In the United States, as elsewhere, attendance at Catholic mass is in freefall. In the Madison Diocese there seems to be a desire to increase the decrease. This will occur, in my opinion, through the "Into the Deep" reorganization promoted by Bishop Hying, or as I refer to it "Into the Abyss". This initiative, is said by the Bishop, to be at the urging of the priests of the diocese. He has taken 102 parishes to 30 pastorates, or groupings of parish churches. Phase 1 takes effect this July 1, and phase 2 (church closings) will probably occur a year or two later. Most churches are not forthcoming about mass attendance figures, so a lay person really has no knowledge of what is going on, much less be able to measure the effectiveness of this initiative. Into the Deep will shortchange the faithful.
The decline in mass attendance is reflective of cultural and institutional factors. Bishop Hying claims secularization is the problem, but that dismisses the involvement of the Church itself. Secularization did not layout a single all-male only clergy discipline (or doctrine); the sexual abuse crisis continues to turn many away; clericalism is becoming more rampant in the US; the US hierarchy plays politics; the rad-trad crowd of priests and people fuel doctrine over all else. These and other factors lead to decline. Bishop Morlino is probably pumping out his chest in his grave about the success of his many young rad-trad priests that have led parishes they lead into decline. The sad thing, it seems that the trad priests wear reduced attendance as a badge of honor. The Church's policies or practices of reducing people in the pews is so good that in a few decades the single all-male clergy will have but few persons to which to minister. The US hierarchy certainly was more concerned about the possibility of female deacons or married priests after the Amazon Synod than they were about being concerned about the lack of clergy in that region of the world. This attitude clearly says that one issue in the Church predominates over all others. There is no need to look why Evangelicals are making such strong in roads in Brazil (and elsewhere), than the points above, and the lack of Catholic clergy where many only have mass once a year, if that.
In setting out his Into the Deep initiative, the Bishop had a few goals, one of which was that 50% of the masses have 50% attendance. He never explained how he came to that metric. He also does not want a priest saying more than three masses a weekend. It also appears that he did not expect much collateral damage in loss of parishioners from the actions that will result from this reorganization, at least per a discussion I had with him this past spring. What I am willing to bet will occur, as mass times become less convenient, and when churches close in the future, more parishioners will drop leading to more reductions of mass times, which then leads to even more souls dropping out. Hying is creating a perfect unending storm that will lead to the reduction of the church. But, he has his out, he will blame it on secularism. The stone is rolling down the hill and no one will be there to stop it. It is worse than a Sisyphean task as Sisyphus at least tried to role the stone up the hill.
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| East Suburban Pastorate |
The pastorate of Christ the King in McFarland, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monona and St Patrick's in Cottage Grove all currently have young traditional minded priests, and this will continue with the new assignments. With their new arrangement, the IHM priest will be the pastor with two other priests, one to be ordained this June. Each church in this pastorate will lose one mass, thus three priests will be saying a total of six weekend masses, or two per priest on average. Even more interesting, with only six masses, and a maximum of three masses per priest, one priest could have off every weekend!
The pastorate which contains St Ann's in Stoughton, Holy Mother of Consolation in Oregon, St Joseph in Edgerton (which is currently partnered with St Mary's in Milton), St Paul in Evansville and with St Augustine in Footville (these last two are currently partnered), will go from 11 total masses today to seven. Three priests are assigned to serve this grouping of five churches. Stoughton will lose its 10:30 am Sunday mass, HMC lossses a Sunday morning mass, Edgerton loses Saturday evening, and Evansville loses Sunday morning. The question is will people travel if they have lost their mass time? Will they simply stop going, or join another faith community? Bishop Hying thinks attendance will remain the same, but evidence shows otherwise. People become very attached to their mass times, and their church.
