Community Chat

[terrier3]

We have a beautiful inner city church that the bishop wants to tear down. The parishioners have been fighting him. The parishioners are very loyal to the church - an architectural wonder and source of pride for the community.

After over a year of wrangling...the new bishop agreed not to tear the church down - but he wants to close down the parish and sell the building.

The parishioners fought all the way up to the Vatican - and THEY WON!

The church will not only remain standing, the Vatican also is blocking shutting down this inner city parish.

Francis ROCKS!

[Catitude]

Why did the Bishop want the Church torn down?

[SoX]

.

[esmerelda]

My guess is upkeep and (small) size of congregation.

[terrier3]

On 2/9/2014 Opurrra said:

Why did the Bishop want the Church torn down?

It needs repairs. The bishop said it would cost 12 million to fix it...the parishioners have their own engineers and said it would be a lot less and can be done in stages...they have raised money for repairs, but the bishop blocked them from fixing the church or using it at all.

Basically the leaders wanted to shut down the parish - in a poor, inner city neighborhood. They still get people to come in from the suburbs and even have services in Polish and German.

[CrazyDaisy]

No matter how beautiful the building and how loyal the congregation, it is very expensive to maintain an aging building.

Structural issues become a safety issue and should not be done on a budget. Should someone be hurt, who would be held responsible (not the congregation).

[terrier3]

On 2/9/2014 CrazyDaisy said:

No matter how beautiful the building and how loyal the congregation, it is very expensive to maintain an aging building.

Structural issues become a safety issue and should not be done on a budget. Should someone be hurt, who would be held responsible (not the congregation).

The point is that the congregation has raised the money to get it fixed...until this Vatican ruling, the local leaders refused to fix it...they wanted to tear it down, which in itself will cost millions.

[kittykatkay]

I love old buildings. Why won't people realize they don't construct buildings anymore like they used to. Find the money somewhere and repair if need be, but please don't tear down historical and beautiful buildings around our great land. You're gonna be sorry if you do and you can never, ever replace them.

[151949]

I don't understand why parishoners can't understand that the church simply can not afford to maintain all these aging buildings for all time. The heart of a church is not in the brick and mortar. I'm sure it is sad when this happens but the reality is that maintaining these buildings is not fiscally reasonable. Especially in light of the vastly lower memberships in established religions these days. So many of the younger folks flock to the churches that are more about entertaining an audience than praising God.

[CrazyDaisy]

On 2/9/2014 terrier3 said:

On 2/9/2014 CrazyDaisy said:

No matter how beautiful the building and how loyal the congregation, it is very expensive to maintain an aging building.

Structural issues become a safety issue and should not be done on a budget. Should someone be hurt, who would be held responsible (not the congregation).

The point is that the congregation has raised the money to get it fixed...until this Vatican ruling, the local leaders refused to fix it...they wanted to tear it down, which in itself will cost millions.

You yourself said that the work could be done in stages, so they have not raised all the money to make all the needed repairs. At what point is it a safety issue? What if they can not raise the rest to complete the project?

Have to agree with Happy Housewife, its the people not the building that make the church.