Beacons of light and closing/consolidating of parishes

MickeyMantle said:
Yep, I found a lot of this too. And it wasn’t even the kids’ fault for accidentally being late. They were told to meet the bus between 7:30 and 7:45. The buffoons planning this knew Mass was at 8. 🤷‍♂️ I can’t wait for an explanation.
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Where were they supposed to meet "The Bus". Since this is the Family of the Most Holy Eucharist. I see it is Our Lady of Lourdes, St Aloysius Gonzaga, St Antoninus, St Catharine of Sienna, St Martin of Tours. You said that St Antoninus was not involved.

It was at the Our Lady of Holy Spirit Retreat center located at 5440 Moeller Ave, Norwood, Ohio.

Lourdes is located 11.9 miles
St Als 12 miles
St Catherine 10.2
St Martin 11.5

I ran the numbers for Lourdes this afternoon and it said it was 24 minutes. If you factor in that the bus was going to leave at 7:45 That means in ideal conditions (not going to happen at 7:45 at rush hour) You are going to get there at 8:09. Who planned the bus to leave if the Mass started at 8?
 
This disorganized mess is what happens when you try to run 5 churches, 4 of which have schools, at once. No other family of parishes in the area has that many churches and schools. The other family of 5 churches has only 2 schools, and they are also keeping a lot of things independent and separate between the schools because this is what happens when you try to coordinate and combine. It is the same situation with Westside Catholic. All 4 of those churches have schools, and they haven't had these sorts of issues. Why did FMHE feel the need to combine the confirmation program in the first place? That family has just done things way too quickly and aggressively, and we are seeing the fallout of that right now.
 
TommyHoltmeier said:
This disorganized mess is what happens when you try to run 5 churches, 4 of which have schools, at once. No other family of parishes in the area has that many churches and schools. The other family of 5 churches has only 2 schools, and they are also keeping a lot of things independent and separate between the schools because this is what happens when you try to coordinate and combine. It is the same situation with Westside Catholic. All 4 of those churches have schools, and they haven't had these sorts of issues. Why did FMHE feel the need to combine the confirmation program in the first place? That family has just done things way too quickly and aggressively, and we are seeing the fallout of that right now.
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Pastor ambition.
 
I have no problem with a family truly consolidating as much as they can. In all reality, it is probably desperately needed. Keeping all parishes and schools independent doesn't make any sense. But, consolidation of resources and getting all to be on the same page shouldn't be as complicated as FMHE is making it. But this is what you get when you put people in charge with poor leadership abilities, and even worse organizational and business acumen. This sort of thing required knowledge of the real world, in particular the business world. And most priests have neither. So, what should have been done is acknowledging that you don't have the skills needed to undertake a beast like this, and hire someone with robust knowledge of business and consolidation of businesses to come in and oversee this undertaking. But that's thinking way out of the box, and we can't have that in the Catholic Church.

This has been my criticism of Beacons from day 1..... the plan is that we have no plan. And as a result, the Archdiocese is in complete and utter chaos over the past few years...... too many decisions are being made in a vacuum. Some buildings are being sold and leased, while others are just rotting away. Some schools are closing while others are staying open when it appears on the surface of reports that others are in just as bad financial despair. Some families are trying to consolidate resources, while others are keeping everything status quo. You have one family actually punishing Catholic students enrolled in their Catholic schools. You also have what appears to be pastors sabotaging other churches and schools within their own family to justify future closures.

And things are not going too fast, if anything, they are taking too long. If a church/school is going to close.... rip the band-aid off already and move on. Quit letting the dying suffer. Families should have the ability to sell off any unused property, as those funds (properly managed and invested of course) could go a long way in keeping the financial health of the remaining churches and schools in a parish family.

And this is going to continue to get worse unless the new Archbishop actually comes up with a real plan. This is just the tip of the iceberg that'll bring much of the Archdiocese down. This is driving people away, but per usual, the Archdiocese doesn't care under Schnurr.

Does anyone know when Casey will officially take over? Hopefully he can rectify this catastrophic boondoggle.
 
Speaking of FMHE incompetence, we just received an email tonight from the director of facilities asking us when our first fish fry is … five days before Lent begins and a week before the first fish fry at three FMHE parishes.

Keep in mind, he approved the facilities requests. He is a director at a Catholic parish family and doesn’t know Lent is a few days away.

Of all the morons in the FMHE administration, he is the worst.
 
At what point, especially in light of the admonishing for not donating enough AND upping donation requests frequency, do the people say enough is enough and stop donating all together and/or pull their kids out?

It seems the parishes members’ voices aren’t getting to and/or falling on deaf leadership and administration ears. The only other way to get through it seems would be speaking dollars and cents.
 
Orin Swift said:
At what point, especially in light of the admonishing for not donating enough AND upping donation requests frequency, do the people say enough is enough and stop donating all together and/or pull their kids out?

