Dying
Dying parishes are on their last legs. An example is my dad’s childhood parish on the South Side of Chicago, once the largest archdiocese in the United States, now undergoing a process to close dozens of parishes and schools over the next few years.15 When my dad was growing up, there were three Catholic parishes within a few blocks of each other. Each parochial school was packed; my dad remembers being in a classroom of sixty kids taught by one overwhelmed religious sister. This was a Polish neighborhood, and eventually kids grew up and moved out. The newcomers who replaced them were not always Catholic. At a certain point, dad’s parish hit a tipping point: There were not enough Catholics left to sustain a community there. This is a harsh reality faced by many parishes today.
Generally speaking, most dying parishes are in urban centers in post-Christian cities. Once, huge Catholic populations required massive infrastructure to support them. Many dioceses decided to build clusters of smaller parishes that served each different ethnic group as Catholic immigrants poured into these cities. This booming population of Catholics has not been present for a generation or more, so we are starting to see a lot of the dioceses and archdioceses with many of these dying parishes close them down to consolidate resources. This can often lead to confusion and heartbreak. If done correctly, however, this can be a catalyst for mission. Some of these communities have reached a certain point where revitalization becomes difficult, if not impossible. As painful as it is, the best option may be for a dying parish to combine with other communities to create a solid base from which to bring renewal.
My challenge to you if you currently minister in or attend a dying parish is this: Focus on what you can control and not what you cannot. You likely are not in charge of whether your parish doors will close in the next decade or so. You are in charge of what you do with the mission territory that God has given to you.
People in your community still need to hear the Gospel preached. Pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire renewal in your neighborhood, and get creative. Instead of giving in to discouragement about your dwindling numbers, go find the people where they are and love them. The Gospel is never irrelevant, and God can still work miracles through your efforts if you let him. Do not worry about huge outreaches; reach out to individual souls and bring them to Jesus. While you are in your area, you can love the neighbors around you, even if it is just one at a time.
Declining
Most parishes in the United States today are declining, whether they realize it or not. This reality might sound scary, and it should. Yet the even scarier thing about declining parishes is that often the decline is hidden. Many declining parishes still actually appear to be pretty healthy. In many cases, overall attendance has stayed about the same for the last generation or so, the weekly offertory is still about where it was twenty years ago, and everything appears to be relatively stable. Yet underneath the surface, there are cracks. While it appears to be healthy, in reality this parish is simply in maintenance mode, and we know by now (from the statistics noted in the first chapter on the rise of the nones, fallen-away Catholics, and religious practice in younger generations), maintenance mode is itself decline.
Here is the harsh reality: In our current context, many parishes today might seem like healthy, vibrant churches that are maintaining things just fine, but they are actually declining parishes. The parish that you attend that is relatively full on Sundays, has a decent school, and is fairly busy with ministries and activities, is actually declining. Here is what I mean by that.
Though the facade of health remains, and the parish might even have a lot of ministries, declining parishes are not driven to form disciples. This means that this parish will hit a demographic cliff in twenty years, when the core of the parish is no longer around, if something does not change. How can you tell if your parish is merely in maintenance mode? Take a look at these other areas of your parish life. Religious education classes are much smaller than they were twenty years ago. There are fewer young families in the pews, leading to a higher average age. Fewer people are engaged in the life of the parish.
These parishes need to commit to revitalization today before they hit a point where it will become much more difficult. Thankfully, the people and the resources are still there to drive renewal, if your parish is willing to commit to doing the hard work. You, the parish leader in the declining parish, have this difficult conundrum in front of you. Your parish is at a crossroads.
Swelling
There are some parishes, typically in areas where there has been huge population growth over a short period of time, that are currently swelling. In some areas, the suburban sprawl reached what used to be a more rural community and new developments have led to a huge influx of families and not enough parishes to support them all. Some of these parishes have 5,000 families or more. The danger here is that the growth in numbers can be mistaken for health or even “success” in terms of the mission of the Church. Activity can be seen as vitality. These parishes must scratch beneath the sur face to see if they are really accomplishing the Church’s mission of forming disciples.
Just because attendance and offertory are up does not mean the parish is fulfilling its mission. Sometimes, if you look at the numbers, the parish is not growing at the same rate as the surrounding area.
If your parish is swelling, then you have been greatly blessed by your circumstances! Try to avoid the temptation to rest on your laurels. Do not let growth in numbers become a substitute for growth in discipleship, which is the reason behind your parish’s existence. Too many parishes that are dwindling now bought into the idea years ago that maintenance mode was an okay thing because people kept showing up. You do not have some of the immediate pressures other parishes might be experiencing that make them feel the drive to revitalization, but pray that the Lord sends you a sense of urgency for mission, nonetheless. At the end of the day, our job at parishes is to bring every soul in our parish boundary into a living relationship with Jesus Christ in his Church, not just to have people show up.
Growing
There is one (and only one) true diagnostic marker of a growing and healthy parish: It is forming disciples. These parishes feel different. The adoration chapel is full. Confession lines are full. The parish has dynamic outreach to the community both in terms of social justice and evangelization. Members of the parish are living out the mission of spreading the Gospel in their own lives. A growing parish sees reasonable growth in numbers and donations, and it is replicating across multiple generations. Even if the parish is in an area seeing demographic decline, the numbers of families in the parish is actually holding steady or even growing. Dozens are baptized at the Easter Vigil every year, and people are having life-changing encounters with Jesus on a regular basis. This is the parish you want to be, and it is the parish Jesus wants you to be.
Growing parishes might not yet be all the way to full renewal as a missionary outpost of the New Evangelization, but they are at least on the way there, and they have committed to the long-term journey of bringing about renewal by forming disciples.
How Do We Become A Growing, Healthy Parish?
Which of the above four types of parishes is yours?
While the dying parishes are a sad part of our Church’s story right now in the United States, the real danger is the declining and swelling parishes. The temptation for these parishes is to stay in maintenance mode, because at least no one is trying to close the doors of their parish. People are still coming for now, and we have enough to stay open.
It could be said that the key deadly sin to pray against in these churches is sloth. Sloth, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is “sorrow for spiritual good.” Our parishes are being called to a great spiritual good right now: mission. Will we have the courage and conviction to follow through?
A parish can never be content to stand still. If a parish does not become missional, it will inevitably begin to decline. Growing and swelling parishes eventually become declining parishes if they lose their focus on their true calling. And declining parishes eventually become dying parishes if they do not seek to turn the trend around. We have already seen this happen in many communities