Still Running Off at the Keyboard

CLUSTER COMES HOME

On June 27th I discovered clustering in the Cleveland Diocesan website and wrote:

What is a "cluster"? No one has mentioned a "cluster" in my parish, though there has been talk of parishes cooperating in using resources. Apparently other dioceses are further along in this process, whatever it is.

Today in my parish bulletin our pastor wrote:

...our Vibrant Parish Life Phase II core committee has been discerned and is meeting to present information to the parish -- and form a possible plan to CLUSTER with at least two other parishes in order that basic spiritual services will be able to be provided to the parishioners of the cluster --- as the number of priests continues to dwindle. (Some parishes may find they are not viable and will MERGE or CLOSE.) Thanks to all those who are involved in all of these endeavors. (emphasis in the original)

And the financial litany continues apace:

June 25, 2006, Sacrificial Love Offering Minimum Needed Weekly...$15,000.00
Regular Collection...$11,302.00
Deficit to Date (Fiscal Year 7-1-05)...$156,037.13

Still elsewhere in the bulletin is an announcement that Father has spent $8,200.00 for repair of a deteriorated entrance to the school. Father also announced before Mass that $26,000 will be spent to tuck-point the bricks of the church to stop the leaks. And in yet another statement from the bulletin:

I have warned/cautioned about WHAT WE ARE FACING. June 30th has ended the fiscal year. I will detail many things--probably not in one bulletin but in many bulletins. In general, these reports will not be positive--but I have warned over and over and over again--and I am sad to say--I have not been successful in my job. (emphasis in original)

Could he make the future of my parish any clearer?

But why are parish funds being spent on a building that will be closed?

What will happen to the faith I've struggled to hold on to once the liberal parishes nearby join in a cluster with my present parish? What happens to the orthodox parish when it is clustered with the likes of the parish where I attended the funeral Mass yesterday?

I am resigned to the fact that in the not distant future I may no longer be able to practice my faith. There doesn't seem to be any way to fight it any longer. There will be nowhere left in the RCC for an orthodox Catholic refugee to turn to. The takeover will have been accomplished. The liberals will have won.