30 minute read
The Evolution of the Catholic Parish
The Evolution of the Catholic Parish
Tricia C. Bruce
PIn her book Parish and Place: Making Room for Diversity in the American Catholic Church, sociologist Tricia Bruce chronicles the changing nature of Catholic parishes in the United States, from communities defined by geography to communities bound by shared preferences, expressions, and practices. Below are selections from the book that look at the history of American Catholic parishes. parishes subsist at the intersection of authority, territory, and community. Authority—namely, a local bishop—prescribes when and for whom parishes are created and when or why they merge or close. Territory—or the boundaries in physical space that define a territorial “parish”—stipulates belonging, unless a special population is identified otherwise. And community—both ascribed and achieved—transforms a parish from abstraction into a viable and lived, shared experience of religious and social meaning. A parish is not just a building.
“Parishes” identified Christian communities as long ago as the second century. The Greek source of the term— paroikia—translated to “those living near or besides.” A “paroikos” was a neighbor. Perhaps paradoxically, the word was also used to describe those living as foreigners in a land, with no right to citizenship. As such, the original connotation was as much theological as it was organizational: early Christians saw themselves as outsiders to the world, but insiders together.
In time, paired with the Latin translation “paroecia” and (for awhile) used interchangeably with the Roman administrative term “diocesis,” parish took on an increasingly territorial meaning. A parish identified the jurisdiction of a local bishop. Terminology grew more uniform in the sixth century, as “parish” came to refer to a local congregation served by a priest, grouped together within the larger territory of a bishop; the latter labeled a diocese.
Parish boundaries were not strictly determined prior to the Council of Trent in 1545. Pastors served all who came to them, domicile notwithstanding. The Council of Trent levied a partial indictment of this territorial agnosticism, replacing it with a strict conformity to boundaries and their delineation. A pastor needed to know whom (and whom not) to serve. The desire for pastoral jurisdiction trumped the original connotation of a parish as a unified community. Parish came to mean isolated, individual geographies of people, with fixed boundaries, under the rule of a local bishop.
The first official compendium of rules and regulations governing the Catholic Church did not come until much later, with the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Although this first official “rulebook” of the global Roman Catholic Church did not explicitly define “parish,” it did identify a parish’s legal components. These included “(1) a territorial section of the diocese; (2) with a portion of the Catholic population assigned to it; and (3) having a proper pastor who looked after the care of souls.” Notably, the focus of the parish was on the pastor, not the people. Parishes were the ideal administrative, pastoral, organizational structure to be followed universally.
But territory was not the only constitutive characteristic of parishes, even in the 1917 code. A second, non-territorial form of parish constitution also existed—one that resonated more so with earlier etymologies, unifying outsiders marginalized within an otherwise homogenous community.
This alternative form is the personal parish, existing apart from—or in combination with—territory. Personal parishes define membership by the people who belong to them. Given the emphasis on persons rather than (primarily) on territory, they carry the moniker of person-al parishes. A “personal pastor,” ergo, “is one who is appointed for a certain number of persons or for some family.” The national parish was a subcategory of personal parishes, designed to serve Catholics whose language or customs set them apart from other Catholics.
In the Catholic Church, territorial parish boundaries exist as a way to manage things, administratively. Like public school boundaries or political districts, they specify which Catholics go to which parish church, and which parish church (and pastor) is responsible for which Catholics. “For the faithful, territoriality means that the Church is not a membership organization in which you pick and choose your place or degree of affiliation,” writes Francis Cardinal George.
Boundaries safeguard the care of all local Catholics. Parish boundaries (theoretically) guarantee that the needs of all Catholics therein—regardless of background or circumstance—get addressed. By default, an American Catholic’s home parish is the parish within which he or she physically resides. Parish registration (or “joining” a parish, for that matter) is technically unnecessary. The very idea is a largely modern, North American phenomenon; registration does not exist in canon law. Territorial ascription eliminates the need for it.
