While surfing for news of Our Lady of Vilnius, I found a reference to our plight in Deacon's Blog: "Thoughts and opinions from a Deacon in the PNCC "[Polish National Catholic Church]. The post addresses the state of the Roman Catholic Church in America as represented by statistics from "Future Church". The post also contrasts the administrative style of American dioceses with that of the Polish National Catholic Church, which he describes as more "bottom up" and participatory at the parish level.
The reference to Our Lady of Vilnius is as follows:
"They’ve taken a more-or-less business approach to the problems cited. From a business perspective they need to dump under performing assets and convert those assets into ready cash. In poor Rustbelt inner cities they will roll the parish properties to unsuspecting not-for-profits, preservationists, and inner city Evangelical or Muslim missions. In larger cities those parishes represent a dead asset sitting on property valued in the millions (see the case of Our Lady of Vilnius in New York City for an example - a Lithuanian immigrant landmark)."
Another interesting quote:
"There hasn’t been much discussion of Roman Catholic megachurches, but they do exist, right in your suburban community. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research gives a nod in this direction in The Definition of a Megachurch. I have two right near me. Christ the King and St. Madeline Sophie are within 8 miles of each other and probably pull in 2,000 to 4,000 people per parish per weekend. Our parish is often visited by people who need respite from the massive crowds. They feel they have lost the intimacy of their faith."
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