"As we contemplate our future": Fiscal Responsibility, Archdiocesan Authority, and Race in Philadelphia's 1993 Parish Closures

Abstract

Abstract:Several studies have examined Catholic parish and school closures in U.S. dioceses at the turn of the twenty-first century, arguing that conflicts surrounding these decisions reflected tensions between diocesan institutional authority and parochial autonomy. This article extends the study of these tensions from the immediate conflict surrounding the 1993 parish and school closures in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to the development and implementation of closure as part of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and the archdiocesan administration's larger strategic plan. It pays particular attention to how Catholic Life 2000, a major capital campaign initiated in 1991, shaped the bureaucratic grammar of archdiocesan authority and parish fiscal responsibility the archdiocese later used to justify the 1993 closures. Contestations over this grammar began with the campaign's implementation and exploded into conflict during the closures.