Not unlike the once-dominant model of a one-room schoolhouse, parishes acted as the single, one-stop shop for Catholic organizational life. Accordingly, the quintessential neighborhood parish helped build community around shared, localized experience. The parish was an extension of the home, the family, the community, and the weekly routine. Parishes were immovable; American Catholics generally stayed put, too.
Suburbanization began to change all this. Parishes stayed immobile, but people were moving. The default neighborhood parish gave way to a broader, open marketplace of parishes, not accessible by car. Adding to this, the Second Vatican Council advanced the idea of a parish home built upon community and local culture. This begins to change how Catholics identified their parish home, using a rationale less wedded to place. Parish diversification (after Vatican II) destabilized territorial parish belonging. American Catholics started choosing.
A 2012 study found that nearly a third of Catholics live closer to another parish than the one they attend. The tendency to choose is even stronger among younger Catholics, minority Catholics, and Catholics living in populated urban centers with a higher parish density.
Just under half of U.S. dioceses have established personal parishes in the last thirty years, for a total of 192 new personal parishes since 1983. Combined with older “national” parishes that remain open, there are some 1,317 personal parishes in America today. This constitutes a small but meaningful fraction—8 percent—among all Catholic parishes. Nearly every diocese (96 percent) has at least one personal parish. Even as the total number of parishes is decreasing, the proportion of dioceses with personal parishes grows each year.
Many of today’s personal parishes serve ethnic Catholics, now overwhelmingly non-European. But unlike national parishes formed to serve earlier Catholic immigrants (today subsumed under the “personal parish” label), new personal parishes also serve myriad other purposes: among them, devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass, to social justice, charismatic Catholicism, Anglican use, tourism, and more. In catering to niche populations, personal parishes illuminate an institutional response to diversification. They depict a strategy deployed by leaders of the largest American religious group: an answer to demographic change and heterogeneous lay preference along fundamental lines of difference.
American Catholics are changing, and American parishes are changing...always intertwined within broader structures of authority. Personal parishes enable the U.S. Catholic Church to reconcile voluntary association with authoritative leadership...and Americans’ penchant for preference with formally constituted, institutionally sanctioned church homes.
This broods the chief irony of parish boundaries in the modern American Church: American Catholics are less and less likely to abide by them. Catholics “go where they go to receive what they want to and need to,” shared one personal parish pastor. Fueled by an American ethos of individualism, Catholics frequently decide for themselves which church community constitutes home. ■
Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D., is a sociologist of religion and author of Parish and Place: Making Room for Diversity in the American Catholic Church (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful Is Changing the Church (Oxford University Press, 2011/2014). She is co-editor of Polarization in the US Catholic Church (Liturgical Press, 2016) and American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism (Fordham University Press, 2019).
© Oxford University Press 2017. Reproduced with permission of Oxford University Press through PLSClear.
The Social Mission of the Parish
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Pparishes are communities of faith, of action, and of hope. They are where the Gospel is proclaimed and celebrated, where believers are formed and sent to renew the earth. Parishes are the place where God’s people meet Jesus in word and sacrament and come in touch with the source of the Church’s life.
One of the most encouraging signs of the Gospel at work in our midst is the vitality and quality of social justice ministries in our parishes. Across the country, countless local communities of faith are serving those in need, working for justice, and sharing our social teaching as never before. More and more, the social justice dimensions of our faith are moving from the fringes of parishes to become an integral part of local Catholic life.
We see the parish dimensions of social ministry not as an added burden but as a part of what keeps a parish alive and makes it truly Catholic. Effective social ministry helps the parish not only do more but be more: more of a reflection of the Gospel, more of a worshiping and evangelizing people, more of a faithful community. It is While a parish is many things to many people—a place of worship, religious education, and prayer— its mission extends far beyond the church building and the people who enter its doors. Below are sections from the USCCB’s Communities of Salt and Light: Reflections on the Social Mission of the Parish, which is intended as “a basic resource for pastors, parish leaders, and all Catholics seeking to strengthen the social ministry of their local community.”
an essential part of parish life.
This is not a new message, but it takes on new urgency in light of the increasing clarity and strength of Catholic social teaching and the signs of declining respect for human life and human dignity in society. We preach a gospel of justice and peace in a rapidly changing world and troubled nation.
