Pope Francis to Find a Catholic Church in Upheaval
Pope Francis’ visit to the United States is in the news and he arrives here today. Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times offers a report on the state of the Catholic Church that the Pope will be visiting in the United States. As the headline states, “Pope Francis to Find a Church in Upheaval: Some U.S. churches are bursting with immigrant parishioners, while others struggle to stay open.” The article goes on to describe the current status of the Catholic churches, which has been shaped by immigration, as follows:
“On the East Coast and in the Midwest, bishops are closing or merging parishes and shuttering parochial schools built on the dimes and sweat of generations of European immigrants. In many parishes, worshipers are sparse, funerals outnumber baptisms, and Sunday collections are not enough to maintain even beloved houses of worship.”
“In the West and the South, and in some other unexpected pockets all over the country, the church is bursting at the seams with immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Latin America, but also from Asia and Africa. Hispanic parents put their children on waiting lists for religious education classes and crowd into makeshift worship spaces, but avoid predominantly Anglo parishes because they do not always feel welcome there.”
KJ