Many good and faithful Catholics in the Diocese of Rochester have become increasingly disturbed and frustrated by the continuing decline of the Catholic faith in the greater Rochester area. Some of the key symptoms of this decline are as follows:

• The precipitous decline of vocations in the diocese. The diocese’s own estimates indicate that within 15 years, there will be only 62 active priests in the diocese. This for a diocese that has 350,000 registered Catholics.
• The multiple closings of Catholic schools that has recently occurred at twice the national rate. This decline has rapidly accelerated since the diocese decided to become one of the only Catholic school systems in the country to centralize its administrative and financial functions. The latest reorganization resulted in a net loss of almost 1,000 students from one year to the next. Many of the shuttered schools came up with workable financial proposals that would have allowed them to remain open. These plans were completely ignored by the diocese.
• Weekend Mass attendance in the diocese has declined by almost 25% since the year 2000. Only 23% of registered Catholics now attend weekend Mass in this diocese. The national average for Mass attendance is 36% of registered Catholics. This national number has actually shown a slight increase since the year 2000.
• The diocese permits a canonically forbidden practice of allowing non-ordained persons to give homilies at Mass. The diocese justifies this practice by describing these homilies as “dialogue homilies”. The claim is that these homilies are a dialogue between the presiding priest and the non-ordained homilist. In truth, a dialogue homily is generally recognized as a practice that is to be occasionally utilized at Masses for children. The dialogue is supposed to be between the priest or deacon and the children. The most liberal interpretation of these dialogue homilies would be the allowance for a dialogue between the ordained minister and the congregation. A dialogue between the ordained minister and a non-ordained homilist does not fall under this understanding. Beyond this, the diocese’s non-ordained homilists are not engaging in dialogue with anyone. They preach the homily, without dialogue, in the same manner as a priest or deacon. Many have objected to this practice by sighting Canon Law. These written and verbal protests have not been successful.
• The diocese has been rapidly clustering and closing parishes. These clusterings and closings often result in the governance of the parishes being turned over to non-ordained pastoral administrators. The priests that serve these parishes are then relegated to the position of “sacramental ministers”. Many times, these administrators are women who assume a liturgical posture that is confusing to many of the faithful. These administrators wear albs, preach homilies, preside over baptisms, and alter the liturgy. Some of these administrators are active in the Women’s Ordination Conference. They often bring an agenda which is contrary to the Church’s official recognition that only men can be ordained to the priesthood. These various offenses have been damaging to the faithful, and have driven many individuals and families out of their home parishes.
• The diocese has become a destination of choice for dissident Catholic speakers. These speakers are here on a regular basis, and often appear under the sponsorship of parishes and Catholic Chairs at college campuses. For example, the notorious Roger Haight, who the Vatican has banned from teaching Catholic theology, has now been here two years in a row. He has spoken to Catholic audiences at the U of R, RIT and St. John Fisher. Speakers like this are rarely, if ever, censured or challenged by anyone in authority from the diocese. The faithful are never warned about the danger that these speakers present to their listening audiences, many of them young and poorly catechized.
• The diocese has done a very poor job of catechizing the faithful, which is particularly evidenced by the lack of vocations and the alarming decline in Mass attendance. It would appear that roughly 75% of the Catholics in this diocese don’t realize that it is objectively a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday. Either that, or they no longer understand what constitutes a mortal sin. Regardless, this means that, statistically, most Catholics in this diocese appear to be in a questionable state of grace that could have serious implications for their eternal well being. The diocese has, overall, been largely silent on this serious issue as well as others, including artificial contraception, abortion and homosexual behavior.

There is clearly a crisis of faith in the Diocese of Rochester. Although Rochester is not the only U.S. diocese in crisis, it is certainly more profound and intense here than in most other places. In fact, CRISIS magazine recently rated our diocese right near the bottom in the U.S., at number 174 out of 176 dioceses. Their study took into account things like ordinations to the priesthood, the number of active clergy, and conversions.

So what distinguishes the Diocese of Rochester from most other dioceses in the United States? We at CREDO believe that this crisis is, ultimately, a crisis of leadership. Other dioceses face the same secular cultural conditions that we face in Rochester, yet many of these are thriving with above average Mass attendance and an abundance of vocations.

In short, these dioceses have leadership that imparts a strong Catholic identity among their faithful. These dioceses discourage and condemn dissent, abide by the rubrics for the liturgy, and are especially vocal on the most serious social issues of, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and same sex marriage. These are the dioceses, by and large, that have vocations. These are the dioceses that have a much higher rate of Mass attendance.

Bishop Clark has been our bishop for almost 30 years now. He has had many years to find solutions to the critical problems that confront us, yet the decline continues at a recently accelerated pace. If the current rate of decline continues, there will be about 12,000 fewer Catholics attending Mass by the time he retires in 2012. That is 12,000 more souls who will have abandoned the Church, thus perhaps endangering their eternal well being.

CREDO believes that the time for change is now, not in 2012. It is for this reason that we are sponsoring a Rosary campaign to ask for God’s intervention in our diocese. We are asking for God to strengthen and restore Bishop Clark in a way that would allow him to deal with this crisis of faith. If Bishop Clark is not able, for whatever reason, to respond, then we are asking that God would grant us a new bishop to help restore the spiritual vitality of this diocese.

Ultimately, we pray for God’s will to be done. We humbly recognize that an intervention at this time may not be in God’s plans. However, we have the fullest of confidence that He will help us in the way that He deems to be most beneficial.

For those who would like to participate in this campaign, please pray the Rosary with the following intention:

We ask for God’s intervention to resolve the unprecedented crisis of faith in the Diocese of Rochester. We particularly request that we be given godly leadership at the Episcopal level in order to deal with this crisis. If the critical problems in this diocese cannot be resolved under the current leadership, we ask that Rome would intervene and provide us with a bishop who is capable of restoring the Catholic faith in this diocese.

Please use the Rosary counter on RochesterCatholic.com’s homepage to register the number of Rosaries you have prayed for this intention. Some of you may only want to dedicate a decade of the Rosary at a time for this intention. For this reason, there is an optional decade counter alongside the complete Rosary counter. Merely click on one or the other counters whenever you have prayed for this intention, be it a decade or an entire Rosary. This counter will be our official register for the number of Rosaries that are being prayed for this intention.

May God bless all of you who decide to participate in this worthy campaign to restore the Catholic faith in the Diocese of Rochester.