What’s the future Catholic church going to look like, here in the USA and elsewhere? In our country, is it a diminished version of what we see now, with less parishes, less schools, less resources than it presently has? Facing diminishing numbers, finances and resources church leaders have a daunting task on their hands.

The June 24th issue of The New York Times carried a heart-breaking story of the closing of a Catholic school in the Bronx, St Martin of Tours, after 86 years. The school served thousands of immigrant children from the original Irish and Italian families to the Hispanics, African Americans and new immigrants of today.

Parishes are closing all over the country. Diocesan offices that serve the church are being terminated. Religious communities are down-sizing.

One factor that’s obvious in this picture, it seems to me, is a lack of imaginative planning. Finances are the over-riding concern, and often the financially-minded become the planners. Closing St. Martins gets rid of a $300,000, deficit budget for next year. But what about the kids who go there, the dedicated teachers who taught there, the loyal volunteers who gave themselves to that ministry. Not much attention paid to them, I fear. By not attending to them, though, we’re creating more of a deficit than we think.

“Regional Catholic schools” seem to be the answer when you raise the question about the future of Catholic schools in the New York Archdiocese. A further question is not so easily answered: How do we form the next generation of Catholics?

Many of these larger questions don’t get answered because of the fragmentation in our church and among its leaders. We plan from what is instead of what might be.

So how will we communicate our faith in the future? How will we support the faith we try to live in communities, and homes and in our personal lives?

As our dioceses and religious communities struggle with questions about their future, we need to pray that they think bigger than they’re doing now.