From The Federalist:
St. Louis Archdiocese Closes Thriving Traditional Latin Mass Parish
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As a result of all those meetings and focus groups, St. Barnabas, a growing Traditional Latin Mass parish with children consisting of 35 percent of the congregation, zero debt, and a pastor who is not a part of the archdiocese, and therefore not taking away priestly resources from any other parish, was ordered by the archbishop to shutter its doors.
St. Barnabas has been subsumed by a parish less than two miles down the road called Assumption. This means that the Assumption parish will take control of St. Barnabas’ building, territory, and finances, including the nearly $600,000 in St. Barnabas’ bank account, in accordance with Canon law. Right now, the Assumption parish is running a deficit of more than $500,000 due to renovation expenses, which can be paid down once it gains control of St. Barnabas’ funds.
Now with St. Barnabas closed, anyone looking to attend a Latin Mass will have to drive more than 30 miles into the city to the Oratory of Sts. Gregory and Augustine’s or St. Francis de Sales — a trek that parishioner Susan Cooke said her 89-year-old mother couldn’t make.
“It’s sad to lose St. Barnabas itself,” Cooke said. “You know the property, it’s terrible that we’re going to be losing that, but it’s even more terrible that we won’t have a Latin Mass in St. Charles County anymore.”
In his decree letter, Rozanski cited St. Barnabas’ celebration of the Latin Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962 as being in violation of orders from the Vatican.
“The faithful who prefer such celebrations of the Holy Eucharist have become the greater part of the worshiping assembly at Saint Barnabas Parish, and Pope Francis by motu proprio Traditionis Custodes art. 3 has instructed that territorial parochial churches are not suitable for such celebrations,” the decree stated.
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With their new Benedictine monk Fr. Dolce, St. Barnabas introduced two more weekend Mass times and a daily Mass. This year, the average attendance at its Latin Masses is 283 at both Sunday services — filling the church to 80 percent capacity. Since Oct. 1, 2022, St. Barnabas’ church attendance has gone up by 34 percent, according to Murphy.
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What does the Archbishop want for that place? That it be a center for Hispanic ministry.
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Some question if this Spanish language-only parish will stay afloat. According to U.S. Census data, only 4 percent of the population in St. Charles County is Hispanic. And the archdiocese already has four parishes that serve the Hispanic community with Spanish-language Masses as well as English-language Masses
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Friends, brace yourselves. This will get worse before it gets better.
You must stay strong in your Catholic Faith no matter how badly your bishops treat you.
We are not exempt from the Passion.
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Poignant and prophetic movie about the suppression of the traditional Mass and Catholic teachings. Nightmare in progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q3m4ENNeOE
Attachments area
Preview YouTube video The Catholics Full Movie
Every Catholic should see this movie.
Every pastor should see this movie.
Everyone who plans to engage in a Eucharistic revival should see this movie.
Each time I read of this happening it breaks my heart. I know that someday it will probably happen to our parish.
It’s astounding as it is pathetic.
This is the problem with diocesean TLM parishes. If they grow too large or have too many donations they are closed and the money pillaged.
One of our local parish churches was put up for sale about 25 years ago. The local parishioners all got together and purchased the church. It is now privately owned and all finances stay with the church. They can’t be transferred to other parishes nor can the property be sold by the diocese.
This has prevented the pillaging of the coffers. A full new roof was put on and the parish used saved funds and fund raising to get it done without debt.
This has also saved the parish from being merged with others for financial reasons. They have to share priests, but the donations stay with the local church and can’t be transferred to other “linked” parishes.
This type of activity will continue and accelerate as the existing parishes age and members die off. Traditional communities will be wise to purchase “closing” churches and own them outright. The diocese can offer a priest today Mass, but the parish needs to keep funds local. That can only happen if the local community owns the church.
When Pope Francis commented “How does the SSPX afford all of these large new Churches?”, Bishop Fellay said “We don’t get the money, the parishes provide it. They are the ones building these structures.” Maybe TLM communities need to create an LLC that is a 501c3 and donate to that. Then as Father needs money for the local parish the LLC can do one off contributions. This would prevent the “theft” of the donations and the closing of parishes to obtain the money.
If this continues, we will just have to go underground. Viva Cristo Rey!!!
