John Donald O'Shea is a retired circuit court judge and a regular columnist. On the feast of Pentecost, commemorating the birthday of the Christian church, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria announced that between now and May 2026, “the diocese will be 'reshaped' from 156 parishes to 75 parishes, with 129 worship sites.” Two reasons are given for the contraction: a decline in Mass attendance by the faithful, and a prediction of a shrinking number of priests.
Seventy percent of the 145 total priests ministering in the diocese are over the age of 50. According to the diocese’s projections, in the next 10 years, there may be fewer than 100 active priests. But then, what happens when the number of active priests falls to 50? When even fewer “Catholics” attend Mass? Remain active in their parishes? Will half of the remaining parishes be shuttered? How many parishes can be closed before the Catholic Church fades into utter irrelevance? And what happens when it does? For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has taught that there is an all-loving God who eternally rewards men for the good they do and punishes them for their evil deeds.
And that Christ, his only son, is the way, truth and life. What happens when the Jewish/Christian God comes to be regarded as nothing more than a pious fable? Who/what replaces him? Does each man become a little “god” who creates his own rules — his own divine law? Once you’ve rejected the Jewish/Christian lawgiver, who rep.