Growth counters view
of Church in decline
This week’s cover story recounts the quiet success of dramatic growth for the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It counters recent perceptions of the health of the Church in the northeastern United States. Closures of schools and parishes, few vocations and shifts in Catholic populations away from established, urban communities have become all too familiar.
Certainly, these realities exist. But if we focus on present difficulties only through the lens of a golden past we will miss the moments of change, and new life, sprouting up. In the changing Church of our time, there abound silver linings of hope amid clouds.
Today, Hispanic Catholics are driving remarkable growth of the Church in southern Chester County and beyond. Catholics of any age or background will notice the measures of health: families attend Mass regularly; numerous children are being baptized; cultural celebrations take place within the Church community; clergy, religious and pastoral agents offer generous services, and children learn the Catholic faith thanks to dedicated catechists.
Perhaps the traditional yardstick for the health of a parish community — in this case, Misión Santa María, Madre de Dios — is the number of registered families. The Misión’s 2,600 families are significant, yet they may represent only a fraction of the actual number participating. Experience shows many migrant people do not formally register with a parish.
The growth of the Spanish-speaking community reflects the overall growth of the Catholic population in Chester County, as well as Bucks and Montgomery counties. Frequently, the CS&T reports news of growth in the Archdiocese in the form of new parish buildings, school additions, playgrounds and church renovations financed by the generosity of hard-working Catholics in the parishes. Taken as a whole, these surely point to growth that balances the perception of decline.
Even when parishes do close, as in the case of Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Southwest Philadelphia, there is hope. That parish had served a small community of African-American Catholics. They in turn are “strengthening their brothers and sisters,” graduating from Church ministry and leadership programs to nurture the faithful of that vibrant community.
Those signs of unmistakable growth in the Archdiocese point toward a renewed love for our Lord Jesus Christ and an awareness that the Church He founded remains an agent of change in the world.
Using the metaphor of the wind to describe the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “You do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (Jn. 3:8). The times in which we live are uncertain, just as the movement of the wind. Jesus reassures us with the gift of the Spirit to the Church, and His promise to be with us always.