Vatican II celebrates Tikkun Olam!
& Pittsburgh Diocese Plummeting
CallMeIrrelevant
Rabbis Steven Graber, of Temple Hillel in North Woodmere, Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence and Shalom Stern of Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst were among the 120 rabbis, seven Catholic cardinals, 25 bishops and 50 priests who the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, which transformed 2,000 years of Catholic-Jewish relations and began constructive dialogue between the two faiths, according to religious leaders.
Bishop William Murphy, of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, was in attendance.Held from May 4-7 at the religious center of the Neocatechumenal Way on the shores of the Galilee in Israel, the four-day conference had 400 attendees, including lay people; a concert, “The Suffering of the Innocents,” composed by Kiko Arguello and performed by The Way; reflection on the history of Catholic-Jewish relations and addressed the current wave of anti-Semitism in Europe and the persecution of Christians in some Africa and Middle East countries.
In a closing address Rabbi Rosenbaum said: “While we who have gathered come from different faiths, we share the same fate, so let us pray that God strengthen and inspire us as we go forward to do the holy work of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world for all humanity.”
Shalom Sesame: Tikkun Olam Song
'We need to make our worship better,' Pittsburgh N.O. Bishop Zubik says
The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Pittsburgh must focus on “better homilies, better music and more people”
as its six-county territory attempts to reverse a series of “sobering”
trends and prepares for a major overhaul in 2018, Bishop David Zubik
said Wednesday.
“The No. 1 priority has to be, ‘We need to
make our worship better,'” Zubik told the Tribune-Review. “Second of
all, we need to do the best job that we can to get not only more
ordained leaders, but we really have to open up lots of doors for the
lay leaders of the church.”
The Pittsburgh diocese is closing in on the
parishioner-input phase of a comprehensive planning initiative called
“On Mission for the Church Alive!,” through which leaders are examining
how to strengthen church participation, reorganize aging infrastructure
and make the most of dwindling resources.
They're up against dismal data.
The number of active Catholics within the
Pittsburgh diocese has declined rapidly in recent decades, from 914,000
in 1980 to 632,000 in 2015, diocesan figures show.
Since 2000, weekly Mass attendance has
dropped by 40 percent — for almost 100,000 fewer regular churchgoers;
K-8 Catholic school enrollment fell by 50 percent; and the number of
active priests plummeted from 338 to 225.
By 2025, if trends hold, the diocese projects that just 112 active priests will remain.
“I hear that the laity is going to have to
take that torch and do some of what the priests were doing, and my
concern is our laity is not really trained well enough to do that in
time,” said St. Andrew's parishioner John Cascino, 53, a father of six
young children in Butler. “It's going to be a while before all these new
deacon classes get taught.”
Empty pews correlate with dwindling coffers:
About half of almost 200 parishes lost money in 2015, compared with
one-third of parishes operating in the red in 2012, Zubik said.
Critics of a massive reorganization — such
as small groups of parishioners who've fought recent closures of
cash-strapped churches — worry that too much emphasis will be placed on
consolidation breaking up longtime faith communities.
“There will be some who people who say,
‘This is all about closing churches,' or people will be cynical and say,
‘Why the heck is he asking us to get involved in these discussions
because he's already made up his mind?'” Zubik acknowledged.
“The answer is that's not at all what it's
about, and I haven't made the decisions,” Zubik continued. “I need to
hear from people.”
Over the summer, Zubik led four of 18
informational events on the initiative, with about 4,500 people
attending. Between Oct. 10 and Dec. 1, each of 195 parishes is set to
host two “consultation sessions” so members can learn about proposed
organizational models and provide feedback.
“The statistics were very sobering,” Zubik
said of how parishioners reacted to the summer sessions, “but at the
same time, I found they were very excited about the important aspect of
why we're doing this: to enliven people's faith.”
Among topics under discussion: growing the
pools of highly trained lay leaders and deacons; getting churches to be
more hospitable to outsiders; mapping out financial viability 20 years
from now; and appealing to youths through new types of ministry while
simultaneously strengthening pastoral care for the elderly.
The final set of recommendations — which
Zubik plans to unveil in early 2018 — will be the culmination of three
years of input from parishioners, clergy and lay leaders, as curated and
analyzed by the “On Mission” commission, which comprises more than 80
members appointed by pastors across the region.
“We have to be creative in forging new ways
to engage young people, and people who have felt they are not welcome in
our church or who have chosen a different path,” said Kathy Buechel,
chairwoman of the “On Mission” commission, as well as a University of
Pittsburgh philanthropy professor and a member of St. Paul's in Oakland.
“We're thinking of this as an opportunity to reawaken the spirit of the
Church.”
The 78 parishes of the Catholic Diocese of
Greensburg — with 142,000 members across four counties — appear to be in
better fiscal shape. Greensburg diocese spokesman Jerry Zufelt said
that no parishes appear to be in “dire financial straits.” That
stability follows two reorganizations in the past seven years, resulting
in 16 parish closures and mergers involving eight parishes.
In designing the “On Mission” initiative,
Zubik said he drew from elements of the Archdiocese of Boston's
long-term planning efforts.
Boston's “Disciples in Mission” plan
involves creating “collaboratives” of one to three parishes overseen by a
pastor and team of priests, deacons and lay staff, with each parish
maintaining its own finances and identity, Boston Archdiocese spokesman
Terrence Donilon said.
The Pittsburgh diocese includes Allegheny,
Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Greene and Washington counties — a
3,750-square-mile area made up of 632,000 Catholics, or one-third of the
zone's total population.
It last embarked on a major reorganization
in 1989, and shrank from 310 parishes using 333 buildings to 218
parishes using 288 buildings by 1998.
In 2016, at least 37 diocesan priests
split their time among more than one parish, noted Zubik, with some
overseeing three to four.
More consolidation “needs to happen so that
they're not driving from church to church and trying to serve so many
parishes,” Cascino said. “It's going to be hard, and people are not
going to want to give up their family church. But it's a reality, and
the upside of it is that we could have larger churches filled with more
people — that in itself creates a sense of vibrancy.”