It seems the parishes members’ voices aren’t getting to and/or falling on deaf leadership and administration ears. The only other way to get through it seems would be speaking dollars and cents.
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To compound the issue about donations, I'm willing to bet most people may want to start scaling those donations back for fear that they'll be donating to a "lost cause" if you will. Why donate to something that has a chance to close down despite those donations.
 
And yet if donations go down, that’s all the excuse the archdiocese needs to close a church and/or school. A priest said as much during mass at the beginnings of Beacons of Light.
 
Orin Swift said:
At what point, especially in light of the admonishing for not donating enough AND upping donation requests frequency, do the people say enough is enough and stop donating all together and/or pull their kids out?

It seems the parishes members’ voices aren’t getting to and/or falling on deaf leadership and administration ears. The only other way to get through it seems would be speaking dollars and cents.
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I cut my weekly donation in half last year when Fr. Matt announced he'd be available less as he pursues a graduate degree. I still donate my time to the kids in athletics and to the school. And I donate to help pay sports registration fees to school families who struggle to pay.
 
EHS 2001 said:
And yet if donations go down, that’s all the excuse the archdiocese needs to close a church and/or school. A priest said as much during mass at the beginnings of Beacons of Light.
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Yes, I struggle with this.

At the end of the day, I'm just hopeful we have a solid bishop coming in. Schnurr was incompetent in every way possible and that has leaked down into the parishes. His legacy will be dwindling attendance and participation, along with some PR night mares for the church.
 
MickeyMantle said:
Speaking of FMHE incompetence, we just received an email tonight from the director of facilities asking us when our first fish fry is … five days before Lent begins and a week before the first fish fry at three FMHE parishes.

Keep in mind, he approved the facilities requests. He is a director at a Catholic parish family and doesn’t know Lent is a few days away.

Of all the morons in the FMHE administration, he is the worst.
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We had a church secretary and a teacher at the school not know that Solemnity of Mary is a Holy Day of Obligation.
 
MickeyMantle said:
At the end of the day, I'm just hopeful we have a solid bishop coming in. Schnurr was incompetent in every way possible and that has leaked down into the parishes. His legacy will be dwindling attendance and participation, along with some PR night mares for the church.
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A big part of the stated justification for Beacons of Light were the declines in stats like weekly mass attendance, school enrollment, sacraments received, ordinations to the priesthood, etc. but the timeline given fell within Schnurr’s tenure as archbishop.

I took a second look at the numbers and thought to myself that any in almost any other organization imaginable losing that many of your “customers” would have resulted in a firing years prior. Instead of being relieved of his position and giving his office to someone who’d attempt to turn the tide, Schnurr was able to embark on the most significant overhaul of the archdiocese of Cincinnati in its over 200 year history. A change that is designed to not only make permanent the decline he oversaw but to accelerate it.
 
EHS 2001 said:
A big part of the stated justification for Beacons of Light were the declines in stats like weekly mass attendance, school enrollment, sacraments received, ordinations to the priesthood, etc. but the timeline given fell within Schnurr’s tenure as archbishop.

I took a second look at the numbers and thought to myself that any in almost any other organization imaginable losing that many of your “customers” would have resulted in a firing years prior. Instead of being relieved of his position and giving his office to someone who’d attempt to turn the tide, Schnurr was able to embark on the most significant overhaul of the archdiocese of Cincinnati in its over 200 year history. A change that is designed to not only make permanent the decline he oversaw but to accelerate it.
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Yep. And it's ... going about how you would expect something he helms to go.
 
TommyHoltmeier said:
This disorganized mess is what happens when you try to run 5 churches, 4 of which have schools, at once. No other family of parishes in the area has that many churches and schools. The other family of 5 churches has only 2 schools, and they are also keeping a lot of things independent and separate between the schools because this is what happens when you try to coordinate and combine. It is the same situation with Westside Catholic. All 4 of those churches have schools, and they haven't had these sorts of issues. Why did FMHE feel the need to combine the confirmation program in the first place? That family has just done things way too quickly and aggressively, and we are seeing the fallout of that right now.
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I totally agree with your last two sentences. FMHE has rushed to combine pretty much everything unlike the other parish families and it sounds like it’s become one huge mess.
 
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Don Flamenco said:
I totally agree with your last two sentences. FMHE has rushed to combine pretty much everything unlike the other parish families and it sounds like it’s become one huge mess.
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Honestly, the four athletics associations are the ONLY ones doing it right. And we get yelled at all the time. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Question on the petition - what’s next since they have 600 signatures?
There is a number of teachers who apparently are in support of it also due to the treatment of them and the administration.
My gut tells be this will end quickly unless they have a strategy to elevate in manners that will gain more interest.
 
Budda said:
Question on the petition - what’s next since they have 600 signatures?
There is a number of teachers who apparently are in support of it also due to the treatment of them and the administration.
My gut tells be this will end quickly unless they have a strategy to elevate in manners that will gain more interest.
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My gut tells me nothing will become of th,e petition. The Archdiocese lets each Pastor run their schools however they want, even if there are glaring issues that violate Archdiocese rules. They simply say take it up with the pastor.

