For all this rage about parishes abandoning the community, I have to ask: What community? SHM, Josaphat, and St. Joseph are gorgeous, huge old churches...within walking distance of each other and of Sacred Heart. When they were built, the Eastern Market area was densely populated with Catholics who could support those parishes and a fifth one in the same area [[Albertus). The population density isn't there any more, and what population exists isn't overwhelmingly Catholic. Many, if not most, of the people who attend Mass at those churches are coming in from the suburbs. What's the community that's being abandoned?
Yeah, it's bummer that gorgeous old churches are going to have to close. My family built St. John Cantius, and was sad when Cantius closed...but my family had left Delray decades before. A Catholic parish isn't a fancy building, it's a vibrant faith community--and a vibrant faith community takes more than stained glass and flying buttresses and nostalgia. The reality of the situation is that the children and grandchildren of St. John Cantius and SHM and Holy Family parishioners moved out to 83 Mile and built ugly box-style churches. That reality might suck, but it's still the reality and it still needs to be dealt with.
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