At a time of rampant individualism, we stand for family and community. At a time of intense consumerism, we insist it is not what we have, but how we treat one another that counts. In an age that does not value permanence or hard work in relationships, we believe marriage is forever and children are a blessing, not a burden. At a time of growing isolation, we remind our nation of its responsibility to the broader world, to pursue peace, to welcome immigrants, to protect the lives of hurting children and refugees. At a time when the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, we insist the moral test of our society is how we treat and care for the weakest among us.
In these challenging days, we believe that the Catholic community needs to be more than ever a source of clear moral vision and effective action. We are called to be the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world,” in the words of the Scriptures. This task belongs to every believer and every parish. It cannot be assigned to a few or simply delegated to diocesan or national structures.
Our parishes are enormously diverse—in where and whom they serve, in structures and resources, in their members and leaders. This diversity is reflected in how parishes shape their social ministry. The depth and
Hundreds of BC Appalachia Volunteers gather for a sendoff Mass before going to more than 30 U.S. cities and towns during spring break, where they live in solidarity with poor and marginalized families.
range of activity are most impressive. Across our country, parishioners offer their time, their money, and their leadership to a wide variety of efforts to meet needs and change structures. Parishes are deeply involved in serving the hungry and homeless, welcoming the stranger and immigrant, reaching out to troubled families, advocating for just public policies, organizing for safer and better communities, and working creatively for a more peaceful world. Our communities and ministries have been greatly enriched and nourished by the faith and wisdom of parishioners who experience injustice and all those who work for greater justice.
But in some parishes the social justice dimensions of parish life are still neglected, underdeveloped, or touch only a few parishioners. For too many parishioners, our social teaching is an unknown tradition. In too many parishes, social ministry is a task for a few, not a challenge for the entire parish community. We believe we are just beginning to realize our potential as a community of faith committed to serve those in need and to work for greater justice.
The parishes that are leaders in this area see social ministry not as a specialized ministry but as an integral part of the entire parish. They weave the Catholic social mission into every aspect of parish life—worship, formation, and action. They follow a strategy of integration and collaboration, which keeps social ministry from becoming isolated or neglected.
The most important setting for the Church’s social teaching is not in a food pantry or in a legislative committee room but in prayer and worship, especially gathered around the altar for the Eucharist. It is in the liturgy that we find the fundamental direction, motivation, and strength for social ministry. Social ministry not genuinely rooted in prayer can easily burn itself out. On the other hand, worship that does not reflect the Lord’s call to conversion, service, and justice can become pious ritual and empty of the Gospel.
Our social doctrine must also be an essential part of the curriculum and life of our schools, religious education programs, sacramental preparation, and Christian initiation activities. Every parish should regularly assess how well our social teaching is shared in its formation and educational ministries.
Our parishes need to encourage, support, and sustain lay people in living their faith in the family, neighborhood, marketplace, and public arena. It is lay women and men, placing their gifts at the service of others, who will be God’s primary instruments in renewing the earth by their leadership and faithfulness in the community. The most challenging work for justice is not done in church committees but in the secular world of work, family life, and citizenship.
The social mission of the parish begins in the Gospel’s call to conversion; to change our hearts and our lives; to follow in the path of charity, justice, and peace. The parish is the place we should regularly hear the call to conversion and find help in answering the Lord’s call to express our faith in concrete acts of charity and justice. ■
To read the whole document, visit bc.edu/c21parishes
Today’s Parish Life: Current Trends & Future Effects
Charles E. Zech, Mary L. Gautier, Mark M. Gray, Jonathan L. Wiggins, and Thomas P. Gaunt, S.J.
Mmuch has changed in the past 30 years, both in U.S. society and with respect to the U.S. Catholic Church. In many ways, parish life is different than it was 30 years ago. Catholic parishes have been shaped by five trends that are ongoing and will continue to reshape parish life in the decades ahead. In 2017, the authors of Catholic Parishes of the 21st Century put forward one of the most comprehensive studies on the state of U.S. Catholic parish life since the 1980 Notre Dame Study of Parish Life. The selections below provide a snapshot of major trends they discovered and the impact on parish communities.
