Some sad milestones out there

By Lori Berglund — Daily Freeman-Journal Editor

I'm sad too, Billie. And just a little bit worried.

In case you missed it in the 4th of July rush, writer Billie Shelton on this page last Thursday penned her column on the decline of Vacation Bible School in her community. Her town simply isn't having a Bible School this summer, which she and I apparently agree is a milestone worth noting.

A rather sad milestone.

Yes, small towns are getting smaller, but the decline of Bible School is probably due more to the fact that families are busier and volunteer teachers are harder and harder to come by. But of all the things to be too busy for, how sad that it's Bible School that suffers. I know kids who have sports just about every night of the week and on Sunday too, and yet we don't have time for Bible School? That does not bode well for our future as a society. Although it's certainly evidence that we are becoming more secular and less spiritual. Another bad sign.

And, unfortunately, it is not the only sad milestone out there for our church-going friends and neighbors. Earlier in June, Billie did a feature for us on the closure of the Homer United Methodist Church. The small handful of families who regularly attended services at Homer had made the sad decision that it was time to close. I am very sorry for those families, but I am glad that it was at least their decision to make.

Over in Duncombe, yet another church in our reading area is, well, sort of "closing." I love my Roman Catholic Church, but I will be the first to say it's got too much bureaucracy for its own good. For that reason, "closing" may not be the proper term at this time. The exact, final, and official status is up to the bishop of Sioux City, but in the real world it seems that the last regular Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church of Duncombe will probably be at 4:15 p.m. this Saturday.

Again, I am sad.

I am sad because, while St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Webster City will always be my home, St. Joseph's in Duncombe is like a second home. I have long enjoyed Mass at St. Joseph's because it tends to be a more quiet Mass, a little on the simple side, and I happen to believe that the Mass is beautiful enough on its own that it doesn't need a lot of extra fanfare. Simple is me.

And, until just a few weeks ago, I could always count on seeing my 90-something great aunt sitting near the front on the south side of the church. Looking 30 years younger than her age, she gave her knees a rest and would sit during the Eucharistic Prayer, but stood with strong shoulders squared for the Gospel.

She's an incredible woman, but I think she and so many others are taking this news about their home church pretty hard. Indeed, the "closure," or whatever it's "officially" called, has been compared to a death in the family. And I know how that's how I would feel if it was my home parish. And yet I have deep family roots, on both sides of my family, in two Catholic parishes that are being "closed" this summer.

I'm told that Grandpa Nilles was baptized at St. Peter's Catholic Church here in Webster City, which was located on top of the hill on the east side of the Boone River before St. Thomas was built. However, his family later farmed in the Duncombe area and became active members at St. Joseph's, which dates to about 1890. His parents are buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Duncombe and I have visited their graves several times. Mom remembers letting this great grandmother Nilles hold me as a baby, despite being told by others not to let "that old woman" hold a baby. And so I like visiting these ancestors of mine, and even trading prayers for each other between heaven and earth.

On the other side of the family, my Grandpa Crawford, as well as my mother and her one sister, were all baptized at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Barnum, which is facing the same fate this weekend as St. Joseph, Duncombe. (Don't ask me what people have against poor St. Joseph. The carpenter husband of Mary is one of my favorite saints.)

St, Joseph's Barnum also dates to about 1890, but in both Duncombe and Barnum Masses were being held in homes on an irregular basis up to a decade prior to the construction of a church building.

The Barnum church has produced at least three priests and five nuns. And, of course, that's the problem for my church as a whole - not enough vocations. In fact, the numbers for the future are both startling and scary. It's not that these churches don't get nice attendance; there are just not enough priests to go around.

And yet we should remember that God works in mysterious ways. At an event in Jewell earlier this summer I noticed that the busiest food tent, the one that looked to have the most volunteers, was that of Good Shepherd Catholic "Center." The "church" was "closed" several years ago, and yet they are carrying on.

Sometimes, we don't realize how precious something is until we lose it.

A summer without a Bible School. A community without one of its churches. And we are all less because of it.