Catholic Church Closures

With so many Catholic church closures underway, what comes to mind is where will the Eucharist be housed for the local parishioners?  Should a gathering place that allows for people to experience the presence of Christ be sold to the highest bidder for money?  Is monetizing the land on which a place of worship sits something the Vatican approves of tacitly?  How about putting up for auction a few of the Vatican Museum's art works to keep the local parishes around the world open for those who are unable to travel far and wide in order to go to a place where the living body of Christ can be received?  Is not every soul worth saving?

Church closures are a result of many factors, such as the dwindling number of priests and parishioners in a secular world, the high costs of maintaining old buildings and bringing them up to modern safety standards, but the single most significant factor, at least in the United States, could very well be the amount of damages paid to settle lawsuits brought by victims of pedophiliac priests, bankrupting dioceses and causing many to file for protection under bankruptcy laws. [1]

Closures can take place anywhere with a history of clerical sex abuse.  In the United States, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia are among the big cities that have been affected. [2]  A church in the Town of Scituate, Massachusetts, is also one of the targeted closures. [3]

For some eleven years, the parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate had resisted closure.  The timeline of events can be accessed here [4].  How long this citation will remain available online is uncertain.  When administrative appeals within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church were exhausted, a lawsuit was filed by the Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, Inc., with the Norfolk Superior Court in Massachusetts which, "in May 2015 issued an injunction evicting the Friends from the St. Frances X. Cabrini property in Hood Road." [5]  In October, 2015, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the decision. [6]  On December 3, 2015, "[t]he Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied the Friends Application for Further Appellate Review." [7]

Unwilling to give up, Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, Inc., on March 1, 2016, filed a petition for writ of certiorari [8] with the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, but in May, 2016, the Supreme Court denied the appellant its request for a hearing. [9]

Church closures are not limited to the United States.  A third of the Catholic churches in Wales are also slated for closure. Sixty-two churches will be whittled down to 40 if Bishop Brignall of Wrexham can have his way. [10]  Ireland is also closing its churches, stemming from low church attendance and not enough young men willing to join the priesthood that is perhaps irreparably tarnished by sex scandals. [11]

This is not a comprehensive review of Catholic church closures worldwide.  Hopefully, those who are faithful would not be deterred by the Vatican's shameful decision to allow the disappearances of churches to continue.  Not even government sanctioned crackdowns in China are able to close down churches with such effectiveness.  The Vatican ought to step up and take responsibility for its own failure to inspire all peoples of the world to reach deep into their hearts to find God, rather than asking the faithful to reach deep into their pockets for financial support so that Catholic churches can continue have both presence and relevance in today's world.  In this blogger's opinion, the throne of Peter has been corroded and corrupted by the passage of time to the point that the task of its upkeep has been taken over by Satan and its pawns.


[1] "The Associated Press estimated the total from settlements of sex-abuse cases from 1950-2007 to be more than $2 billion.  BishopAccountability reports that figure reached more than $3 billion in 2012."  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_in_the_United_States  These figures account for settlements only in the United States.  Other countries are likely not as litigious as the United States, and settlement payouts, if any, would not be nearly as large.
[2] http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160408/NEWS07/160409846/catholic-churchs-financial-woes-consolidations-arent-new
[3] http://www.lowellsun.com/backtalk/ci_29953276/parishioners-leave-closed-church-after-11-year-protest
[4] http://stfrancesxcabriniscituate.org/timeline.html
[5] http://scituate.wickedlocal.com/article/20160304/NEWS/160307544
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/docs/pdfs/certinfosheet.pdf
[9] http://nypost.com/2016/06/05/is-this-the-end-of-catholicism/
[10] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/04/22/a-third-of-catholic-churches-across-north-wales-are-to-close/
[11] http://www.independent.ie/life/vanishing-catholic-church-seeks-salvation-can-it-reinvigorate-itself-34237641.html