Trend 1: Declining Vocations to Ordained and Non-ordained Religious Life Although the United States is priest-rich relative to the rest of the world, the number of priests has been declining and the number of Catholics per priest has been increasing. This pattern began in the late 1960s. As disappointing as these figures are, they mask another trend: the aging of active clergy and vowed religious. Not only are there fewer of them, but they are much older. This trend has been partially mitigated by the growth in the use of foreign-born priests. There has also been a slight uptick in the number of seminarians. The only clergy group that is growing is the permanent diaconate, which was reestablished after Vatican II.
Trend 2: Catholic Migration from the Inner City to the Suburbs and From the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West The early waves of Catholic immigrants tended to settle in the urban Northwest or rural Midwest, where they built their parishes and their schools. But following World War II, as their socioeconomic status improved, they began to migrate to suburban communities. More recently, as employment prospects grew in the South and West, Catholics migrated to those parts of the country, leaving behind the inner city and rural churches and schools that had been built to serve them.
Trend 3: Growth in the U.S. Catholic Population Fueled by Immigration The U.S. Catholic population has continued to grow in numbers, keeping pace with overall population growth in the United States and holding steady at about a quarter of the U.S. population. A significant component of this growth is the result of immigration, especially of Spanish-speaking Catholics but also of Catholics from areas of the world other than Europe. In fact, one in four U.S. Catholics was born outside the United States. As many as one in four U.S. Catholic parishes celebrates their weekend liturgies in more than one language.
Trend 4: The Continuing Impact of Vatican II In the past 30 years, lay involvement as an important component of parish life has grown exponentially, culminating in the 2005 USCCB document Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, which officially recognized the importance of well-formed laity serving in parish ministry roles.
Trend 5: Declining Participation in Sacraments Today, weekend Mass attendance rates are only about 60 percent of the 1985 rate. Participation in other sacraments has also been in decline. Since 1985, the U.S. Catholic population that is connected to a parish has grown by 30 percent, but Catholic marriages are down by 57 percent and infant baptisms have decreased by 27 percent, according to The Official Catholic Directory. Within every ethnic group studied, weekend Mass attendance is lower for members of the millennial generation than it is for both the Vatican II and post-Vatican II generations.
What has been the impact of these trends on parish life over the past 30 years?
Impact 1: The Need to Reconfigure Parish Organizational Structures There exists a serious mismatch between the location of Catholic facilities and the Catholic population. As a generalization, the facilities tend to be located in urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest while the population is increasingly located elsewhere. Meanwhile, dioceses in the South and West are struggling to build new churches as they try to cope with the explosive Catholic population growth.
Many dioceses, faced with both a shortage of priests and a mismatch between the location of their parish facilities, have found the need to reconfigure their parish organizational structures. This frequently requires the closing or merging of parishes or adopting some of the innovative parish organizational structures permitted by canon law. The result is larger and more complex parishes and often disaffected parishioners.
Impact 2: Increase in Multicultural Parishes More than a third of U.S. parishes today serve a particular racial, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic community, with many serving more than one. The data show that in many cases, parishioners of different cultural backgrounds, rather than forming a single parish community, coexist in “shared parishes.” Parishes are challenged by this reality to make a greater effort to become more welcoming in a way that enables community building among all cultures.
Impact 3: Greater Role for Laity The decline in vocations to both the ordained and vowed religious life has opened the door for the laity to carry out
the promises of Vatican II. Few parishes could operate today without the professional laity filling roles such as director of religious education, youth minister, music minister, pastoral associate, business manager, and myriad other ministry roles that were once held by clergy, vowed religious, or volunteers. There are nearly 40,000 lay ecclesial ministers in parish ministry in the United States today, an increase of more than 80 percent since 1990.
