[Baltimore Sun] Archdiocese should not reduce its presence among the poor | READER COMMENTARY
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When I heard of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s proposal to close many Catholic churches in the city (“Proposal would radically reshape Catholic Baltimore, cut parishes by 66%,” April 14), I thought of Victor Hugo in 1831 writing “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” with a disabled bell-ringer to save Notre-Dame Cathedral. He wrote of the cathedral as a sanctuary.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has proposed a plan to close several of these sanctuaries in Baltimore, including mine, where I have sat beside St. Anthony’s alter for years with my children who received sacraments here, where my grandmother and father’s funerals were, where my neighbor plans to get married in June. Years ago, my children and I had duct taped prayers to St. Marie Goretti’s statue, a statue my daughter was drawn to because of her pretty painted nails. The prayer is still taped on her. We sat under the station of the cross, “Jesus Comforts the Holy Women,” during cancer, during psychiatric hospitalization, during my best friend’s overdose. My grandmother was born a block away from this church. This is the church that I returned to after leaving the faith for years.
For the archdiocese to propose to close these inner city churches, these sanctuaries that are in impoverished neighborhoods, what message does this say to Baltimore? That the Catholic religion is only for the middle class and wealthy? To close all the Catholic churches in the poorest of neighborhoods in Baltimore is far from what I learned in 12 years of Catholicism. Wasn’t Christ always present to the poor, to the marginalized, to the ones living on the outskirts of society? Now, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is proposing to close its churches specifically in these places.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore may need to be opened to looking at other religions, other faiths, to see how they have built thriving communities that are healthy and encouraging of hearing everyone’s voice. Too often, the Catholic Church has stifled voices and removed itself completely from hearing voices of poor communities. A priest who is my friend, said, “The more voices we hear, the deeper truths are revealed.” If only this observation was taken to heart and lived throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
— Karla Pahel, Baltimore
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