Thursday, February 7, 2008

Empty churches

Some Catholic parishes could be shut down, according to The Flint Journal:
"There could very well be some closings," said Michael Diebold, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lansing, "but we're not at that point yet."


4 comments:

  1. I still live in the Flint area and have connections with St. Mary's. I've been fortunate to be involved with meetings with Diocese of Lansing officials in future of all parishes and it does not look favorable for some...

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  2. Thanks for the update. Care to speculate about which parishes might be in trouble? I'm hoping it's not St. Mary's, but it's bad news for any parish.

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  3. My personal belief is the diocese has already made the decision, but the confirmed word this person has heard is that St. Mary's and St. Leo's in Flint, and Holy Rosary, and Blessed Sacrament in Burton will form a cluster, with St. Leo's closing immediately, and one of the remaining three will close within two years. No matter what happens, there's going to be some upset people...

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  4. This makes me profoundly sad - that any parish might close. In my minds' eye, the perfect Christmas is Midnight Mass at St. Mike's with Mr. K quietly leading the Powers Choir. I remember going to St. Mike's with my grandparents who went Square Dancing there on Saturday nights. And they had the best "cry" rooms of any parish. I wonder how St. Matt's fits into the scenario if at all? My sister is working at U of M Flint and went to Ash Wednesday at St. Matt's on her lunch hour.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.