Our parish family has been making great progress with the Beacons of Light initiative, and I am so grateful for the team we have assembled to help us make our way through this sometimes difficult experience; having a good team makes all the difference. I know that this time is often fraught with emotion, and a lot of that is due to not always understanding exactly what it all means. There have been many people stirring up others with information that is not quite accurate, or that paints everything in a pessimistic and cynical light; there is a lot of suspicion out there too. Many people are worried: does Beacons mean my church is going to close? I’ve tried to be clear about this since the beginning: Beacons of Light will not result in any of our churches being closed. Parishes will be merged, and some will no longer exist as they did before, but this has nothing to do with the church buildings remaining as places of prayer and worship. This is where we have to keep an important distinction in mind, the distinction between a “parish” and a “church”; in our popular perception these are often conflated to mean the same thing, but in Canon Law they are two distinct realities, and since Canon Law and not popular perception is what governs the Church, and by extension Beacons of Light, understanding this distinction is crucial. So, what is the difference? According to Canon Law:
A parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor (parochus) as its proper pastor (pastor) under the authority of the diocesan bishop (Canon 515, §1).
By the term church is understood a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship (Canon 1214).
Think about it like this: a parish is a geographical territory within which a certain community of Christian people is “contained”, whereas a church is a physical space within which that community exercises Divine Worship. While the size and borders of that geographical territory (parish) may change, as they will with Beacons of Light, that doesn’t mean anything will happen to the church building contained within that territory; a parish can be modified without affecting the church itself. Now, some have heard the rumor that “merging parishes is just one step in the process of closing our churches”, and because of this there are many who think that we have to prevent merger to protect our churches. This is not true. While it is true that some churches in our archdiocese likely need to be closed, this will only ever be the case in those instances when the local community can no longer sustain and care for the building. In other words, when a community is in possession of a church building in dire need of repairs the community cannot afford, when the building is unsafe to occupy and there is no prospect of bringing the building “up to snuff”, in these instances prudence would say the church needs to be closed; this is something that has happened in our archdiocese many times over our 200+ years. But where the community is invested, where the buildings are in good shape, where the money and the energy is present to maintain a specific church in a specific place, that church will remain as long as the local community sees to its care. This is true even when a parish merges and multiple churches in multiple parishes become the common patrimony of a single parish, whose parishioners now care together for the multiple churches in its newly merged territory.
I have no plans, and the archdiocese has no plans, of closing any of our churches. As long as we are willing to support and care for these buildings, they will stand as they have stood for so many years as places of prayer and worship, where the Lord dwells in our midst. What happens to these churches is ultimately in our hands, and that means that if parishioners want to keep our churches, they cannot do the very thing that will require us to make hard decisions no one wants to make. In other words, we cannot have it both ways: we cannot expect to keep these churches standing and then refuse to do the very thing necessary to keep them standing, i.e, contribute to the cause. In the end, if these churches were to close (which I do not want!), it will be because we made it happen. On the other hand, that also means if we want to see them continue to stand, and if we want to see our parish family continue to grow and thrive, we can make that happen. I won’t let anything bad happen to these churches as much as that’s within my power, but my pocketbook is small; I could write a check to try and cover uncovered expenses, but it would bounce! I am grateful for the generosity of so many in the parish, but it will take still more to keep things together, and I know all of us together have more than enough to make our parish thrive. All it takes is our good will. I know many feel like they have no say, that they have no power, but that’s not true either. We may not have all the power to decide on these things, but we do have the most important power: our own free will, and what we choose to do with it. If we choose to make this a good thing, it will be a good thing, maybe even a better thing than anything we’ve known in the past. It’s up to us to decide. May God bless you in the week ahead, and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the sacred and merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,
Affectionately Yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
