Re: “Parish Consolidation Is a Failure for Seattle Archdiocese Management” [Nov. 9, Opinion]:
Nicholas O’Connell blames the decline in church attendance on the Catholic clergy, even singling out Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne.
O’Connell and the group of which he’s a member, Heal Our Church, supply the standard fast fixes: the ordination of girls and married males, intensive lay administration, and a softening of Church doctrine on controversial ethical points. He fails to say that these corrections have been tried within the mainline Protestant church buildings, whose membership has solely fallen quicker. Whether or not we like them or not, such tweaks don’t fill pews.
O’Connell should be conscious that these developments have an effect on each main non secular group within the West. Faith (and civil society as an entire) faces a problem of mass detachment, and the church is simply rising from the ugliness of the abuse scandal – however the basic angle in my “parish household” is humble and hopeful. Archbishop Etienne has been supportive.
The approaching years could also be robust, however now could be the time for Catholics to face by their church and never cry for a brand new one.
Jonathan Bayley, Bainbridge Island