Mergers Of 31 Additional NY Catholic Churches Announced
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York is merging 31 parishes into 14 new parishes in the second phase of a consolidation process, church officials announced Friday.
Under the reorganization plan, Mass will no longer be celebrated on a regular basis at six parish churches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Dutchess and Orange counties as of Aug. 1.
Mergers Of 31 Additional NY Catholic Churches Announced
"From the beginning, this process has been about helping the archdiocese to better accomplish the work of evangelization and outreach, preach the Gospel, perform works of charity, and educate people in the faith, all of which is at the heart of the Church's mission,'' Cardinal Timothy Dolan said.
"For too long we have been in the business of maintaining buildings and structures that were established in the 19th and early 20th centuries to meet the needs of the people of that time, but which are not necessary to meet the needs of the church and its people as it exists today,'' he added.
Mergers Of 31 Additional NY Catholic Churches Announced
The archdiocese announced in November that 112 parishes were being consolidated into 55.
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"This does not make us happy, a bishop is supposed to be a father and a father wants to expand, he wants to build, he wants to add on if you're talking about a home and now we've just had to make a decision that some of our places will no longer be used, that two parishes are going to become one, that is an unhappy decision," Dolan said.
The total number of parishes in the archdiocese will go from 368 a year ago to 296 when the mergers are completed.
"We're going to be able better to steward the gifts that God has given us; I'm talking about priests, I'm talking about parish staffs, I'm talking about buildings, I'm talking about money and finances, we're talking about programs," Dolan said. "The memories are in what? The baptisms, the first holy communions, the prayer, the worship, the community of the parish; that doesn't depend on an address."
The archdiocese includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven counties north of New York City.
"The Church is not a museum, you bet we're about the past but we're also about the present and the future," Dolan said.
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