Pennsylvania: Half of Catholics to leave parishes following merger

December 10, 2008

Only 700 of the 1500 families affected by the merger of five ethnic parishes in the historic Cambria City area of Johnstown will attend the new merged parish, according to an editorial published yesterday in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. A 2005 study found the central Pennsylvania Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown to be one of the two most vocation-rich dioceses in the Northeast, and The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Congressman John Murtha “has used his clout on Capitol Hill to create thousands of jobs and steer billions of dollars in federal spending to help his hometown in western Pennsylvania recover from devastating floods and the flight of its steelmakers.”

 

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Further information:

• Editorial: Ease sorrow by opening heart: Parishioners feel pain of church closings (Johnstown Tribune-Democrat)
• Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers (Catholic World Report)
• How Lawmaker Rebuilt Hometown on Earmarks (Wall Street Journal)