Archdiocese of Baltimore Concludes Traumatic ‘Listening Sessions’ Around Restructuring Plan

Hundreds of Catholic residents of Baltimore packed the Cathedral of Mary, Our Queen on Tuesday evening to give their often-impassioned reactions to a process that could lead to the closure of two-thirds of the city’s parishes.

Several parishes from the state’s largest city organized large contingents to attend the April 30 meeting, which was the final of three listening sessions for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s “Seek the City” parish restructuring proposal. They made their presence known with custom-made T-shirts or ethnic attire, with some even carrying large banners that begged Archbishop William Lori to spare their churches.

Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Mount Washington neighborhood of the city printed a banner that proclaimed: “SOS! Save Our Shrine.” The group from the largely-Filipino parish also participated vocally in the session, including an emotional plea from John Tagle, a high-school student. Tagle worried that his parish would be gone when he returned home from college.

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