We as a Church just need to decisively identify it as a critical priority, then work and sacrifice for it, and leave the rest to divine providence

Saving Catholic Culture from Destruction

by Michael Tamara

What kind of mindset built all the immigrant Catholic parishes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Americas? Was it a way of thinking predicated on practical limitations; on being “realistic” in the mundane sense of the word? This can hardly be so.

Something deeply potent—and even slightly irrational to the modern mind—had to have been the driving force behind the postponement of personal comfort and social success long enough to establish a parish and build a worthy church. Yet, the formula was simple enough: a solid reliance of the faithful, united with their shepherds, on their own gifts in cooperation with the providence of the Almighty. They simply believed, and their belief formed the very center of their being.

Evidence of this mentality can be seen among the many fine churches of cities like Buffalo, New York. Most people outside of the immediate region have probably never heard of St. Ann’s Church and Shrineon the city’s East Side, built by the newly emigrated and first-generation German population in the 1880s. I, until quite recently, was one of them, but circumstances surrounding this massive neo-Gothic work of art have garnered significant attention over the past months.

Citing severe structural deterioration, the Diocese of Buffalo abruptly closed the church in 2012, and parishioners subsequently learned that it was in danger of being razed, because the unsafe conditions were deemed too costly to repair. As a last resort, a band of dedicated faithful made a formal appeal to the Holy See, and in January 2014, a very rare and unlikely thing happened—the Vatican’s Congregation of Clergy issued a ruling that St. Ann’s must not only be salvaged, but remain a functioning Catholic church.

This is no small development, and it may signal that even the Holy See is starting to question the wisdom behind the endless cycles of consolidations and closings that have befallen many United States dioceses in recent decades. One would think this extraordinary action would be enough to give the diocese pause, but Bishop Richard Malone has said he will appeal the ruling, determined that St. Ann’s will never again be used as a Catholic church.

In defense of His Excellency, an orthodox and forthright shepherd, this was an inherited problem.

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