Empty Pews. Hollow People.
Signs of the times people. Signs of the times. The news coming out of Cincinnati looks bleak. They can call it a “reorganization” or an “adjustment.” But let’s call it what it is. A disaster.
WLWT: “There will be new pastors, new clusters of churches, and new challenges ahead as the Cincinnati Archdiocese takes the next steps in its major reorganization process. On Monday, it gave parishioners in the 19-county Archdiocese a peek at the changing landscape starting this summer.
According to the Archdiocese, all of the assignments have been made and accepted. Archbishop Dennis Schnurr has said the reorganization is necessary in order to reposition the church for future growth.
For 450,000 of the Catholic faithful, the adjustment period has arrived. In phases over the next five years, the number of parishes will be trimmed from 210 to 57.”
Wow. That’s a staggering number. We can call it an organizational shift. We can talk about new realities but in the end it would seem that the Catholic Church is dying in the USA. We can say it. We should say it. And then we should talk about why and stop doing it.
I’ve read conflicting things about Archbishop Schnurr. On the one hand, I’ve seen he’s prayed in front of abortion clinics but then, on the other hand, the archdiocese recently pulled its support of a men’s leadership conference because Jim Caviezel and Raymond Arroyo were speaking.
What?
But this isn’t a Cincinnati story. This is an America story.
The Church needs heroes right now, not administrators. Not reorganizers. The Church needs people willing to stand up for the faith. Saints aren’t supposed to act like normal people.
The Church in America is in an existential crisis but what do we get:
“LA, Cincinnati archbishops announce friendly Super Bowl 2022 wager.”
I’m not even critiquing that in particular. But that’s what we get. We get silliness. We get politics. Look at the twitter pages of most of the bishops. It’s ridiculous stuff. You’d never guess from reading them that the Church was in crisis.
We should be on fire with the news that Jesus has saved us all. We should take seriously His words and work to live by them. He is the Truth, the Way, The Life.
The time of the martyrs is approaching. It could be prevented with some faithful courage now but there’s little sign of that happening.
“The Problem Is Not That The Churches Are Filled With Empty Pews, But That The Pews Are Filled With Empty People – Charlie Shedd.
HT Big Pulpit