Northern Catholic Churches Facing Closure or Combining of Parishes

Driving by many urban churches in the Northern United States, both Protestant and Catholic, shutters are now over the windows and the buildings are no longer "open for business."

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - Interstate 94 in Southern Michigan reminds many drivers of navigating what amounts to a four-lane back country road. Pot holes, broken pavement, and road buckles are prevalent. As one Battle Creek resident described it, "It's the state of the state."

Unfortunately, many Catholic Churches in this region, the entire Upper Midwest and the Northeast are facing the same problem with disrepair.

The issue is not as much a lack of funds as a lack of the faithful. Parishes are being forced to consolidate and disperse as attendance in some parishes has been dwindling over the past few years due to changes in the spiritual values of families and the demographic shift south.

Recently, CNN spoke with Wally Martens, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, who lives within eyeshot of St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church. He and his family can track five generations of memories with the parish, whose facility is scheduled to be closed.

"It's the place where most of us were baptized, most of us got married, most of us graduated from grade school and some of us were buried," Martens, 68, told CNN. As one of the 1200 households of the west side urban parish, he said that finding out building is set to be shuttered is "like losing somebody in your family."

A recent article on Catholic Online regarding the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reinforces the plight of many faithful Catholics in the northern climes, especially those in urban areas. The Catholic population, in general, has decreased in recent years and the strongest concentration of Catholics has shifted to the Southwestern United States. In addition, the Pew Forum reported that approximately one-third of those responded as Roman Catholics currently indicate that they would consider themselves lapsed Catholics.

Earlier this month, Bishop Richard G. Lennon of the Diocese of Cleveland, which serves more than three-quarters of a million Catholics, publically announced that 29 parishes will close and 41 others will merge. This reconfiguration of the diocese will remove 52 parishes from the roles which now lists 224. The change is scheduled to go into effect by June 30, 2010.

In a written statement, Bishop Lennon stated, "Closing a parish is very emotional. I have personally experienced the closing of my own childhood parish in Boston, which members of my family helped establish in 1914. ... I pray that my decisions will serve the needs of this Diocese and its people."

Some affected by the diocesan restructuring are looking on the bright side. Ray Daull, 68, a deacon at Christ the King in Cleveland Heights told CNN that a merger combining his parish with three others in the diocese, is a good thing. As a member of the parish for the past 52 years, Daull has watched income dip as well as attendance in the last several years. "We will have more resources," he said, "and the money can go into doing our work."

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. A former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, randy and his wife Sandy came into the full communion of the catholic Church almost four years ago.

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