Sunday noon mass at St. Boniface. Now, this is a church. Situated in the heart of Northside, I can't help but think of St. Boniface as a miniature cathedral. It's big. It's tall. It's ornate. Consider the stations of the cross - each one a tiled mosaic. Same with the columns, huge columns - again, tiled mosaic. Two stories of beautifully detailed stained glass windows. A golden dome over the altar. A virtual staircase to reach the top of the lectern. Kneelers the length of a football field. And the bells. Oh, the bells. They're loud, and they're awesome.
St. Boniface truly is a big, spacious church, so even though I broke my tradition and sat towards the middle of the church, in actuality, seeing that the few people in attendance were still seated in front of me, I was, in theory, again sitting towards the back. I liked the "Dymo" labels someone had carefully affixed to the back of each pew above the hymnal racks: "CELL PHONE OFF?", and while I had hoped to hear the St. Boniface pipe organ in action, a single male guitarist and a single female soloist were quite good. She, in particular, had a beautiful voice that carried through the church perfectly. There were very few people here - less than 100 (I counted) and among those, only four were children. Attendance was so sparse that the priest was able to acknowledge everyone, including me, as he processed down the center aisle - I felt special. So as I sat there before mass started, my first thought was this - how do you keep a place like this going? It was nothing less than irony as the priest began his homily.
Apparently, it was his first sermon on finances in five years. As he explained, in his 18 years as pastor of St. Boniface, the parish had previously only finished its fiscal year in the red once. Five years ago, the church was $5,000 in debt, but unsurprisingly, the red resurfaced again last year . . . with a whopping $59,000 of debt. He made his appeal to those in attendance, as I'm sure he did at all masses this weekend, for an increase in financial support. I was struck not by awe or pity but by the factual ramifications of his own pledge that he was giving half of his annual salary back to the church. I had to wonder - what does a priest make per year? It can't be much.
I liked this priest. An older man, he seemed kind and sincere. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't help but question what the response to his plea for increased donations will be. From the residents of Northside, those responses will certainly be slow in materializing - if they ever do. However, I like to think there may be a glimmer of hope. According to the pastor, 18 years ago, 75 to 80 percent of the St. Boniface parishioners were from the immediate Northside neighborhood. Today, 75 to 80 percent of the parishioners are from outside of the Northside neighborhood. I'm not sure what neighborhoods they're exactly from, but with that statistic in mind, maybe today's parishioners will be more able to provide the means to save this gem. I hope so. It might be my new favorite church.
ATTENDANCE: Sparse
DURATION: 55 minutes
No comments:
Post a Comment