Impact 4: Effect on Parish and Diocesan Finances A combination of factors has coalesced to place increasing stress on parish and diocesan finances. One is the mismatch between the location of Catholic populations and the location of parish facilities. Many dioceses, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, are saddled with antiquated facilities, frequently in the inner city, that necessitate large maintenance expenses while serving few Catholics. At the same time, these and other dioceses are charged with providing new facilities to serve parishioners who have migrated to the suburbs and to the South and West. The rapid growth in the number of lay ecclesial ministers, while applauded on a number of levels, has resulted in a similar growth in personnel costs for parishes.
An Emerging Trend Parish leaders are only now beginning to understand the role that technology plays in their parishioners’ lives and how to adapt to it. By now, most parishes have recognized the importance of having a website, although most have not tapped into its full potential. Parishes will need to utilize the current generation of social media and keep up with rapid advances in the way technology enables their parishioners to communicate.
Final Word The very nature of parish life, which today is dominated by parishes that tend to be organizationally complex and multicultural, is dramatically different than it was in the mid-1908s. The nature of parish leadership has changed. Parishioners’ attachment to their parishes, including attendance at weekend Mass, has changed.
But many things have not changed, including the centrality of the Eucharist to parish life, the efforts of dedicated clergy and lay people to serve God while serving their parishioners, and the attitude of parishioners who recognize that the Church, as a human organization, will make mistakes, but who remain faithful and committed nonetheless. ■
© Oxford University Press 2017. Reproduced with permission of Oxford University Press through PLSClear.
U.S. Hispanic Catholics by the Numbers
In March of 2020, the Associated Press reported that while “Hispanics now account for 40% of all U.S. Catholics and a solid majority of school-age Catholics...Hispanic Americans are strikingly underrepresented in Catholic schools and in the priesthood.”
In the National Study of Catholic Parishes with Hispanic Ministry, Boston College’s Hosffman Ospino examines the data about the changing face of parishes:
“Have Catholics in the United States come to terms with the growth of the Hispanic presence? Has the Church adjusted its structures and pastoral commitments to appropriately serve and evangelize [these] millions? These are vital questions. We cannot afford to ignore them.”
Hispanics account for of the growth of the Catholic population in the United States since 1960. 71%
50.5 MILLION HISPANIC AMERICANS
16 Million US-Born Hispanic & Catholic
13.7 Million Foreign-Born Hispanic & Catholic 20.7 Million Self-Identified Hispanic & Catholic
2 IN 5 U.S. CATHOLICS ARE HISPANIC
To read the full report, visit bc.edu/c21parishes
John Bauer
TThe parish is the structure of local Catholic worship and practice, but it has not always been so and might not always be. A variety of factors are already shaping parish closures, mergers, and expansion. In the reflection below, one pastor looks at what parishes need to be in order to thrive now and in the future. this year, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of our parish, I have been reflecting on how parishes have changed over the years and what they will be like in the future. And while I don’t have a crystal ball, I think that if parishes are to grow and thrive there are certain things they will need to do and be as we move forward. I would like to suggest six things that I believe parishes in general—and the Basilica in particular—will need to do and be as we move into the next 150 years. 1. Parishes need to be places of welcome and acceptance. More and more often I see groups defining themselves by what they stand in opposition to, rather than what they support and value. Parishes cannot be places of division, exclusion, or separation. I believe that if a parish is to flourish and grow, the embrace of that parish can be no less than the embrace of our God’s love. We have a Big God, and we need a Big Church. Together, all of us compose the Body of Christ. Parishes that fail to be places of welcome and acceptance will be parishes that won’t grow and flourish. 2. Parishes need to be places of caring and companionship. By this I mean that parishes must be places that give voice to and are the physical expression of God’s love to those in need. We are companions and fellow travelers on the journey of faith. Parishes must give clear witness to and be concrete examples of our common discipleship in Christ Jesus by our care and concern for everyone. 