Now, the new Archbishop will be installed in April, so maybe that changes, but I can't see it changing that quickly.
 
So went to Mass in Holy Cross in Covington today. Never been, beautiful church.

Anyways, the point of this post was the priest there totally gets it. The Mass was over in 40 minutes with nothing skipped at all. The homily was exactly what every homily should be. It related to the readings and Gospel, he related them to real life, had a touch of humor, and was done in about 7 minutes. The priest gave Communion behind the rail, but didn't force people to kneel or take it on their tongue, but some people did, which is fine by me. We said two extra prayers at the end of Mass.... prayer for vocations and Prayer to St. Michael.

It at no point felt rushed (like how Westerhoff does many times). It was engaging the entire time.

At the end of Mass he announced their schedule for Ash Wednesday, and said they'd have an "Ash Service" at noon for those who couldn't make morning or evening Mass times, and would give people plenty of time to get ashes on lunch breaks. I thought that was absolutely incredible and thoughtful of him. Afterwards he was outside mingling with the parishioners. Not the forced awkward handshake that some do.

Again, I was really impressed with the priest there, Father Trinity Knight. I really wish more would make efforts like him, it would go a LONG way in helping fix many issues in the Church and bring people back and a bring in loads of new people. This isn't rocket science Catholic Church.
 
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cincifbfan said:
So went to Mass in Holy Cross in Covington today. Never been, beautiful church.

Anyways, the point of this post was the priest there totally gets it. The Mass was over in 40 minutes with nothing skipped at all. The homily was exactly what every homily should be. It related to the readings and Gospel, he related them to real life, had a touch of humor, and was done in about 7 minutes. The priest gave Communion behind the rail, but didn't force people to kneel or take it on their tongue, but some people did, which is fine by me. We said two extra prayers at the end of Mass.... prayer for vocations and Prayer to St. Michael.

It at no point felt rushed (like how Westerhoff does many times). It was engaging the entire time.

At the end of Mass he announced their schedule for Ash Wednesday, and said they'd have an "Ash Service" at noon for those who couldn't make morning or evening Mass times, and would give people plenty of time to get ashes on lunch breaks. I thought that was absolutely incredible and thoughtful of him. Afterwards he was outside mingling with the parishioners. Not the forced awkward handshake that some do.

Again, I was really impressed with the priest there, Father Trinity Knight. I really wish more would make efforts like him, it would go a LONG way in helping fix many issues in the Church and bring people back and a bring in loads of new people. This isn't rocket science Catholic Church.
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That would be how it is done in my opinion as well. You do all the things you need to do, but you just do it all very efficiently that there is not a break in the natural flow of the mass while still allowing time to be invested in the mass. Standing behind the rail for communion is a nice touch that more churches with the rail should do.

Did the priest "do the dishes?" I know that gets on people's nerves, but I don't mind it because it creates more time for prayer after communion (or it is done so quickly and efficiently that I have to watch and be impressed).

That is interesting to do the Prayer for Vocations after mass. I have heard it only ever done before mass or after the petitions (I prefer before mass because it doesn't disrupt the natural flow of the mass).
 
TommyHoltmeier said:
Did the priest "do the dishes?"
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He did, but it was quick, and still while the meditation song was going on.

And the really impressive part like I said was how he was interacting with the parishioners after Mass. He was a a normal guy shootin the breeze. The entire experience was a complete breath of fresh air IMO.

And the whole feel of the Church and the neighborhood gave me a Price Hill feel, especially with more than a few families walking home after Mass.
 
cincifbfan said:
So went to Mass in Holy Cross in Covington today. Never been, beautiful church.

Anyways, the point of this post was the priest there totally gets it. The Mass was over in 40 minutes with nothing skipped at all. The homily was exactly what every homily should be. It related to the readings and Gospel, he related them to real life, had a touch of humor, and was done in about 7 minutes. The priest gave Communion behind the rail, but didn't force people to kneel or take it on their tongue, but some people did, which is fine by me. We said two extra prayers at the end of Mass.... prayer for vocations and Prayer to St. Michael.

It at no point felt rushed (like how Westerhoff does many times). It was engaging the entire time.

At the end of Mass he announced their schedule for Ash Wednesday, and said they'd have an "Ash Service" at noon for those who couldn't make morning or evening Mass times, and would give people plenty of time to get ashes on lunch breaks. I thought that was absolutely incredible and thoughtful of him. Afterwards he was outside mingling with the parishioners. Not the forced awkward handshake that some do.

Again, I was really impressed with the priest there, Father Trinity Knight. I really wish more would make efforts like him, it would go a LONG way in helping fix many issues in the Church and bring people back and a bring in loads of new people. This isn't rocket science Catholic Church.
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This seems pretty great.

At FMHE, we do the prayer for vocations after the petitions and St. Michael after the Mass.

Yesterday at St. Al's Fr. Louis had a good homily that was engaging, not accusatory and it did relate to the Gospel. It did drag at the end, though, at about 11-12 minutes. Then he took about 6-7 minutes with the dishes.
 
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