Catholics discuss consolidation plan of Northeast Deanery

Last week's Gathering of the Laity meeting was intended to solicit ideas on how to adjust a plan to consolidate Catholic schools and parishes in the Northeast County Deanery.

However, the head of the deanery, the Rev. John Brockland, often found himself defending the proposal or the task force that created it.
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One man, whose children attend Corpus Christi school, thought that closing Corpus Christi parish and school sends the wrong message to African-Americans.

"Corpus Christi is 82 percent African-American, and we're talking about closing the church," said Marvin Sullivan, pastor of St. John African Methodist Evangelical Church in St. Charles. "What are you saying when you take our money and then close our school? You can't evangelize us and then close the door on us."

Many of the African-American children attending the school are not Catholic, Sullivan noted.

If proper and fruitful evangelization were taking place, people would be entering the Church. This is, after all, the purpose for evangelization and ecumenism - to proclaim Christ and His Church in all truth and charity so that that those who hear will desire to follow Him.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Article here.