3. Parishes must be places of challenge and disappointment. Parishes must continually challenge people by always raising the question, “What more is God asking of us?” In this regard, I think people—and parishes—function best when they are at the edge of, as opposed to the middle of, their comfort zone. Parishes must constantly challenge people not to grow too comfortable. In striving to do this, though, there is bound to be disappointment. Parishes cannot meet everyone’s expectations. I believe that is a good thing. If parishioners are never disappointed in their parish, they are asking too little of their parish. 4. Parishes need to be places where people’s faith is informed and where their spirits are nurtured. Most obviously this occurs through programs of education and enrichment for all ages. It also occurs, though, through the witness of people’s lives and through the sharing of their faith. What helps parishes to do this, it seems to me, is to never lose sight of the fact that everything parishes do must be done in the name of and in response to the Lord Jesus Christ. 5. Parishes must always be places of worship and prayer. People in parishes may not always agree with each other, they may face difficulties and conflicts, but something is wrong when people cannot set aside their differences and worship and pray together. When we worship and pray together, we acknowledge that we are not sufficient unto ourselves and that we need God. It is only in prayer, expressed and experienced in our worship, that a parish can discern God’s abiding presence and know the guidance of God’s spirit. Without prayer, our best efforts must surely fall short and our best hopes are not enough. 6. Finally, parishes must always keep their eyes trained on the future. Parishes need to continually remind people that our ultimate destination is the Kingdom of God. Parishes that get too caught up in the here and now—important as that might be—run the risk of losing sight of their ultimate goal. Parishes do much good and important work, but if they are not also challenging people to prepare for eternity, they are bound to fail. We are journeyers in this world, our ultimate home is heaven. Parishes must always keep this idea in the forefront of people’s minds. ■ Father John Bauer is the pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A longer version of this piece was published in the fall 2018 issue of Basilica, the magazine of the Basilica of St. Mary’s.
God’s
Bench
Michael R. Simone, S.J.
Ssince 2004, i have worshipped and worked in an historic neighborhood of Boston called the “North End,” a residential district north and east of downtown. The area has been home to diverse peoples: Puritan settlers who arrived in 1630; free people of African descent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Irish immigrants who worked on the waterfront during the nineteenth century, and Italian and Jewish immigrants who came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While the Jewish community remained modest in size, Italians came in such numbers that by 1920 they made up the vast majority of residents.
Although the population today is only a quarter what it once was, the North End still bustles with activity. More than 100 Italian restaurants draw thousands of diners every week. Tourists visiting sites on Boston’s Freedom Trail fill the sidewalks. Good housing stock and proximity to corporate headquarters downtown have drawn many young professionals to the neighborhood’s apartments and condos. The result is relentless bustle.
Unlike Italian enclaves in many other cities, which have lost their ethnic population and become, in essence, Italian restaurant districts, the North End still retains a number of Italian-American families. In the warmer months, one can find older residents sitting on front stoups, park benches, and sidewalk chairs. North Enders transact a surprising amount of business this way. Neighbors share news and gossip. Older people offer their thoughts—solicited or not—to passersby, and everyone provides tourists with directions to their favorite pizzeria. People take note of elderly or infirm neighbors, and look in on the ones who haven’t made an appearance in a while. The network of these benches and chairs provides the vital current that keeps the North End a living neighborhood.
At the center of the neighborhood is the Roman Catholic parish of Saint Leonard of Port Maurice. Franciscan Friars founded the parish in 1873 and dedicated it to Father Michael Simone, S.J., reflects on how throughout its long history, one Boston parish has adapted the way it serves a changing demographic. The flexible and dynamic practices they employ might be useful to other parishes facing population changes.
Leonardo Casanova, a fellow friar canonized in 1867. Casanova had spent his ministry preaching retreats throughout Italy, and was an apt patron for the neighborhood’s burgeoning Italian community. The parish grew quickly, and by 1899 required the sizable building it uses today.
The structure is unapologetically Italianate. Romanesque arches support a central dome and rounded apse. Statues of saints line the outer aisles, and painted images of saints and angels leave little unused space on the walls. The first time I walked in, I had to pause and take a breath. Even the madding street outside did not adequately prepare me for the visual overload of the church’s interior.
