Beacons of light and closing/consolidating of parishes

I don't think JusticeLeague3's post had anything to do with Bishop-elect Fernandes. It was in reference to the decision by the Archbishop to exacerbate the priest shortage problem by adding an age limit for those who want to remain as pastors under Beacons of Light.
 
EHS 2001 said:
It was in reference to the decision by the Archbishop to exacerbate the priest shortage problem by adding an age limit for those who want to remain as pastors under Beacons of Light.
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Exactly - especially for priests that are well respected, do good work, and WANT to continue working in their parishes.

But again, nothing surprises me with them. Control is more important than growth and always has been.
 
Heard that the Parrish families are going to be Named/"branded" - does anyone know if the Parrish is also going to be renamed as well or is it going to be like St Lawrence, a Price Hill Catholic Parrish. They are going to announce the Parrish Family names at the big mass at Elder on 7/3
 
ElderMackStud said:
Heard that the Parrish families are going to be Named/"branded" - does anyone know if the Parrish is also going to be renamed as well or is it going to be like St Lawrence, a Price Hill Catholic Parrish. They are going to announce the Parrish Family names at the big mass at Elder on 7/3
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I could be wrong, but I believe the group Mass at Elder on July 3 is for the new Victory, Dominic, Als, Simon, Vincent DeP family, and its new family name will be announced at that Mass. Those 5 parishes will have no Sunday Masses at their home churches on that day. Masses on the Saturday prior to that will be held as usual, I believe. This announcement was in the bulletins on the weekend of May 8, along with other updates for the start of that family.
 
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Thought everyone might find this interesting. It’s the October Counts (the average attendance per Sunday for each parish) for the last 10 years. Shocking that St. Dominic is the highest.
 
Im curious where the numbers for seating capacity came from. St. William appears to my non-expert eye to be larger than St. Theresa. Dominic and Victory used to have well over 800 students in the 90s and had all school masses. Antoninus doesn't seem like the biggest church out of the list.
 
EHS 2001 said:
A lot of info in this letter from Fr. Ben for the VIDAS family: https://www.stdominicdelhi.org/Portals/6/Important Message from Fr. Ben 05-08-22.pdf?ver=2022-05-11-130401-167
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6. Schools – What are the plans for our schools? Both St. Dominic and Our Lady of Victory Schools will remain open and independent. Both schools are functioning well and have enough parish support to maintain their present ministry. Both schools have between 400- 500 children and which is great number for a parochial school as it is big enough to be sustainable and not so large as the children become invisible or simply numbers. We are committed to Catholic education and will remain committed to Catholic education for our children. Already in some areas of school and parish sports, there exists extensive cooperation. It may prove more advantageous for us as we move forward to have the teams become one team body enabling our teams to have a deeper roster, wider support, and allowing our sports programs to become the powerhouse in the region. Again, any decision on this matter will only happen with consultation and planning. For the present, school tuition assistance and the “scholarship” or “in parish” school rate will still be determined on the basis of particular parish membership and registration as assistance and “in parish” rates are supported by the revenue of the individual parishes and are dependent on planned giving and tuition assistance collections which are parish based. Rules concerning eligibility for tuition assistance and “in parish” rate will be maintained as they are at present. Parishes in our family of parishes that do not have a school may choose one of the schools and receive the “in parish” or “scholarship” rate.
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I don't know how accurate greatschools.org website is. It says 583 students for Victory and 488 students for Dominic. I think it is good to hear both schools will remain open for now.
 
Not surprising.

What are some other of the oldest parish buildings? Those are the ones with the likely high maintenance and repair bills that may have the same fate unless they are high enrollment schools.
 
cincifbfan said:
www.cincinnati.com

West End Cincinnati Catholic school closing after 176 years because of repair costs

St. Joseph Catholic school in Cincinnati's West End will close immediately after inspection found it needs $2.5 million in repairs.
www.cincinnati.com www.cincinnati.com

First school closing after beacons of light.
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That is a special community there in the West End. I would have loved to have seen the old, original church, which was torn down during the I75 construction and "urban renewal" of the 1960's. I have been to Mass there several times in the past ten years. Catholic Mass with a rockin Baptist style choir. They have done good work with the kids there. Unfortunately, what was a Elder feeder shifted more to Roger Bacon in the 90's.

Very sad to hear of the school closing.
 
Doublehelix said:
Not surprising.

What are some other of the oldest parish buildings? Those are the ones with the likely high maintenance and repair bills that may have the same fate unless they are high enrollment schools.
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Price Hill parishes come to mind with St Lawrence, Holy Family, St. William, and St Theresa.
 
cincifbfan said:
www.cincinnati.com

City inspectors say West End Catholic school is safe for kids, contradicting archdiocese

Weeks after the Archdiocese of Cincinnati declared it unsafe for kids, a city building inspection found St. Joseph Catholic School structurally sound.
www.cincinnati.com www.cincinnati.com

This is a bad look for Archdiocese.
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Not surprising that the Archdiocese is lying to fit their agenda.

They've made the decision to close it because it's too expensive to operate. They made up the safety issues for a more convenient and easy message. It's why no one trusts anything anymore.

They simply refuse to be open and transparent, and continue their spin on everything. They never learn, and it's frankly why this will only get worse before it gets better. They are the reason people aren't coming back, and they are clueless to that fact.

I'm guessing the St. Joseph's community will let their voices be heard, and they should. It probably won't change anything, but it looks them right back in the eye and says they know they are being lied to. Infuriating.

As mentioned before, people will accept most anything if you just give them the truth. So many spineless leaders.
 
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Doublehelix said:
Not surprising that the Archdiocese is lying to fit their agenda.

