The consolidation and closure of parishes across the United States has become a fact of contemporary Catholic life. Responding to such an event is often traumatic. How do lay leaders allow their parish to heal when an approved ritual format does not exist? Through the voice of experience and local diocesan offices, Michal Weldon, OFM, has created a guide to the reconciliation process and the rites of parish closures inA Struggle for Holy Ground.
Composed of thirty-five interviews conducted from participants in the 1990 consolidation of ten parishes in Chicago's Englewood and participants in the 1995 San Francisco consolidation after the 1989 earthquake,A Struggle for Holy Ground offers a study for any parish leader to use as a reference when facing such a conflicted issue. This work explores the roles of ritual and pastoral care and proposes a series of new rites: group reconciliation, atonement, lament, leave-taking, memorial, and inauguration, based on the personal experience of those involved in parish restructurings.
Chapters include: The Best We Could Do with Church? Demographics, Finances, and Culture, Traditions of Reconciliation: Conflict, Communion, and Sacred Remembering, The Negotiation of Crisis: Forgiveness, Trauma, and Sacred Space, Remembering in a Different Kind of Way: Grief, Lament, and Healing, Towards New Rituals of Reconciliation at the Closure of Sacred Space.
Michal Weldon, O.F.M., D.Min., of Francis and Clare's Friary, Franklin, Wisconsin, is also an instructor at Sacred Heart School of Theology, Hales Corners, Wisconsin.
Industry Reviews
"With all of our sacramental wealth, we do not seem to have developed a way to negotiate through troubled waters. Into this gap steps Michael Weldon. He has taken seriously the trauma caused by church closure or consolidation. With this book, he provides us with insights into how to move through this painful loss with sensitivity and grace. He draws these insights from his own experience as a pastor as well as the experience of others. He then calls upon our rich religious tradition for both inspiration and direction. What follows are suggestions for ritualizing the loss, the pain, and possible reconciliation. The approach offered in this book is a real gift to a changing church." -- Dianne Bergant, C.S.A., Professor of Old Testament, Catholic Theological Union "In this first book of its kind, Father Michael Weldon weaves together the threads that have to go into the human and faith side of this tapestry. By combining insights on loss, lament, forgiveness, and reconciliation with the ritual and liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, he proposes ritual events which can help ease the pain of loss, and integrate this experience into the wider horizon of Church and faith ... This is a first-rate response to a neuralgic problem. It is recommended to all those involved in these painful but necessary events in Catholic life today--bishops, diocesan officials, pastors, parish councils, ministry staffs, and people." -- Robert Schreiter, C.Pp.S, Catholic Theological Union