Re: “Seattle Archdiocese announces sweeping plan to consolidate parishes” [Jan. 22, Local News]:
My thanks to reporter Nina Shapiro for her comprehensive report on the latest chapter to the steady withering of the Catholic Church locally and beyond.
The slick PR treatment by the Seattle Archdiocese reminded me of the scene from the movie “Titanic” with the orchestra playing while the ship steadily sank. Fancy videos can’t disguise the reality that the Catholic Church is in steep decline and desperately needs the major reforms that Pope Francis is working toward with the synodal listening process and opening key Vatican roles to lay people.
The exclusion of women or married men from ordination along with many outmoded policies around all things sexual must change as well as the current hierarchical governance that excludes true lay partnership. A whole generation of young adults raised in the Catholic Church no longer find it relevant.
This consolidation is like giving a person with a broken leg a crutch but not a cast to mend the broken bone and restore health. It accommodates the problem of fewer priests and people in the pews but does not address the issues that are crippling the Catholic Church.
Patrick Callahan, Seattle
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