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| South Central Pastorate Weekend Mass Schedule Comparison |
It is thought by some canon lawyers that 40% of Catholics leave the Church when their parish church is closed. In the past the diocese retained churches and teamed them up rather than closing them, in part I suspect, to avoid this very issue. Losing your only Saturday or Sunday mass is not earth shattering, but it can be a tipping point. Local churches are important to a local town. Why is it that Footville has one mass and was not simply closed, but teamed with Evansville? Or why Tennyson and Potosi, at just over a mile apart each have a Catholic Church (combined total civil population of the two is 700)? It was because the church was important. If mass times are not convenient to a schedule, people may simply leave. Lack of current attendance and membership figures will not provide an ability for a lay person to see how this new plan is working.
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South central (St Ann, Stoughton) Pastorate
This pastorate extends from central Fitchburg in
the northwest to west of Janesville in the south,
and as far east as the west shore of Lake Koshkonong
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In Christ the King in McFarland when the young traditional oriented priest arrived in November, he altered the Christmas mass schedule. He moved the long-standing (only Christmas Day mass) at 9:00 am to late morning (11:00 or 11:30 am), and moved one of the early evening Christmas Eve masses to midnight. In his mind, he thought midnight mass was best, and he was going to have it. This idea is what suited him, not the congregation. The Christmas Eve schedule was set after years of tweaking and seeing which times best served the faithful. He ignored over 40 years of experience in the setting of Christmas mass times to please his ego. One knows it was not successful because the following year it went back to what it had been in prior years. Hence, I think, with the new regular mass times, more faithful will just drop out if mass is not convenient. After all, this may be the last straw for some.
Many persons have put up with the trad priest making unilateral decisions, giving bad homilies, among other degrees of intransigence and arrogance on the part of the priestly class. The priestly class never asked the parishioners what they prefer when it came to mass time. They just did it. For as much as they say a priest is about service to the faithful it is not. This is clericalism, brought by Bishop Hying, to the highest order. Pay, obey and pray--in that order. To be fair, some pastorates are retaining the same number of masses dismissing the 50% of the masses at more than 50% capacity, although perhaps
for the time being. Both Sacred Hearts and St Alberts in Sun Prairie, will see the same number of masses as before. This is interesting, since Sacred Hearts (one of the few churches to publish attendance numbers) had about 600 persons attend one of its four weekend masses, and that 600 number is about the capacity of the church building. Kevin Holmes in pastorate 20, with three priests, says the number of masses will remain
for now and see what occurs over the next few months and then he will consult with his priests and parishoners and decide to have
no more than six masses from nine currently. Meaning, here again each priest will only, on average, have two masses on a weekend. I think the Bishop should have set a minimum number of weekend masses to be said by a priest. Yet, he reduced the number by his 50% of masses at 50% attendance.
I can see this is a win for clerics. It reduces their weekend work load. Those pastorates with six masses and three priests could give a priest a weekend off every three weeks. Reducing masses from nine to six, or eleven to seven is, however, a drastic change--30% or more. Looking at this schedule, when church closures come next year it will be interesting to see what happens. From a practical standpoint, I can see why some did what they did. In the St Ann pastorate there was no way for three to say eleven masses given the Hying edict, so they cut one mass from each (Footville is with Evansville). This evened things out and prevented Edgerton, for example saying "St Ann's got to keep all three of their masses." Two had to be cut, so they cut four to keep things even. I am not sure if this was the thinking, but it makes some sense. The St Ann's group is an interesting schedule. The priest who says the 8:30 am mass at St Ann's will return to work for a 5:00 pm mass on Tuesday. When Fr Kelley says the 10:30 am at HMC on Sunday, he will return to work at 8:30 am on Wednesday. And, when he says the 8:30 am at St Ann's he returns for that same mass 8:30 am Wednesday mass at HMC. Fr Kelley, in other words, has two and a half days off without a public mass.
