Ordinary 33

The Thirty – Third Sunday in Ordinary TimeReigniting Our Faith Capital Campaign 2019 – Cycle C Malachi 3:19-20a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

People move.  Buildings don’t.

People have always moved throughout history. Reasons range from religious oppression, war employment, educational opportunities and adventure.  Our ancestors moved to America for these same reasons.

A century ago, the Northeast was burgeoning with bustling cities.  The ports of New York and Boston welcomed our immigrant ancestors who arrived with great hopes and courage.  Thus by 1950 46% of US Catholics lived in the Northeast.  This was made evident by the number of Catholic Churches on block after block in cities like Troy, Schenectady, Albany, and Amsterdam throughout the Albany Diocese.

One hundred years later, people are again on the move: young singles and married couples with children; seniors and new immigrants.   Unlike our ancestors though, immigrants today are coming from Asia and the Southern Hemisphere.  They and our citizens are moving to the South and West where some dioceses should be creating a new parish and building a new church every week for the next several years to accommodate the growing Catholic population.  People move.  Buildings don’t.

I think it would be a waste of energy to debate why people today are relocating and why some are leaving the Catholic Church. Instead, we should look to the future with hope, confidence and faith.

That is what Jesus is doing today.  He’s looking into the future with hope.  Jesus looks up at the great Jerusalem Temple and predicts its destruction, “there will not be left one stone upon another stone…”  But Judaism will continue to not only survive but thrive.    The Jewish nation was dispersed and what arose was the great system of synagogue worship and rabbinical teaching that is the wisdom and heart of Judaism.  Likewise if we look with hope and confidence beyond our present historical moment Jesus promises us: “Not a hair on your head will be destroyed.  By your perseverance you will secure your lives”. 

As the religious journalist David Gibson suggests, “The question at hand is not whether American Catholicism will exist in ten years, or twenty or thirty years, but what it will look like”.   The synagogue structure and rabbinic teaching were already present when the Temple was destroyed.  We need to ask, what is already in our midst that will help us create a renewed Catholicism?

What will American Catholicism look like in the future?

To address this crossroad moment Bishop Scharfenberger, in the midst of great movements of peoples and turmoil in our Church is inviting us to look with hope into the future.  Hope is the purpose of the Albany Diocesan 5—year $45 million fundraising campaign entitled Re-Igniting Our Faith. 

In our country, 78 million people identify themselves as Catholics, with 25% of Catholics worshiping God every Sunday, the Lord’s Day.  Geographic relocations of people of all ages has resulted in less than a quarter of the Catholics in our country living in the Northeast.  While other parts of our church are struggling to keep up with building; we are struggling to maintain buildings we cannot afford.  Many seniors and families are familiar with this situation.  It is called downsizing.  And many seniors and families know the difficulty of downsizing.  So many of our possessions are filled with good memories.  What does a person take?  What do you leave behind?   Might we also view downsizing as freeing ourselves from baggage and history we no longer need and are weighing us down?

Saint Mary’s Parish is 136 years old.  Some of you still remember the businesses on Main Street, such as Bresee, the excitement of Thursday nights and the bustling of the trains into Oneonta.  Thursday paychecks and Bresee’s are gone and the trains no longer stop here.  Saint Mary’s School which educated many of you and your children, is showing her age.  There used to be five priests assigned to this parish; now there is one.   Our parish registers list 1200 households yet 450 individuals worship regularly on the Lord’s Day.  This is OUR reality.  We can look at it with a depressed spirit or as Jesus does…with hope.  What is your vantage point?

Saint Mary’s Parish is no different than other parishes in our Diocese that accept change and determine their future.  We are proposing and I am asking all of us to support a leaner and yet more vibrant parish through downsizing.  Proposed is…

1. A redevelopment of the rectory as office, meeting, and educational spaces and a parish hall on the first floor with a new kitchen and restrooms. This would ensure easier and handicapped accessibility for many of our parishioners.

1. Continue to support for the Food Pantry, our key ministry to the Oneonta community.

1. Renovate the underutilized Newman House as a residence for priests and guests.

1. Sell the present Parish Center (the former Saint Mary’s School). At present this building, which is filled with asbestos, costs the parish $90,000 every year to maintain, insure and heat.  It needs a new boiler and is not fully accessible for many people.

Through the Capital Campaign, Re-Igniting our Faith, Bishop Edward is looking to provide critical funding for our retired priests, enhance support for vocations,invest in lifelong Faith Formationfor all Catholicsand develop Catholic schooling resources.

The diocese has given us a goal of $500,000 as our part in this campaign for the future.  70% of this amount, that is, $350,000 supports our vision parish while the remaining 30% supports the wider – diocesan church.  All funds are being placed in a separate account so that no pledges or donations can be used to settle legal claims but are restricted to the 70% – 30% split designated for the parish and diocese.

I believe that if 500 individual parishioners can pledge $1000 each over 5 years we can make our goal of $500,000.  That amounts to $16 a month or $.50 a day.   Though I ask that you give your best gift possible.  Some parishioners will be able to pledge more than $1,000 each and others, I ask that you participate to the degree you can.  Please notice my emphasis on individual parishioners.  If you are married, we are counting on each husband and wife to make a pledge.  Almsgiving and charity are two of the principles Jesus teaches us.  He provides us with confidence to give generously.

Again I ask you to pray and reflect on our realities.  The stronger we are as a Catholic Diocese, the stronger we will be a Catholic parish and so better address the spiritual and material needs of people as Christ taught us.

Next Sunday we will provide Commitment forms for you to fill out BUT they are already available in the pews today as well.  I strongly encourage you to take a form, pray over the Case Statement and consider making your pledge.  Form can be returned next week or through the mail to the parish office.

Others who came before us, gave generously to build and renovate this church.  What do we want to leave our descendants?

How might we be a smaller yet more vibrant parish poised for the future?