A Plea for Parishes, by Joseph Schmiesing

By Joseph Schmiesing, Crisis Magazine, Feb. 1, 2024

Joseph Schmiesing writes from Western Ohio where he teaches high school Theology, Economics, and Latin and serves as the Dean for Catholic Culture. Mostly, he helps his lovely wife in the rearing of their numerous children, sundry animals, and plentiful plants.

The spiritual life of the ordinary Catholic in America is fed by the ordinary Catholic parish in America. What nourishes the life of that parish?

I recently watched a short clip of the demolition of the bell tower of St. Nicholas Church in Ohio. In a short moment, the large excavator pushed on the corner and the edifice collapsed in a pile of rubble and dust. Already stripped of its stained glass and crucifix, the church, until the moment it fell, still maintained a nobleness, as though it knew it was both the product and the representation of Faith for thousands of parishioners and strangers over the decades.

I was struck as well, though, by how its story serves as an analogy for the rise and demise of the faith of a whole community. It wasn’t just a church that was destroyed that day, it was the final stroke in the destruction of a parish that had been ongoing for decades.  …

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