Sunday, May 31, 2009

Dear JimmyJimmy and friends,

In a very perceptive article in the "Rhode Island Catholic" on May 9 about the pending sale of Sacred Heart Church in Pawtucket,  Reverend John Kiely, who served Pawtucket parishes since 1966 and into the 1990's, said the construction of Route 95 caused the merger of Sacred Heart, St. Joseph's, and Our Lady of Consolation Churches.

As a young assistant pastor at Sacred Heart after Route 95 was built in July 1963,  Rev. Kiely said attendance seemed to slowly drop as fewer households provided for congregation attendance.   The construction of Route 95 severed the number of available parish households and caused younger families to move to Seekonk, Cumberland, and Lincoln. 

Local Roman Catholic History proved Rev. Kiely's interesting Route 95 theories correct. For example, Sacred Heart High School and the grammar school closed by the middle 1970's due to low enrollment. Other Roman Catholic schools near Route 95, St. Joseph's in Central Falls and St. John the Baptist, closed their buildings in 1971.  In a possibly related move, St. Joseph's School on Walcott Street closed a few years later. The final holdout, Our Lady of Consolation School closed in 1996. 

Other Protestant churches and Roman Catholic Churches near Route 95 seem in danger of closing in the near future.

In closing, was Route 95 the major culprit of congregational division?

Peace,  Ludlow 1

Blaming construction of 95 as the bad guy!!

I think the churches have failed to communicate and those that can not get in step will lose people especially now with fewer dollars from regulars and from new folks who will go elsewhere.

Too easy to blame the other guy and not look at ones own faults!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Dear Mary,

My late Dad,  a lifelong Roman Catholic congregation member told me it seemed the storefront churches on Broadway, such as Living Hope Assembly of God, did  decent work in siphoning off conventional church membership.

Somehow, about 15 years ago, my dad saw the problemed future of local Roman Catholicism. "After my generation is gone, the people born before 1940, the Roman Catholic Church around here will be in serious trouble. New ethnic groups do not go to Catholic Churches. "  Coincidental or not, after my Dad died in 2005, at least seven churches merged in Pawtucket and Providence.

Speaking of your idea of "failed to communicate" "or those that cannot get in step will lose people", the Roman Catholic Church's biggest problem proves a lack of younger priests to fill parish needs.    In addition, the Vatican refused to obtain capable candidates from Providence College in the middle 1990's.

When I attended Providence College in the early 1990's, a 25 year old woman named Regina, applied to the college to take the theological tests for the Roman Catholic priesthood.  From discussions with Regina, she passed the Providence College boards.  Obviously, the Vatican refused to install a woman priest.

When I asked Regina why she went through the troubles of eight years of college for her minister's degree, she said when she finished, maybe Rome's views of priesthood candidates would change.  "I thought the Holy Father would have changed his mind," Regina said.  Eventually, she applied for a position with the Episcopal Church.  

Intriguing ideas, Mary, about how church closings were blamed on situational rather than personal factors.

Peace,  Ludlow 1