In the mid-twentieth century, the North End was home to four Catholic parishes: St. Leonard’s, St. Stephen’s, St. Mary’s, and Sacred Heart. The steady decline in population forced difficult decisions. St. Mary’s closed and was demolished. St. Stephen’s and Sacred Heart ceased operating as parishes but remain open as chapels. Saint Leonard’s was larger than the other parishes, but because of declining numbers of parishioners, it required a subsidy from the archdiocese to remain open. The scandals and financial shocks of the first years of the 21st century forced a reimagination of the Catholic presence in the North End.
I recently spoke with Fr. Antonio Nardoianni, OFM, the Franciscan friar who served as pastor of St. Leonard’s from 2004–2019. Born and raised in Italy, Fr. Antonio came to the U.S. as a young priest, serving at Franciscan parishes in Boston and Toronto. According to him, the biggest change to St. Leonard’s during those fifteen years was a demographic transition. From the 1970s to the 1990s, St. Leonard was an aging parish with declining enrollment. Around 2000, however, the parish saw an upsurge in younger parishioners, especially young professionals who had moved into the neighborhood. This influx has led to a modest increase in the parish census for the first time in decades. Fr. Antonio recognizes this as a
“St. Leonard’s Church, North End, Boston” (CC BY 2.0) by Boston City Archives
blessing, even as it brings new challenges. The neighborhood’s younger people tend to be transient, spending at most five years in the North End before moving elsewhere.
The transience of younger parishioners causes some tension. After years of worship, long-term parishioners find lots of meaning in the formal liturgies, familiar lectors and servers, traditional devotions, and summer festivals. They resist changing them for transient newcomers. Compromise yields benefits to the wider church, however. Many young people drift away from their faith; finding a place that welcomes, even if only for a few years, improves the chances that they will continue to practice their faith after they move on.
Yet these same elder parishioners are also behind two recent successes. First, their commitment has helped the parish stabilize its finances and attendance. Antonio points especially to the parishioners who joined Saint Leonard’s after Sacred Heart closed. Even as they mourned the loss of their spiritual home, they doubled down on helping their new parish survive. In general, parishioners have been more than generous with their time and financial resources (Antonio suspects that some may have even given more than their means allow).
This commitment supported the second success, when on December 17, 2017, the church was rededicated after more than a year of rebuilding and restoration. The interior, refurbished in the 1960s after the changes of Vatican II, was by the early 2000s in need of serious cleaning and renovation. More troubling was an engineering assessment that revealed problems that threatened the structural integrity of the church building. The support of current and former parishioners as well as visitors and friends— coupled with an astonishing million-dollar matching gift—resulted in a $2 million budget to seal the leaking roof and foundation, restore the artwork, purchase a new organ, and bring the building up to code.
Tourists walking the Freedom Trail will pass by St. Leonard’s between Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church. Many find the restored, brightly lit interior a destination in itself. The church building is open from early morning until about 10:00 pm, and at any time one can find people inside praying or viewing the artwork. In addition, the parish staff makes an effort to be available; on most days, staff members help run a small store offering books and religious art. Ministry and care to visitors became an increasingly important part of Fr. Antonio’s job during his fifteen years as pastor. During his tenure, he received many letters from one-time visitors who were grateful and surprised to find a place to pray and a listening ear in the heart of a major city. One-time gifts from grateful visitors funded a significant part of the restoration project and continue to help support the parish today.
Just as North End residents keep the neighborhood alive from their chairs on sidewalks and front porches, so does God from St. Leonard’s. The parish is God’s bench. Divine grace reinforces bonds of friendship and family, and provides unexpected wisdom and comfort to visitors. Such service is guiding the parish as it imagines its future ministry. Even while honoring its heritage as a close-knit, immigrant faith community, St. Leonard’s has become a place where young people can put down their first roots and strangers can be surprised by grace. In this, I think the parish’s future looks very much like the North End’s past—a place where waves of people coming and going have not changed the reality of a loving God abiding in their midst. ■
Michael Simone, S.J., is an Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry and has also served as a priest at the parishes of Saint Leonard and Saint Cecilia in Boston, and as a chaplain for the Veterans’ Administration Maryland Health Care System.
