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A one-off gain but a long-time loss THE CONTROVERSY
over the planned closure of St. Joseph’s Community Centre in Highgate
refuses to go away — and neither should it.
The Passionist Order wants to sweep away this valuable resource so they
can raise money to repair the church and build comfortable accommodation
for the older priests who currently live within the monastery.
Their proposals are being fought by local residents who regularly use
the centre and fear its loss will be a severe blow to the local community.
It’s a battle which has been mirrored at parish centres up and down
the country over the past few years.
Increasingly the Catholic Church has begun to look on these centres as
a source of revenue which can be sold off to developers to raise cash.
Unfortunately in these cases there is only one loser — the parishioners.
As our web poll in this week’s edition shows the vast majority of
readers are against the sale of these centres. Instead they believe the
Catholic Church should be actively promoting them by spending some of
its reserves of cash on improving and promoting the buildings.
The reasons are obvious. Many of these parish centres were built by the
ordinary Irish men and women who were part of the mass emigration to Britain
in the 1950s and 1960s.
They wanted somewhere they could call their own, somewhere they could
gather to swap tales and relax, a place which could truly be seen as the
centre of the community.
That is why they invested so much time and often money in building and
running these centres.
True, many are not as well-used or maintained as they perhaps could be.
But that is no reason to believe they have no future and should be demolished
to make way for housing or other development.
Once they are gone they are unlikely to be replaced — and that would
be a sad loss for local communities.
The Catholic Church might rake in a one-off windfall from their sale but
it will lose immeasurably more.
At a time when church attendances are declining across all faiths the
church more than ever needs to show it sees itself as part of the community.
Faith and the Christian creed is not simply a matter of attending Mass,
First Communion or other ceremonies.
It is about a sense of community, a desire to reach out and help those
less fortunate than ourselves, a desire to lead a life governed by certain
standards.
The parish centres traditionally provided a place where people could share
these values. They were — and in many cases still are — used
by people across all age ranges for a variety of activities.
Many of them stage charity fundraising nights and host classes and events
aimed at helping the most disadvantaged among society.
It’s a function they have long fulfilled and as society becomes
more fractured it is a role that becomes increasingly more important.
If the Catholic Church were to show more vision it would realise these
centres give something which could be capitalised on.
If by investment and long-term planning it could encourage more people
to use the remaining centres the likelihood is that some of them will
gradually gravitate towards regular church attendance.
And it would be a far better thing to do than simply pocketing a few
hundred thousand pounds as another developer moves in to build high-price
housing on land that by rights should belong to the community. |