They've made the decision to close it because it's too expensive to operate. They made up the safety issues for a more convenient and easy message. It's why no one trusts anything anymore.

They simply refuse to be open and transparent, and continue their spin on everything. They never learn, and it's frankly why this will only get worse before it gets better. They are the reason people aren't coming back, and they are clueless to that fact.

I'm guessing the St. Joseph's community will let their voices be heard, and they should. It probably won't change anything, but it looks them right back in the eye and says they know they are being lied to. Infuriating.

As mentioned before, people will accept most anything if you just give them the truth. So many spineless leaders.
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While I find this news extremely sad for this community, the Archdiocese has an official process/protocol within the various Parish councils (mainly Finance & Parish Councils) to come to the conclusion to close a school &/or Parish. The Parish, after going through the protocols, will make the official recommendation to the Archdiocese for the closure. At that point, the Archdiocese either accepts or rejects the recommendation.
 
ElderMackStud said:
While I find this news extremely sad for this community, the Archdiocese has an official process/protocol within the various Parish councils (mainly Finance & Parish Councils) to come to the conclusion to close a school &/or Parish. The Parish, after going through the protocols, will make the official recommendation to the Archdiocese for the closure. At that point, the Archdiocese either accepts or rejects the recommendation.
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Is the recommendation really indicative of what the parish wants, or what the Archdiocese is steering?

I could see a situation where the Arch has some people in their pocket steering this in the direction they want, mainly the pastor who's going to fall on the sword rather than fight his bosses.
 
Doublehelix said:
Is the recommendation really indicative of what the parish wants, or what the Archdiocese is steering?

I could see a situation where the Arch has some people in their pocket steering this in the direction they want, mainly the pastor who's going to fall on the sword rather than fight his bosses.
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From what I was told while serving on a finance board a while back is that the process is rather extensive and very formalized - it involves Parish/Finance councils to back the recommendation. While the Archdiocese may have influence to start the process, the final decision must work itself through all the protocols. As the Pastor told us, "the recommendation to close is made by the Parish, not by the Archdiocese"
 
ElderMackStud said:
From what I was told while serving on a finance board a while back is that the process is rather extensive and very formalized - it involves Parish/Finance councils to back the recommendation. While the Archdiocese may have influence to start the process, the final decision must work itself through all the protocols. As the Pastor told us, "the recommendation to close is made by the Parish, not by the Archdiocese"
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Interesting - I can see it both ways. I'm sure a ton of these parishes are an economic drain on the Archdiocese, and it makes sense to consolidate. It just drives me crazy when they lie about the reasons. If the economic reality of the parish is the main reason to close, show parishioners the numbers and help them understand the dire situation, as I would hope those facts are what these councils are using to decide its fate.

Instead, they make up a safety concern that has nothing to do with anything, and the lie will actually now make it harder for people to accept.
 
Doublehelix said:
Interesting - I can see it both ways. I'm sure a ton of these parishes are an economic drain on the Archdiocese, and it makes sense to consolidate. It just drives me crazy when they lie about the reasons. If the economic reality of the parish is the main reason to close, show parishioners the numbers and help them understand the dire situation, as I would hope those facts are what these councils are using to decide its fate.

Instead, they make up a safety concern that has nothing to do with anything, and the lie will actually now make it harder for people to accept.
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From a financial standpoint, Parish's typically publish their weekly contributions, fund raising efforts and annual financial performance/net position in the weekly bulletin.
 
ElderMackStud said:
From a financial standpoint, Parish's typically publish their weekly contributions, fund raising efforts and annual financial performance/net position in the weekly bulletin.
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Right, and they've been doing to make people aware of the dire financial situation for alot of these parishes. Which makes making up a lie about safety even that much more head scratching.
 
A friend of mine that is in Lourdes parish said they are dropping to only 1 mass for the whole weekend? Is this true? Crazy to think they would have 3 or 4 masses alone on Sundays. Usually an 8, 9;30 and 11 from what I remember,

There will have to be a lot of consolidating of recourses in these parishes to get some of them viable.
 
pantherland said:
A friend of mine that is in Lourdes parish said they are dropping to only 1 mass for the whole weekend? Is this true? Crazy to think they would have 3 or 4 masses alone on Sundays. Usually an 8, 9;30 and 11 from what I remember,

There will have to be a lot of consolidating of recourses in these parishes to get some of them viable.
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This family of parishes lists mass attendance in their bulletin. I find it interesting that they list not only how many people attended but how many empty seats there were. Sounds to me like they are documenting attendance to support a church/parish closing down the road. Here are the latest numbers which I'm sure will fluctuate based on the season:

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Prof912 said:
This family of parishes lists mass attendance in their bulletin. I find it interesting that they list not only how many people attended but how many empty seats there were. Sounds to me like they are documenting attendance to support a church/parish closing down the road. Here are the latest numbers which I'm sure will fluctuate based on the season:

View attachment 43713
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Woah.

And I would have guessed St. Martin held way more than Lourdes or Antoninus.
 
pantherland said:
A friend of mine that is in Lourdes parish said they are dropping to only 1 mass for the whole weekend? Is this true? Crazy to think they would have 3 or 4 masses alone on Sundays. Usually an 8, 9;30 and 11 from what I remember,

There will have to be a lot of consolidating of recourses in these parishes to get some of them viable.
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Yup, and their Sunday mass will be at 8am. I believe this starts in August.
 
Woah is right. What do these 4 schools look like in capacity and enrollment?

Add up the Saturday attendance from all 4 and it still wouldn't have filled the biggest church on the list. There's no chance they will continue to operate all 4 parishes under these circumstances. When you look at these numbers, it could make sense for even 2 of these parishes to close.
 
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