If the original guests don’t want to come to the wedding, aren’t we supposed to go out into the streets and invite whoever, like in the parable?
Shouldn’t at least some of these parishes have thought about evangelization before they shrunk too much?
Shouldn’t we all be doing that?
Here in the northeast, european immigrants arrived to work in factories. To cite an example, in the City of Watervliet, there were 5 Catholic parishes, each one ethnic in nature. They were constructed by Italians, Irish, Germans, French and others. As I pointed out earlier, their descendants moved away. The factories closed (no longer need to manufacture leather gloves and shirt collars). The population shrank. Each community held onto their "family's" parish even though it was across the street from another parish. Several years ago, the bishop stepped into the fray and closed 5 of the parishes, merging them into one. That resulted in angry and disenfranchised Catholics who decided to attend the flourishing Evangelical Church.
Secularism has gripped the west and today, people spend Sunday watching sports or shopping at the mall. The government supplies their needs, not God ... at least, that is the mindset. Pendulums swing. Pray for them!