The Reason for Our Hope

by Fr. Vin

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone

who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

-- First Letter of St. Peter, 3:15

What’s Led Us to This Point

Waves that crash on shore have been building for a while, sometimes thousands of miles.  Our parish is no different.  We may feel the shock at this point, but there have been trends, in our parish and in the wider church, that have been growing over the past decades, often (as with a wave at sea) largely invisible except to those who look closely.

For example: People comment on how empty the church seems for Sunday Mass.  Nationwide, Mass attendance has been going down since the 1960’s.  We can’t expect to be exempt from that.  Ten years ago we had from 3200 to3800 in attendance each week. That lasted until 2002 (the year the sex-abuse scandals hit the news).  It then dropped to about 2600 per week, and has stayed steady at that level from 2003 through 2006. 

Financially, the pattern is similar: Our operating surplus peaked in fiscal year 1998-99 (surplus of $137,214); the greatest deficit was in 2002-2003 (deficit of $140,510). (Again, the year the scandals broke.)  With regard to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal / Catholic Ministries Appeal, Our Lady of Grace’s best year was 1999 (104% of goal); the worst year, predictably, 2003 (42% of goal). 

This is not to blame everything on the abuse scandals and how they were mismanaged; there are other, larger patterns in church life and in the economy that affect us.  (Church researchers say that, of all the things that worry parish leaders, only about 50% are within their control.)  But Our Lady of Grace has been largely unaffected in its programming by these things until now; leaders carried on despite these shifts in the foundations.  As I’ve written, it was only by selling parts of its property over the past ten years that the parish has paid its bills.  I’m not saying that was a bad idea; and the services of the Catholic Charities houses and the athletic fields are good for the community.  But those financial windfalls preserved the parish from facing the fact that it wasn’t raising enough money in ordinary ways to pay its bills (by an average of about $42,000 a year).

I believe that these trends we’re now feeling are a message the Holy Spirit is sending to the church: We need to “be the church” in a way different from what has been done in the past.  We can learn from the past, but we can’t repeat it.  And the primary change, I am convinced, is that what Vatican Council II called for in worship – “full, conscious, and active participation of all the faithful” – is needed for parish life as a whole.  Parishes can no longer leave the religious formation of young people to paid professionals and volunteer catechists: parents and other parishioners all have parts to play.  The people who “represent Christ” in our midst by lives of holiness can no longer be only religious sisters, brothers, deacons, and priests; fellow parishioners have to do that for one another by learning to talk with one another in small groups and in informal conversations about the faith that’s been given to them. 

We need a renewed vision for why we exist as a parish; and a new way to put that vision into practice.  I’m excited about the prospect, as I hope you will be too.  There will be mistakes and misunderstandings along the way, and change is going to call for good will and forgiveness all around.  But I’m convinced that the Holy Spirit is at work – in exciting ways – in Our Lady of Grace.  That’s my reason for hope. Until next week, Peace.

(Since parishioners are often on vacation and away from some summer masses, this column will appear twice: July 1 and July 8.  Each subsequent column in this series will also appear for two consecutive weeks.)