Jun 27, 2017 2 min read

As a young Catholic who just moved back to the area after finishing college, I was very disappointed to hear about the major challenges facing that Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

As I read more into the plan entitled “On Mission for the Church Alive,” I realized the severity of the situation, seeing how 188 parishes will be reduced to a mere 49.

But what has most unsettled me has been the way the diocese has looked at our church buildings. They constantly repeat the refrain, “They’re only buildings,” to try and make parishioners feel less connected to their churches, in the event that theirs will be closed.

But they are not simply buildings; throughout the centuries, the Catholic Church was a great patron of the arts and architecture. They valued the important role that a building could play in evangelization and teaching, and as a means to point towards God. Catholic churches are especially consecrated before they are officially used, a symbolic and real gesture and sets aside that particular space for a holy function, the celebration of mass.

They are not simply buildings; the immigrants who came to this part of the country put so much effort into their churches. Why would they have done this if they were “only buildings,” like everything else around them? They built them like they did because they understood them as God’s house, worthy of special design and craftsmanship.

I believe that the Diocese’s persistent way of calling them “just buildings” is not only offensive to those who came before us and gave us our faith, but wrong, plain and simple. A greater respect and appreciation should be shown to these valuable structures in our communities.

Matthew Hoffman

Bethel Park

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