Urban Catholic Parish's

[HallX2]

Are in decline. Many causes but not a good thing for the communities. It’s states it’s temporary but the underlying reasons are common and seldom reversed.

Historic N.J. Catholic church closing indefinitely

The church, which was granted national landmark status in 1978, held its last Sunday Mass before the closure last weekend.

www.nj.com

 

[silkcitypirate]

Are in decline. Many causes but not a good thing for the communities. It’s states it’s temporary but the underlying reasons are common and seldom reversed.

Historic N.J. Catholic church closing indefinitely

The church, which was granted national landmark status in 1978, held its last Sunday Mass before the closure last weekend.

www.nj.com

Sad my fathers old parish. A beautiful church .

 

[PROF Ed]

Growing up in Elizabeth there were 15 Catholic Grammar Schools. There are now 0. Many parishes still remain active.

 

[HallX2]

Growing up in Elizabeth there were 15 Catholic Grammar Schools. There are now 0. Many parishes still remain active.

Thats the most significant effect; the loss of schools.

 

[TrueBlue1989]

Bishops stopped the requirement to send children to Catholic schools if financially viable in the 1960’s. Stupid decision.

 

[Seton75]

That waa never a requirement in my parish.

 

[Section112]

Are in decline. Many causes but not a good thing for the communities. It’s states it’s temporary but the underlying reasons are common and seldom reversed.

Historic N.J. Catholic church closing indefinitely

The church, which was granted national landmark status in 1978, held its last Sunday Mass before the closure last weekend.

www.nj.com

Ran a Turkey drive for years and St Michaels was one of the churches we would bring about 200+ turkeys too every year. Sad.

 

[Seton75]

At least half of the gs in my area clis3ed in the past 10 years. And one hs. I assume no longer having more than half the teachers being nuns effects things rather drastically.

 

[MooneyHall07]

Bishops stopped the requirement to send children to Catholic schools if financially viable in the 1960’s. Stupid decision.

It wouldn’t have made a difference. The economic model does not work. The tuition in these schools are significantly less than the cost to educate a child. You have diocesan tuition assistance programs but that is an added expense for the diocese. The fact that there is a decrease in pastoral faculty, an increase in lay faculty who need health benefits, and of course increased costs in litigation over the years adds up to what we see now in the cities.

It should also be noted that the decline in Catholic education is not just in the urban areas, but in communities that are suburban/wealthy. St. Joseph’s school in Mendham closed some years ago. Mother Seton in Howell, which was a combined parish of schools in Jackson and Howell closed two years ago. Mater Dei in Middletown. When you own your own home and pay close to $10,000 a year in property taxes in New Jersey, there is no economic incentive to choose a Catholic school over your own hometown public school unless you are in a low-performing district.

Another economic incentive for these dioceses: they can sell the land and make money instead of losing. See: St. Anthony in JC and St. Peter’s in New Brunswick, both of which sit downtown on valuable lots ripe for commercial development. The Metuchen Diocese sold St Peters to DEVCO in NB and the Rutgers cancer institute sits on that site.

 

[donnie_baseball]

When you own your own home and pay close to $10,000 a year in property taxes in New Jersey, there is no economic incentive to choose a Catholic school over your own hometown public school unless you are in a low-performing district.

Very true. The incentive has to be other-than-economic. My kids are all in Catholic school - thankfully a healthy one -- and we live in a top-10 school district. Several suburban Catholic schools saw a significant bump following COVID, and with what the state of NJ recommends teaching in the public schools vis-a-vis gender identity.