Building Frustration

When I came to Sharpsburg four years ago I used to go to the McDonalds on Route 8 in Shaler, at the corner of Pennview Street, only two miles from my rectory.  One day I drove up there to get a quick lunch—and the building was gone!  Stomped as if a giant had stepped on it.  Within six weeks another new McDonalds restaurant was erected, with a bigger indoor playground for kids, new asphalt parking lot, and two drive-thru kiosks.  I marveled that within two months the corporation had torn down its former building (probably not 15 years old) and built a new one.

Now think about the church.  We would never do this.  When a parish is erected, it will seek a temporary location to hold Sunday Mass.  I’ve heard stories of parishes having Masses in gyms, schools, bars, the back of station wagons, even Protestant churches—until the parish can gather the necessary funds to build a suitable and worthy church.  The intention is that the new church building is built for decades, maybe even a century or two.  We are nothing like McDonalds!

At the same time a new church building is built, the parish has to pay for its ongoing, ordinary expenses.  These include utilities and insurance on its buildings, a place for the priest to live, his salary and benefits, and the salary and benefits of any paid staff.  There are also costs for the liturgy, an office, and perhaps the location of religious education for children and adults as well as any hall for social and fundraising purposes.  A bishop’s presumption is that a parish has enough people to pay all its bills, current and mortgage, and put aside a small amount for a rainy day. 

When the church is full of people, standing room only at Masses, and there are five times more baptisms than funerals, this presumption of fiscal balance—paying all bills—is easily accomplished.  But what happens when people move away, the mill or factory which provided jobs for parishioners closes or moves overseas, and the annual number of funerals is ten times the number of baptisms (as it is for Saint Juan Diego Parish)?  The parish has a hard time paying its bills.  You just can’t stomp (close and tear down) a church building like a McDonalds.  

This past weekend I was privileged to preside at two lovely weddings of active Catholics in St. Mary Church.  Many visitors who had never seen the building kept saying, “It’s beautiful!  It’s so big!”  For a while my smart-aleckness would get the better of me and so I’d crack, “Sell it to you for a dollar!”   But I learned I was just expressing my frustration that I was not able to take care of the building as I wished I could.  And I wasn't making any friends!  Now I just smile and agree that the church is beautiful, while hoping they don’t see the water leaks on the ceiling.

Saint Juan Diego Parish is privileged to have the buildings we do.  But I sure wish that decades ago some pastor, or some church committeemen, had asked, “What will happen to our buildings when the people die off, and few young people stay?  Maybe we should start an endowment for the future?”