You know, I think really the bigger part of the story is how the Catholic parish’s attendance declined to below having a critical mass.
We can complain all day about other religions “taking over”, but all they’re doing is filling a void if we’re not taking care of our own churches. People out there are STARVED spiritually, even if they aren’t aware of it. You see that every day with the cultural decay. They’ll go to what ever port in a storm that they see. The question is 1) are we going to keep our own, and also show others the positive aspects of Christianity and welcome them in, or 2) let someone else show them the “answers.”
Not to be abrasive about it, but it’s really that simple. We can’t just play defense trying to keep what few people are left in the church, but we need to go out into the world and bring new people in. I’m not just talking about funding missionaries out in the third world—that’s all well and good, but I’m talking about just the people next door in your own neighborhood.
And I have no idea about the growth/decline of the Catholic church (or any Christian) in the overall Minneapolis/Minnesota area - but neighborhoods change. And it is just a building. The only thing is that the Catholics and the Protestants (in the US anyway) don’t shoot each other or throw bombs. The muslims.....?
AMEN!
Yep.
I know (or knew) that neighborhood. It’s a big old stone cathedral that’s simply too expensive to maintain in any dignity. Parishioners with comfortable incomes long ago moved to suburbs.
A few years in the hands of Third World muzzies and the place will have to be demolished.
It’s more of the so-called “New Springtime” of Vatican II.