Dwindling Catholic church attendence (Baltimore, Parkville: neighborhood, high school, closing)

[mikey jam]

Many of the beautiful Catholic Churches in Baltimore City are large and the membership has sharply declined. Many have literally just a handful of people attending weekend liturgies. I think is sad to see great edifices that many laboring immigrant built and financed to go by the wayside. White flight to the suburbs and followed by middle class African-Americans moving to the suburbs is the main reason for this decline. I guess what I'm getting at is, does anyone think that some of the Catholic Churches will close in Baltimore? I cant really seeing all to stay open, the cost and maintenence is very high. Seems like all new projects are at the surburban parishes.

[jonjj]

Both St Michaels and St Patrick along with a number of other Catholic churches in southeast Baltimore are gaining attendance due to our Latin immigrants.

[jonjj]

St Casimir's in Canton is back to high enrollment and is self-sufficient. For awhile back in the late 80s-90s; they had actually thought about closing their school.

Home (http://www.stcasimirschool.us/Pages/home.aspx - broken link)

[mikey jam]

I know St Casimirs is probably the best attended in the city southeast. St Elizabeth, St Brigid, Sacred Heart of Jesus attendence way down. Sadly, Holy Rosary church which is enormous and very ornate the Masses have just a few people.[except for the Polish Mass] This is a far cry from when it was packed with parishioners, I think they need to take a serious look at what St Casimirs is doing. Hispanics and "Yuppies" make up must of the area. Its great St Michael& St Patrick and also Our Lady of Pompei mininsters to the hispanic community. Some of the other churches unforntunately do not want to change, but keeping the status quo will only hurt. I believe St Casimirs use of music, eucharistic ministers and altar servers (both male & female) is in positive direction. But I think some churches like St Wenceslaus and the Shrine of the Little Flower will one close.

[jonjj]

Actually St Elizabeth's of Hungary is also seeing an increase due to the Latino immigrants. They sold their school which is not the Patterson Park Community Charter School. We have our meetings in their church hall. The Shrine of the Little Flower has been having some work done on the outside lately.

[ltong1009]

In Upper Fells you can walk to about 6 or more Catholic Churchs. It seems very unsustainable given the population.

[barante]

Many of those parishes were so-called national parishes, meaning that they catered to a specific nationality. When the enclave broke up, the churches lost their worshippers.
You may have seen a Russian Orthodox-looking, onion-domed church on Eastern Avenue. That is St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church, which falls within the Pope's bailiwick. The Ukrainian Catholic Church's affiliation with the Vatican gives it a certain degree of autonomy. For example, priests can marry (as in Russian and Greek Orthodox churches).

[carolott]

St. Jerome's in my neighborhood seems to go up and down...I hope they don't close.

[mikey jam]

Originally Posted by ltong1009

In Upper Fells you can walk to about 6 or more Catholic Churchs. It seems very unsustainable given the population.

Upper Fells Point, Lower Fells Point, Canton, Highlandtown was the immigrant Catholic hub of Baltimore from 1880's to about 1980's. You could walk form Broadway to Linwood ave and 90% were Polish-Americans. On any given Sunday Holy Rosary Church had about six Masses and they all were packed to capacity. The church seats about 1600. Seems like, and I have others have the same opinion, that after the Second Vatican Council and the Novus Ordo Mass introduced, attendence began to dwindle. Now that much of the area has seen its European immigrant sons and daughters move out ,many churches began to decline. While at the same time churches in the suburbs grew and also rapidly adopted to new changes, some even very radical. A lot of Hispanics in upper Fells Point, but dont have much wealth and churches big and expensive to maintain. Hopefully more younger professional people might come back, but the churches would have to look at what Fr Ross had done to St Casimirs as an example.

[psu1983]

I think the phenomenon isn't only a Baltimore thing. In my hometown in Pennsylvania, Catholic churches consolidated in the mid 90's. Similarly, they were immigrant churches (the Polish church, the Italian church, the Slovak church, etc.). As many as 4 combined into 1. Of course, people were up in arms about it, and many gave up attending all together. The up-keep can be expensive if enough money isn't being generated (in addition to the lack of priests today to serve in parishes).

My 2nd point is, you rarely see younger people in church today. After high school when parents can no longer force their children to go, a lot of them give up on their faith. I attend a Catholic church in Parkville, and very often I'm one of 3 or 4 people in their 20's in attendance. Many will probably never return, and others will start attending after they start a family.

As previously stated, the Latino immigrants are typically much more into Catholic church involvement than the younger generation that was born here or migrated here. I read about many churches now conducting a mass or two in Spanish each week. This could possibly save many churches that were on the brink of closing.