RC DIOCESE CHURCH CLOSINGS
CONTRIBUTE TO URBAN BLIGHT

The Diocese of Albany is closing a number
of churches and schools in Albany, Cohoes
Watervliet, Troy and Schenectady this year.

The unintended result of these closings will
be increased neighborhood deterioration
and blight.

These closings are shortsighted because
population shifts back to these cities will
occur as the economy worsens and oil
becomes too expensive and scarce to
support commuting to the suburbs.

Ironically, the Diocese of Albany is a major
recipient of social services monies from the
state.

It is imperative for the Mayors and City
Councils to enter into discussions with
the Diocese of Albany and New York State
to come up with a plan to keep RC churches
and schools in the above named cities open.

Neighborhoods are made up of people, and
houses anchored by neighborhood churches
schools and shops.

Take away neighborhood schools, churches
and shops:neighborhood detrerioration, blight
poverty and crime result.

Arbor Hill and the South End in Albany are
two examples. Both were once thriving neigh-
borhoods with neighborhood schools, churches
and many small shops which provided services
goods and employment for neighborhood
residents.

Any urban renewal efforts that fail to include
neighborhood schools, churches and shops
are doomed to failure.

St Teresa's Church and School in Albany
must not be allowed to happen. If the Diocese
can't run them, parishioners must seek out
Religious Orders of priests and nuns, who can.

The same goes for similar parish churches and
schools in Troy, Schenectady, Cohoes and Watervliet.

Parishioners must stop behaving like the
proverbial sheep and resist these church and
school closings. Seek alternatives.

It may be time to recall priests from the
foreign missions to serve in our urban
parishes.

Reach out to Orders and seminaries in
the U.S. ,Canda and Europe in search of
priests and nuns to keep
our local urban parish churches and
schools open.

Do this in memory of your ancestors who
founded these churches and schools; and
do this with recognition that neighborhood
churches and schools are essential to
maintaining neighborhood identity and
quality of life.

Joe Sullivan

RC CHURCH RIP

The announced church closings
and mergers of largely urban Catholic
parishes in Albany, Troy, Cohoes and
Watervliet is a wrong move for
the future of the Church as well as for
the future of those cities.

The reasons given for these actions
include demographic changes, high
maintenance costs, a declining number
of priests and low attendance at Mass.

There are other reasons not mentioned.

The result of these closures/mergers will
only produce further decline in
the Church as well as in the neighborhoods
and cities.

Churches and neighborhood schools are
the anchors of neighborhoods.
Remove these anchors and neighborhoods/
neighborhood identities disappear.

In cities, like Albany, where a dysfunctional
school district/school board
treats children, parents and homeowner-
taxpayers as pawns, neighborhoods have
deteriorated.

The church closings/parish mergers will
only accentuate urban decline, accelerating
flight from the cities and accelerating
decline of the property tax base that supports
city governments and city public schools.

The shortage of priests can be addressed
by recalling priests from the foreign
missions. Reach out to particular Orders
to get the priests to man these parishes.

Low Mass attendance has many causes.
Growing secularism of society is a major
factor. However, the clergy must examine
their own behaviors as another major
factor.

The churches, clergy and nuns are very
different than the 1950's when the
Church was at it's peak. When Bishop
Fulton Sheen and others delivered
television homilies which connected
with the people. When Father Peyton
promoted praying the Rosary. When
nuns could be easily recognized, and
lived in communities, in convents.

In a word, the Church has lost
relevance in the lives of the people.

It is an irony that the Church is
contributing to urban decline and
further decline of Church membership
and attendance, when we are on the
verge of people returning to the cities.

The current respite in oil prices and
availability is temporary. High prices
will soon return and oil will become
scarce and not available at any price.

Those living in the surburbs and
countryside will return to the cities.

We should be stabilizing good urban
neighborhoods, revitalizing blighted
ones and rebuilding the aging urban
water and sewer infrastructures to
facilitate this reverse population flow.

These old churches may in need of
some repairs, but they are far more
solidly constructed than many newer
ones.

A case it point: St Teresa's church is
closing while the parish merges with
St. Catherine's. Compare the construction
of the two. Which is more sound and
likely to outlast the other?

Of course, St Catherine's has a parking
lot while St Teresa's does not. Even now
parked cars spill over to the adjoining
side streets. This problem will only
intensify after the merger. The irony
is that, in a few short years, the parking
lot will be empty because of oil shortages
and prices.

The church will be empty because the
parish population will be too far flung
and people will not be able, or willing
to walk any great distance to attend
Mass.

The low participation in school budget
votes illustrates that people in the
city neighborhoods will not venture
to one or two central polling places
in their ward to vote. Of course, the
school district/board know this and
deliberately open only a few polling
places to depress voter turnout
particularly by older homeowners
who vote at their neighborhood
polling places, and who are more
likely to vote against school budgets
because those elderly homeowners
are trying to survive of declining
incomes.

It troubles me to see the flock
cave in while their heritages and
neighborhoods are being trashed.

Closure of St Teresa's church and
school will result in that fine
neighborhood becoming the next
Park South.

Albany is on the verge of becoming
another Trenton, New Jersey.

If the flock won't rise up for this,
what will they do when their very
survival and the survival of America
are on the line?

RC Church RIP is a major step
toward America RIP.

Joe Sullivan