Falling attendance at mass. A decline in the number of priests. Struggling finances.
All of these contributed to the announcement last week that the 212 parishes in the Hartford Diocese will drop to 127 next month. 52 parishes will consolidate. 26 churches will close.
8 comments:
The artwork is amazing.
Wow, That is a lot of churches closing. I wonder what will happen to the buildings. This one has some beautiful sculptures.
This is surely a sign of our times. The Church has been rocked by scandal in a time of decreasing religiosity. Prosperous urban residents have become more mobile moving away from traditional neighborhoods removing a financial support for the Church. Social forces have coalesced against them.
This is happening all over. Many people are getting turned off organised religion - and who can blame them?
What will happen to the churches!
I do love the artistic nature of Catholic churches. Here churches are very sparse in decoration. I hope the churches, themselves, will be preserved in some sort of way.
That's extreme but, these days, not uncommon. It's happened in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. While my old parish in Queens still exists, the elementary school I attended closed several years ago.
That is a lot of closures.
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