fifty years ago! It had lovely stained glass windows and a big pipe organ and beautiful hand-carved alters. And now it's sitting empty with a "For Sale" sign on the lawn. I "drove"past it on Google Earth and it made me cry!
 
Top