Across the United States, the fate of the Roman Catholic Church is rapidly changing. An increasing number of people do not attend mass, and the spirit and enthusiasm that I once found in church as a child is now hard to locate.
Currently, the Roman Catholic Church is having trouble retaining members. Lack of membership is causing churches to close, forcing them to join with other congregations.The linked churches will remain open, but they will not have full-time priests.People from different churches are faced with the challenge of merging styles and personalities, and this is all happening in our backyard.
Churches are also closing because there is a lack of priests, as many are retiring and aging. A priest may not retire until he is in his late 70s to early 80s. However, there are not enough young priests or students in seminary school to replace the retired. If there are no priests available to lead a church, they must close.
The church I attend, St. Augustine's, combined congregations with another church this past summer. There is currently an interim priest and an associate pastor; the churches will receive a full-time pastor later in December.
There will be twice as many duties for the new priest since there are now two parishes: twice as many meetings to attend, more faces and names to remember, additional sermons to write and more stress. It is double the responsibility.
I suppose it is a blessing my church did not close like others, but the priest I grew up with is no longer there, and the soul I love is slowly burning out because less people attend every month. Still, there was a time when my church was alive.
My family transferred to St. Augustine's my sophomore year in high school because of the people and essence it exhumed. My grandparents practiced there, so my family and I would occasionally attend mass with them. Everyone was so friendly and outgoing; if you were a stranger or newcomer to the church, people knew and would introduce themselves after mass. I quickly felt at home there, more than my previous church.
I honestly spent more time at St. Augustine's than at home or school. I was in the choir, so there were rehearsals during the week and singing at weekend masses. I also taught Sunday school for elementary students. This small building with smiling faces became my home-away-from-home in high school, and I was sad to leave it when I came to Brockport in 2005.
When I came back home this summer, I noticed a huge change at St. Augustine's. Because I am always in Brockport and rarely go home, I never noticed the lack of people at mass before. My parents told me some families stopped attending the past three years. When you are away for something for so long, you may not notice any changes or differences.
Many of the people I grew up with and considered family are now gone. I asked one of my friends why she and her family stopped attending mass, and she said her family did not think the linkage of the two parishes would be successful, so they did not bother attending.
Still, there is a solution to every problem, and there are possible solutions to retain parishioners and bring back the spirit. The Roman Catholic Church could allow priests to marry and have children, or better yet, allow women to be priests. Instead of requiring priests to be male, single and celibate, they could open the vocation for both genders who may or may not want families.
However, the Roman Catholic Church is embedded in tradition, therefore it will not allow women to become priests or male priests to marry. I understand it would break tradition to allow this possible solution, but the Church needs to mold into the 21st century and modernize for the sake of the people, who are its heart and soul. If there is no one to attend mass, the success of the Church is fragile, leaving many to straddle on a thin line between heaven and hell.
Though the linkage of churches and membership are challenges, they are something people need to embrace, not fear. There is the opportunity to meet new people and build new relationships with others who are involved in the same struggle. I am still going to attend mass because there are still smiling faces of people I know and love, as well as the anticipation of meeting new people.
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