There is an adage in the Coal Region: There is a church and bar on every block.
At least there was..
As of late, it appears to be a dilapidated church for sale to the lowest bidder and a closed down bar that couldn’t make it.
Sure, according to the most recently information we could find from a listing compiled by Coal Region Canary, Schuylkill County still boasts 200 churches. And yes, there are countless more in other surrounding counties in the region..
But reports we had this weekend from local churches indicate that attendance for Palm Sunday was down–considerably. Empty pews graced buildings that were once adorned by countless faithful in the spirit of the Easter Season..
Why are there less… What happened to the flock?
Even the Pope looks exhausted by it all…
THE REAL ESTATE
In March 2002, a song circulated around the pre-social media days of the Internet (through email and message boards, they were more fun) by Van Wagner and Tom Flannery. It was called Churches and Bars, and it was the number of coal region churches of various religions–and bar rooms…
It is a vivid slice of life style song of coal country, with lyrics like this,
Used to be that coal was king
Round here it could buy anything
That was yesterday, my friend
So set ’em up till I reach the end.
Communion seven days a week
Yuengling to drink, Mrs. T’s to eat
Old time religion and lager beer
That’s what keeps me living here.”In
Mahanoy City was one particular bread basket of the churches and bars reality. The town once boasted having more than 120 taprooms! It was actually considered the barroom and Church capital of Schuylkill County.
Though it stood out, it was not alone. Many other communities had a whole lot more than exists now..
Through the previous two decades or so, you can find most likely recall the church near you closing down due to attendance and financial issues. Marriages, baptisms.. and deaths all took place within the buildings, but now many of those former religious centers are now people’s living rooms and bedrooms.
It appears that predominantly the Catholic faith has a dwindling population of attendees and a faltering financial support system to sustain them.
I PITY THE FLOCK
Churches were shuddered… so were schools.
As a matter of fact, on a personal note, I have written before that all of the schools I attended previously are now closed, including Holy Spirit in Mount Carmel, Immaculate Heart in Girardville, and Cardinal Brennan High School in Fountain Springs.
Most recently, the students of Trinity in Shenandoah was shut down.
The Anthracite Union wrote a good article several years ago lamenting the changing landscape:
My father’s old family church is a gym – not even being used as one at the present. My mother’s former parish is now a parking lot for a new church that sits right next to it. At least in these two cases, the parishes themselves have survived even if the original buildings have not.
One sweet little church was in such bad shape it was simply left to crumble. Unlike some “ruins,” which can take on the patina of elegance, this ruin is still raw, sitting there like a gaping wound. I can only imagine the feelings of its former members as they pass by each day.
The article went on to say, “I feel bad for the younger people (under 20) who will never remember the beauty of these churches in their heyday. In small coal region towns, these churches were often the only thing that let me know there was a world of transient beauty that went beyond football and bars!”
OH GO ALL YE FAITHFUL
In 2019, 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians. Nationwide Catholic membership increased between 2000 and 2017, but the number of churches declined by nearly 11% and by 2019, the number of Catholics decreased by 2 million people.
The number got even worse a year later. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999..
Gallup commented in its story that U.S. church membership was 73% when they first measured it in 1937 and remained near 70% for the next six decades, before beginning a steady decline around the turn of the 21st century..
You can visually see the change happening.
Not just in the coal region but in other places across the United States–and the world! From Poland, the home of former Pope John Paul II, some recently published data shows that less than 25% of young Poles now regularly practice religion. In the early 1990s, the figure was almost 70%..
Whether it is a closed church, school, or boarded up building.. The effects of attendance plummeting is apparent.
The number based on generation from Gallup was telling: Church membership is strongly correlated with age, as 66% of traditionalists — U.S. adults born before 1946 — belong to a church, compared with 58% of baby boomers, 50% of those in Generation X and 36% of millennials.
With numbers like that, the future is going to feature a lot more landscape changes on a street near you.
SOCIAL CHANGES
There is no simple and easy one size fits all answer as to why churches are declining in attendance and interest.. Some may attribute it to a more arcane Satanic invasion!
But others point out the frailty of humans as the rationale: Church sex scandals in America and the cover-up of mass death in schools other nations.. Both have had an impact..
Im 1993, Newsweek magazine published what was then a very controversial cover of a priest with the title “Sex and the Church” .. This was during a moment in time when some still denied and covered up, and others downplayed the extent of the harm that priest abuse scandals were having on religion…
That same year of 1993, Pope John Paul II and the Vatican asserted they were making it easier for the Church to defrock abusive priests.
They failed to take the necessary action at the time..
We now the impact so many years later. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued a report about Pennsylvania sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, with the Allentown Diocese being prominent.
But more “brace for impact” moments have stunned us since, such as this: Just in 2021, Ireland had to officially apologize for abuses and mass graves in church-run homes for unwed mothers.
CHURCHES AND BARS
The song is old.. and catchy..
It is a flashback to a time that has long gone..
A time when pews with packed with parishioners..
And on a Palm Sunday, just like today, the magical moments of children in awe at religion and the mysteries of faith once existed..
