Dear Editor, 

In September Archbishop Zinkula of the Archdiocese of Dubuque introduced a new endeavor that was euphemistically described as a “Journey in Faith”.  Its stated purpose was to “renew and strengthen the Catholic Church in the region through prayer, discussion, and transformation”.  The process would be to configure the archdiocese into 24 “Pastorates” while discontinuing the offering of Mass at over half of the 160+ parishes in the Diocese.  Let that sink in . . . no Mass will be offered in over half of the 160+ parishes.

This is not a “Journey in Faith” . . . it is a death march.

The final “decree” was released on April 11th declaring who would be maintaining a Sunday Mass and who would not.  After 8 months of appearing on a list stating that Vinton would maintain its Mass – we discovered that the largest Catholic parish in Benton County, located in the County Seat – would no longer have a Sunday Mass. 

With the final release of Mass times this past week – that fate was sealed.  For us and for many, many more throughout the Diocese Sunday will no longer be a day of worship in our community.  Let me dwell on what the loss of a Sunday Mass means to a Catholic.

Sunday Mass is a Holy Day of Obligation.  A Catholic is expected to attend Mass and abstain from “work” and keep the day for worship, prayer and family time.  They may also utilize a “Vigil Mass” held on Saturday night as a substitute.  Things like illness, caring for the sick or severe weather that would make travel dangerous will relieve a person of this obligation.  Other than that, failure to attend Mass on Sunday is considered a Mortal sin.

The new Mass schedule granted us a Tuesday evening Mass – but that does not relieve an individual from their Sunday obligation – it is simply another opportunity for a parishioner to worship God and receive the Eucharist.

This is something all the members of the 80+ parishes that are losing their Sunday Mass must deal with.  To put it in another context – virtually all the 80+ parishes are over 100 years old.  That means that with the simple stroke of a pen on his Decree Archbishop Zinkula has erased 8,000 years of worship history from the Archdiocese of Dubuque.  8,000 years.  Honestly, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around that.

It gets worse . . .

This simply destroys the Parish Family.  St. Mary’s of Vinton is a parish family I have been a part of for 46 years this month.  46 years . . . that is 10 years longer than Archbishop Zinkula has been an ordained priest.  This is the family where we watched each other’s children grow in God, watched them grow into adults and become parishioners in their own right.  We have held each other through illness and tragedy.  We buried each other.  We have reached out to our sister parish in Haiti attempting to give them new hope in the future.  We look forward to Sundays to greet our pew mates, catch up on their week and their kids.  To check on their health.  To see if they need a hand.  To join with our choir to praise God.  To hear once again about the life of Jesus – His travels and His message to us.  

And – to receive the Body and Blood of Christ through Holy Communion.

This is what Sunday Mass is.  This is what the Parish Family is.  This is the strength of our faith, the purpose of the Catholic church and it is the responsibility of the Archbishop of the Diocese to ensure that this occurs and continues for generations to come.

It is not the purpose of the Archbishop to kill it.  To end it.  To look at rural Iowa and determine that things would be so much easier if everything was consolidated in the big cities.  It’s his job to do the hard things.

During the past 8 months we heard much about evangelization – finding ways to enable  our parish grow.  And we will now have 80+ fewer places to introduce friends to the Catholic Faith.  We look across our Catholic community and see our parish families on the brink of death.  I will not accept that.  The first verse of Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” says . . .

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I intend to rage against this death march that calls itself the “Journey in Faith” and to do everything I can to make sure my parish family continues to have a long and healthy life for generations to come.

With Respect,

Bill Keller