By next year, the Archdiocese of New Orleans will close 25 Church parishes. Nineteen of these have been closed since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck. There are currently 117 parishes and 122 total Sunday worship sites. By Jan. 1, 2009, 108 parishes and 119 total Sunday worship sites will remain, according to an April 10 article in The Advocate. This has been part of a relatively quiet trend. From 1998 to 2008, the number of diocesan priests decreased from 168 to 136, and religious order priests decreased from 217 to 129, according to The Clarion Herald, the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ official newspaper. The archdiocese projects a net loss of another 18 priests during the next five years because of death, retirement and other reasons. But there is still hope – there are 10 seminarians at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Reasons for the parish closings include property and population loss since the hurricanes, a struggling financial state and a decline in the ability to expand. As much as 80 percent of pre-Katrina Catholics have not returned to their original homes, according to The Clarion Herald. The archdiocese will also incur a $120 million uninsured property loss, which makes growth an ever-increasing dilemma. The Church will respond by assessing the “vitality and viability of each parish,” relocating and redistributing Church officials and addressing the special pastoral needs of minority communities that have played a vital role in rebuilding New Orleans and its Catholic community, according to The Clarion Herald. With fewer priests, schools and members, the Catholic Church will continue to move forward in a world lacking religious devotion with what Archbishop Alfred Hughes called a “greater evangelizing spirit.” Hughes called for increased activity in religious life among young people in response to the decline in the availability of priests. This is a symptom of a much larger problem – and I am a big part of it. But it is not too late to become part of the solution. With the diminishing amount of people attending Mass, Catholics cannot expect young men to continue seeking a vocation in the priesthood. There is a growing moral bankruptcy in America that can only be filled by organized religion. And the only hope this country has to fill that spiritual void is its youth. This news was largely overshadowed by the biggest bright spot in U.S. Catholic news. The pope’s 81st birthday was celebrated April 16 at the White House during a rare visit to the United States.
Pope Benedict XVI, spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic world, offered ample praise to the religious devotion in modern America. Speaking for 25 percent of the U.S. population and roughly 16 percent of the world, he praised the spiritual depth of ordinary Americans and expressed “great respect for this vast, pluralistic society,” according to The Associated Press. But that was not all he had to say. Benedict hammered away at American Catholics who stand in opposition to Church teachings on abortion, capital punishment, charity, sexuality, marriage, stem cells, Iraq, environmental protection and social welfare. During his week-long trip he chastised the U.S. Church’s “mishandling” of the sexual abuse scandal. He addressed what the AP termed the “over-sexualization of America,” which desensitizes young people’s ability to understand and develop a sexually moral lifestyle. But most importantly, Pope Benedict correctly identified a major problem – the largest problem – facing not only the Catholic Church in America, but also the entire American spiritual landscape. The pope urged against the tendency to treat religion as a private matter as it cannot be kept private “without any bearing on public behavior,” according to the AP. All societal values worldwide are rooted in religion because of the moral authority posed by the Catholic Church and other major religions. Consider America’s Christian heritage and its laws forbidding murder, rape, theft, adultery and other sins. Indeed, Western civilization owes much of its subsistence to the Catholic Church. Without it, the planet would never have had any knowledge of Jesus Christ. Catholics viewed his address to the United Nations – which offered him the largest platform of his papacy – as the climax of his U.S. visit, according to The Clarion Herald. He used the opportunity to represent a “moral argument” in world affairs. He embodied the magnitude of the union between faith and reason. Catholicism, and religion in general, is not a source of conflict – extremism is. And the faithful are not to be confused with radicals who used religion as a basis for political expediency. Fanaticism can distort any argument. That intolerance is what leads to violence, not religion. The pope correctly identified the necessity of religion in public life. Faith should be included in all human affairs – especially the political arena. The major religions of the world, such as Catholicism, have offered more spiritual solace and moral refuge than any purely secular institution ever will. So go to church – or the terrorists win. As New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes put it, the cross is never a light load.
—-Contact Daniel Lumetta at [email protected]