It’s all apart of the “All Things New” campaign. It’s really All Things Lousy. A lot of the parishes that the archdiocese wants/has shut down are the parishes in the older more beautiful buildings. An example is the parish of St. John Paul II in South County. It was to be subsumed with Seven Holy Founders. SHF has the most unattractive building in the Archdiocese. It’s more modern looking and hideous. JPII is far more attractive.
There are at least seven parishes that have filed an appeal with the Vatican. I doubt it’ll do them any good.
@moon1234 – I agree with this 1,000%.
Regarding overall this absolutely evil and insipid effort to destroy the faith of so many families – may God have mercy on them, because if it was up to me to judge there wouldn’t be any mercy to find for a billions miles or more. It’s fine for me to suffer – my faith is strong and I deserve all the suffering that comes my way, but given how incredibly difficult it is to raise children in this hellhole of a modern world without them losing their way and their souls – for these evil old men to strike at the parishes that are at the hearts of these young families, for them to put the faith of my 6 year olds in jeopardy for the sake of a misplaced blind obedience or an idiotic nostalgia for the hippy dippy “church” of the 1960s – if this is not a sin that cries up to Heaven than I don’t know what is.
One can’t help wonder if this move isn’t a manifestation of some kind of Strickland effect. Bishops, you’ve been warned. This can happen to you if you don’t fall into line.
This happened some years ago in Boston. Group was given a Diocesan Priest to say the TLM in a very large and beautiful basement Chapel. They had substantial funds. One day they discovered funds missing. When they respectfully confronted the Priest, he admitted he had taken the money for his NO parish, which he told them, “Just wasn’t making it financially .” They found out later that that the big beautiful Church was going to be sold to pay for the sex scandals. It is gone..prime real
estate.
St. Barnabas has been subsumed by a parish less than two miles down the road called Assumption. This means that the Assumption parish will take control of St. Barnabas’ building, territory, and finances, including the nearly $600,000 in St. Barnabas’ bank account, in accordance with Canon law.
Friends, this is what is going to happen to every dollar you contribute to the improvement of any TLM facility controlled by the diocese. So think twice.
In fact (from articles I have read from canon lawyers), when one parish closed and condensed into another, the assets of the closed parish are supposed to be used exclusively for the benefit of THOSE PARISHIONERS who had been parishioners of the closed parish, not for the benefit of the whole (combined) parish uniformly. So, “in accordance with Canon law” part of the article is incomplete and misleading.
Moreover, the 100+ year practice of dioceses in the US, in which (a) dioceses are erected under civil law as “corporation sole” with the bishop as the sole “member” of the corporation, and (b) where all property of every parish is owned by the diocese, is not in accordance with Canon law. In fact, a US diocese recently underwent a restructuring of its parish properties to divest ownership out of the diocesan control into parish ownership, claiming that this was the proper design under Canon law.
If a parish was properly organized so that it’s assets were owned separately from the diocese, the bishop could not at will merge 2 parish’s assets, nor simply sell a parish’s assets and keep the proceeds. (A bishop could close at will a parish as a separate religious entity of the diocese, and refuse to send it a pastor or priest, and even refuse to grant permission for masses to be said there. But since he could not then sell the assets or use them for other purposes, his benefits from closing down masses would be much more limited.)
So, take note: if you want your money and efforts toward TLM to persist in support of the TLM, your best bet is to attempt to put them under the control of a non-profit corporation that is separate from the diocese. For example: buy altar furnishings that will be OWNED by the non-profit corp and merely lent to the (for the moment) TLM parish. If / when the bishop wants to take away the TLM status of the parish, the non-profit corp simply removes the furnishings. (Include in the rental agreement a permanent clause of access to the church to preserve / remove the asset.)
Everything old is new again
The “Irish and German” bishops banned use of Polish and Polish priests among Polish parishes in early 20th c
They went as far as banning Christmas carols in Polish
So they started the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton PA
Including…the parish buildings were owned by the parish, not the diocese
Change Polish then for Latin now
There’s a lesson there to consider
Do they wish to stoke the fires of Schism?
Those families may walk.
For the Modernists it’s a win/win
Either they submit, or they leave. The Modernists have no interests in”accompanying” these Catholics who are marginalized.
Not their type of people, as the old saying goes
@moon1234
I’m on the board of one such organization and I advise all of my TLM friends (especially at diocesan locations) to look into forming similar ones where they are located.