My jaw dropped.
Yes. We here in upstate New York are having demographic shifts and a worsening priest shortage. Yes, every diocese up has here made the difficult decision to close and merge parishes as needed, based on those demographic shifts. (I belong to one such community, which has three parishes that share two church buildings linked under a single pastor.)
Buffalo is going through a period of closing and merging parishes according to shifts in the Catholic population. Historic ethnic parishes are closing. As a Catholic and lover of history, it makes me very sad.
But ethnic cleansing, it ain’t.
I wonder if this same politician had similar things to say when many branches of the Buffalo-Erie County Public Library, mostly in neighborhoods where people don’t own cars, closed a few years ago. Or was that different, because it was a difficult decision made in the face of a county fiscal crisis, instead of a difficult decision made in the face of a population, financial, and personnel crisis?
(H/T to CVSTOS FIDEI for the Catholic League link.)
