Parish roundup: Rainbow flag burned; last call Masses; North Carolina recovers

Fr. Paul Kalchik, a pastor in the Chicago Archdiocese, participates in the burning of a rainbow flag in an anti-gay protest. He is removed as pastor by Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Last call Masses: Sunday evening liturgy becomes part of life in the Diocese of Albany, New York. Parishioners find it a convenient way to fit in church observance during busy weekends.

An old story, but with some new urgency. The number of Catholics continues to grow in the United States, thanks to immigrant arrivals, but the number of men studying to be priests continues to decline.

Property in the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, is being transferred. Some suspect it has to do with church liability for sex abuse. The diocese says it is part of a long-term financial reorganization.

The emergence of lay pastoral leaders in New Zealand seen as a model for the church in Ireland.

A parish in the Diocese of Pensacola, Florida, is praised for its outreach to the poor and to a growing Filipino and Vietnamese community.

More parish and school consolidations in the Chicago Archdiocese.

How important is music at Sunday Mass?

Parishes in North Carolina reach out and dig out after the floods. 

[Peter Feuerherd is a correspondent for NCR's Field Hospital series on parish life and is a professor of journalism at St. John's University, New York.]

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