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Final Farewell for Some Catholic Parishes

Final Farewell for Some Catholic Parishes - Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 5:53PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Sunday, Jul 13, 2008 @ 05:53pm EST
WEATHERLY, CARBON COUNTY- 47 Catholic churches closed Sunday. 32 are in Schuylkill County. 9 are in Carbon County. As you can imagine there are hundreds of heavy hearts as they leave behind decades of history.

By this time next week, the faithful will be in their new parishes formed through consolidation, like St. Nicholas in Weatherly.

Donna Hinkle said, "I'm so grateful that we will have more canters, more lecters and so forth and so on with our music program."

Hinkle is ready to welcome enough new church members to fill all of these pews. Parishioners from Beaver Meadows will join the worshipers in Weatherly to form our Lady of Lourdes. "There's a great sense of loss. People have been in that church for years and years," she said.

St. Mary's in Beaver Meadows held its last mass Sunday morning. It was open for more than 150 years. Don Braun told us he's disappointed this had to happen. "The declining number of people attending church is of course nobody's fault but our own," he said.

But Braun tries to stay positive and he's looking forward to sharing communion with his new church family, and passing along traditions of faith to the next generation. "We've become the Shepherds of our church. We have to make sure our kids come to church," he added.

He says families who bring children up with faith are the key to preventing more church closures in the future. "I welcome anyone who wants to join, anybody who wants to come here with open arms," said Braun.

Meanwhile about a dozen churches have filed appeals for the diocese to reconsider its decision to consolidate parishes. The church will review those appeals within the next few months.
 


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