But, it is just not Donald Hying, but the American hierarchy and an institutional church with a desire to retain a discipline of an single all-male priesthood which calls on the laity yet again to make major adjustments. The institutional church has yet to realize that people are voting with their feet, and the addition of another inconvenience may just mean they drop out. They can only push people so far. Many in the US hierarchy don't care about service to the faithful, they only care about the clerical class and promoting clericalism. The young trad priests have been very successful at getting rid of parishioners, and to lead a decline in school enrollment. Hying must like what he sees as he has expanded their influence. The Diocese has not provided attendance figures for last year so there is really no way for a lay person to evaluate the situation.
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| Greater Sun Prairie Pastorate (along Hwy 19) |
With the pastorate groupings, one can see that accommodating the faithful was not a priority. Other than weekend mass and a few weekday masses, what else do priests really do? There are few baptisms, and even fewer weddings in the Church today, so it is not like the clerics are busy dispensing other sacraments. Even funeral masses are in decline. But, the priests say they will now have more time to be of service to the faithful when called. I have yet to figure out who would be calling them. Fewer parishioners there will be fewer calls.
My wife emailed CTK on Monday, June 5 to ask for the mass schedule as of July 1. As of Tuesday, June 13, she has not heard back from them.
Let me contrast the above decreases with what Fr Allam will face in India. Fr Allam, who has been serving St Dennis, is retuning to India. His diocese apparently has no qualms about a maximum number of weekend masses a priest may say. Fr Allam will be saying five masses on a weekend with each mass at a different location. Two of those locations do not even have a building in which to say mass. He will say weekday masses, mostly in people's homes. How is it that a US a priest, is overworked with three weekend masses, but a priest in India will say five, all at a different location? No wonder the priests pushed for the pastorate alignment.
Perhaps the young trad priests should emulate Fr Emil Kapaun, who on Nov 1, 1950 (well before Vatican II) in North Korea said four masses that day, heard confessions by traveling to different fox hole groupings. Yet his day was not done, that night into the next day while US troops were being encircled by Chinese forces, and under direct enemy fire, he took injured friendly soldiers to safety, provided comfort, aid, and reassurance to the injured as the remaining US forces. As they encirclement was becoming complete, he refused to retreat, he went back into the front and stayed with the wounded knowing they would be surrounded. Some he dragged out of the line of fire, others too injured he dug trenches to help protect them. (Actions for which he was posthumoulsy awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in 2013.) Fr. Kapaun, who holds the title Servant of God, held four masses that day alone in the cold mountains of North Korea, outdoors in much worse conditions than these young trad priests of the diocese face in their heated and airconditioned buildings. It seems the young trad's only want tradition in way of doctrine and discipline, not in the way of service. It is reported that Kapaun would say dozens of masses a week as a chaplain in Korea. What priest today says 24 or masses a week? In the Madison diocese no priest will be saying four masses a weekend.
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| Fr Emil Kapaun saying Mass in North Korea |
Bishop Hying is leading the way to a smaller, clerical, and much more doctrinaire church, where rules matter more than mercy, and where clericalism matters more than service. Soon the priestly class will be working only half time. My grandfather used to say "The walls of hell are lined with the souls of priests." Well before the abuse crisis, it was the pride and arrogance of the clerics (their clericalism) that led to that observation.
There is an institutional arrogance of being beholden to a single all-male clergy at the expense of the faithful that is helping lead the Church to decline. It is present in many parts of the world. Bishop Hying will do his part by emptying the pews even more.
Even as they tout a smaller more doctrinaire church the hierarchy complains about a drop in contributions, smaller schools, and reduced volunteerism. They seem to forget all are interrelated. Bishop Hying cannot complain about attendance at mass, or Catholic Schools, dropping contributions, or reduced engagement of the faithful, while at the same time caring only about the traditional minded priests who have so successfully destroyed the parishes to which they were assigned. Unless the Church makes radical changes it will continue its route into the abyss. As usual, in a clerical culture, the faithful get shortchanged.
