Imagine an America with no Churches and no Synagogues.

On the feast of Pentecost, commemorating the birthday of the Christian church, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, announced that between now and May 2026, “the diocese will be “reshaped” from 156 parishes to 75 parishes, with 129 worship sites.”

Two reasons are given for the contraction: a decline in Mass attendance by the faithful, and a prediction of a shrinking number of priests. Seventy percent of the 145 total priests ministering in the diocese are over the age of 50. According to the diocese’s projections, in the next 10 years, there may be fewer than 100 active priests.

But then, what happens when the number of active priests falls to 50? When even fewer “Catholics” attend Mass? Remain active in their parishes? Will half of the remaining parishes be shuttered?

How many parishes can be closed before the Catholic Church fades into utter irrelevance? And what happens, when it does?

For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has taught that there is an all-loving God who eternally rewards men for the good they do, and punishes them for their evil deeds. And that Christ, his only son, is the way, truth and life.

What happens when the Jewish/Christian God comes to be regarded as nothing more than a pious fable? Who/What replaces him?

Does each man become a little “god” who creates his own rules — his own divine law?

Once you’ve rejected the Jewish/Christian law-giver, who replaces him? If there is no divine law-giver, who punish violations of the laws of our society, that go unpunished by our criminal justice system?

A man commits murder, and by perjury convinces his jurors that that he is innocent. A dictator, operating on the principle of “might makes right” confiscates and amasses a personal fortune of half the wealth of his country, while unjustly executing millions of his countrymen? A tyrant, who like the Roman emperors of old, declares himself “the only true god?” Without divine punishment of evil in an after-life, where is the “justice?”

Before you applaud the decline of the Catholic Church, and/or the decline of the other organized Christian religions, consider what you are seeing in the news:

Mobs of masked criminals invade a jewelry store, smash the counters, and in two minutes loot a million dollars-worth of jewelry;

Organized gangs send kilograms of fentanyl across our southern border, earning millions of dollars — which in the course of three years kills 300,000 U.S. citizens;

Young street-gang members shoot down city streets, killing members of the rival street gang — and bystanders,

Do the people who do these things believe that if not punished in this life, that that will be in the next?

Do they believe in the Judeo-Christian teaching that we must love God with out whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself?

If you love your neighbor as yourself, do you steal his goods? Sell him deadly drugs? Shoot and kill him in a dispute over who can sell illegal drugs in a given neighborhood?

Or does each such predator set himself up as “god,” and determine for himself what is “good” and “evil?” Does “might make right?” Does possessing the deadliest gun make right?

And if the Christian churches and the Ten Commandments are relegated to the scrapheap of history, how many cops will we needed to protect the disabled, the elderly, the meek and the peacemakers from the predators? One in every home? Two? How many on every street corner?

In a nation where every inhabitant loves God and loves his neighbor as he loves himself, few, if any, police officers will be needed., In a nation where every man is a law unto himself, an officer at every street corner will not be enough.

When the churches and synagogues are gone, who will teach that there is a God, and that that God rewards good and punishes evil? Not the public schools. In many cases, not even the parents. So, who? Hollywood? The internet?

The Ten Commandments, which Judaism and Christianity teach are God-given, are the underpinnings of our criminal law. It is in the Ten Commandments that we have “objective” right and wrong. Without a divine lawgiver, one man’s guess as to what is right and wrong, is as good that of any other. Without a God, we are all little gods, and right and wrong becomes “subjective” to each one of us.

A few years ago, the beautiful Tri-City Jewish Center closed. Now 81 Catholic parish will die, in large part because many Catholics have lost interest and no longer attend.

The choices people make have consequence. The state, by its criminal law, will still teach what is right and want is wrong. Some parents will still take the time. But without the churches teaching that God ordains what is right and what is wrong, and punishes transgression of his laws, the state loses the strongest underpinning of its laws.

I therefore mourn that the loss of 81 Catholic churches as a great loss to our society. I would feel the same way if 81 protestant churches were to close. I would also mourn the loss of the last Quad City synagogue.

Without a divine law-giver, do we revert to the law of the jungle? To might makes right? You decide.

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on June 9, 2024. 
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea