Posted on 01/28/2016 5:42:52 AM PST by marshmallow
Roughly a year ago, Fr. Bob Betz, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish, South Milwaukee, believed the property of the old St. Adalbert Parish would never be sold. It had been largely empty for about six years and various proposals to sell the 2.5-acre site near 16th and Minnesota avenues fell through.
On Monday, Dec. 23, however, Divine Mercy Parish closed a deal and sold the St. Adalbert property for $600,000 to Masjid Al-Huda, a Muslim congregation.
The selling of St. Adalbert began with the merger of four South Milwaukee parishes 12 years prior.
"They were all viable parishes at one time," Fr. Betz said of the four former parishes - St. Adalbert, St. John, St. Mary and St. Sylvester.
However, with changing demographics and fewer priests to staff parishes, it was not practical to maintain four parishes in close proximity to each other.
"You can do things better together," said Fr. Betz of the merger. "You have more options. You have more resources. It’s more efficient and productive."
The merger, however, was a slow process.
"Mergers are always difficult emotionally to accept," Fr. Betz said. "And rightly so, because religion is more of the heart than the head, so there is a lot of emotion and attachment, too. To bring about a change in that regard is often very difficult for people."
For the first few years after the merger, Masses were celebrated at all four sites, however Fr. Betz knew to become one parish, there would have to be a change.
"We said we are never going to be one parish unless we worship together," he recalled.
The St. John’s location became the obvious choice for the Divine Mercy Church because of its sheer size, seating 1,200 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.org ...
"God had a hand in this," Fr. Betz recalled. "He had other things in mind and changed it for the better in terms of remodeling and construction (of Divine Mercy)."
Another vacuous Pollyanna.
Amazing what foreign government funds can do.
Would he have said God’s hand was in this if Satanists, Scientologists, or a bar/strip club had occupied it instead?
Not a lot of difference.
A deal with the devil.
Isn’t it? They are pretty close to owning it all.
Better to destroy it and sow salt into the ground.
Between the Leftists and Mooslimbs, Milwaukee must be one great place to live. Barf.
Milwaukee? ????? What state?????
Gee, you’d think with all the money the church is getting from the government via Catholic Charities, they could humor the older holdout folks who didn’t want to see their church become a mosque. By the time the old parishioners die out things will have swung one way or the other. A simplistic idea, true, but so is the concept that Allah and Jehovah are the same god.
Oh, that’s good. Another terrorist training center in mid-America. It is amazing to me that we will commit suicide in the name of political correctness.
Lock and load it is coming.
So a former church will now be a venue for the worship of Satan? No, Father, I don’t think this follows God’s plan.
God did have a hand in this. If you don’t stay open to life and teach the faith to your children, I will give your church buildings to your enemy and your children will wander in the desert.
Thank you God for chastising us to return your love, and I am sorry.
the building is just stone.
It is the true Church, the people, that we ought mourn over. They are no longer - the parents died hopefully, the children live on unaware of the Father’s true love and power. The True Church, the people, is gone.
Even if the SSPX matched the offer, I suspect the Chancery would prefer to sell to Mohammedans, rather than to Catholics who believe everything that the Church taught for almost two millennia.
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