The Church is supposed to help form the culture, not shrug her shoulders at it. There has to be a place where those in K-12--and beyond--can go so they can learn not just math, science, etc. but also what's right and wrong. Parents can certainly use the help.

Parish schools, diocesan schools, Jesuit schools and schools run by the Sisters of Mercy.

I think the parishes could better educate the children with focused formation programs outside of the math, science, etc schools.

Or maybe not, given what passes for parish religious education programs after the dismantling of the old CCD system.

I'm not against the schools - I just don't know if the faith benefit is there for those which are not self-supporting.

But we will disagree when it comes to hospitals.

There are way too many rural locations where that is the only option.

I would say that is a need the Church is satisfying.

I intended my post more about redundancies.

Sometimes the only reason the Catholic Church can run a hospital in bumfuzzle location is because it's part of a system that includes metro areas that help keep the "lights on" at the small rural hospital.

I'll take my lumps for that one. Fire away.

The guilty deserve what they get (and more) but I feel bad for the good ones.

We do differ wildly though on the root cause of the problem and where to go from here.

We will disagree on a lot of this, as you say, but I can certainly respect your position.

Is there a need for after school programs for kids? Elderly care? Homeless?

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc.

I'm embarrassed to admit I don't spend enough time in our community to know the needs, but I expect there are many.

EDIT - I also think paying to publish a diocesan newspaper is a financial waste as well. At a minimum stop printing and mailing paper copies.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, It was taken for granted that Catholics were the majority (or greatest of plurality) denomination and that almost every parish had an affiliated K-8 school. There were, I think, 6 or 7 Catholic HS in the immediate vicinity of Pittsburgh. The mergers didn't start to happen until after 2000 or so. "Susan from the Parish Council" everywhere. People show up to mass, but for the large part just go through the motions.

Moving to the South was an eye opener in terms of Catholicity. Now I'm in a distinct minority. I live near a city almost Pittsburgh sized, and while a few of the parishes close to the city have parish schools, the vast majority in the diocese do not. The diocese covers almost half the state, but the population is 1/10 of the diocese of Pittsburgh. Out in the suburbs and beyond is truly "mission territory" (I think we are still designated as such by the Holy See). The 2 closest parishes to me are 15 and 25 minutes, and there is one parish that serves 3 counties. The great irony is that EWTN headquarters is 15 minutes away. But the parishes themselves are vibrant and tight-knit. To be a Catholic down here among so many Baptists and other evangelicals, one really has to eat their Wheaties so to speak.

Anyway, sorry for the big background, but it's formed my minsdet. I am prepared for a large contraction, as then-Fr. Ratzinger stated in 1969: "From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. Undoubtedly it will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Along-side this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world."

Sorry for the wordiness, but it's a long-winded way of saying I somewhat agree with you. I'm ready for scaling-back.

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