Hint: the bishop who closes the parish is not usually the main issue.
We often blame the current bishop when parishes close, but the more I thought about this, the less it seemed true. That led me to write an article. Catholic World Report just published this article. Here is the start of it.
Whenever a diocese announces a round of significant parish closings, I see a number of Catholics online making commentary about the current bishop.
However, it is very rare that the current bishop is primarily to blame. I think we should unite to fix the longer-term issues behind parish closings rather than just critique current bishops.
There are two main groups of reasons parishes close. These are demographic reasons and reasons that we, as Catholics, are more to blame for. There are a few less common reasons that I will skip. And bishops can be too slow or too aggressive in closing parishes, which is a whole other question.
Any parish closing is somewhat sad, as that history is lost. My community has decided to sell the boarding school building where I did my final vows. I won’t be able to go there again. Parishes have similar things: remembering weddings, baptisms, etc.
However, of the two main causes, I think the second is much sadder for the Church.
