A Parish that Copes and Hopes

Some thought it was near sacrilege. In a few short months during 1969 the interior of the 78-year-old St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Hicksville, Long Island, was radically transformed. Two side altars and their six statues, two more statues on the main altar, the devotional candles and the altar rail were all removed. Most dramatically, a new crucifix was hung behind the altar. Instead of a suffering Jesus in traditional style, worshipers now saw a modernist risen Christ, his arms raised in triumph.

The instigator of these changes--all of which were in the spirit of Vatican decrees--was the parish's new pastor, Father Frederic Harrer, now 56. Nonetheless, the new look, especially the crucifix, jolted St. Ignatius' parishioners, many of them policemen, firemen and other civil servants. Some simply quit attending Mass. "I see a lot of faces not around any more" says one parishioner. But most of those who remained came to accept--even favor--the new church interior and other innovations. "When all the changes started I was kind of confused and disillusioned at times," says Public School Teacher Terry Hess, "but now I have a better understanding. Years ago I would do things out of fear of the Lord. Now it is out of love."

Indeed, in the face of budget deficits, a severe drop in parochial school enrollment and the decline of such groups as the Holy Name Society and the Rosary Society, Harrer believes that his parish is spiritually stronger than ever before. "People are practicing their faith to a deeper intensity," he says. Now there are new Charismatic and other prayer groups, new adult Bible classes, and special spiritual weekends like Marriage Encounter (TIME, April 7, 1975) in which couples examine their marriages and learn to communicate with each other more honestly; the Cursillo, which seeks to inspire personal religious renewal and the similar Christian Awakening for teenagers. Such movements "ask of me a greater degree of faith than the old organizations," says one laywoman. Mass attendance is down, but two-thirds of those who attend receive Communion, compared with one-third a decade ago.

In 1969 Father Harrer organized the first Parish Council at St. Ignatius. After a fumbling start with an unwieldy membership of 125, the council has evolved into an active group of 20 of the laity, four priests and three nuns. Their meetings are open to all parishioners and their decisions are not always ones that the pastor would make. Toward the end of the Viet Nam War the council decided to install an American flag beside the altar. "I accepted it although I put myself on record as not being for it," shrugs Harrer. Last year the council sent Walter Kellenberg, the conservative bishop of Rockville Centre, a petition urging that the church permit laicized priests to act as teachers or counselors, and that divorced-and-re-married Catholics be allowed to receive Communion under certain conditions.

To learn more about his 11,000 adult parishioners, Harrer conducted a poll in 1973. A solid 62% of those who responded "strongly" favored letting couples decide what to do about birth control. "Certainly what the Pope has to say is extremely important," says Harrer, but at the parish level "we are taking people from where they are and maybe leaving aside the question of sin."

Sister Lillian, a Dominican nun who wears contemporary clothes, works with 70 lay volunteers to give religious instructions to Catholic youngsters attending public schools. The new emphasis on Jesus as one's brother as much as one's Lord caused a minor uproar, and worried parents phoned Sister Lillian. She set up a course, the "Baltimore Catechism Revisited," to "update the parents."

Only 100 teen-agers are active in the parish compared with 200 seven years ago, but Associate Pastor William Karvelis seeks to keep them coming with special Masses at which they are welcome to wear T shirts and jeans, sit on the floor and discuss their spiritual problems before the formal liturgy. Karvelis also tries to reach out to parishioners who feel "hurt, abandoned and looked down upon" as a result of the swing away from traditional ways.

But like Father Harrer, he sees a stronger faith emerging in both the parish and the church. Vatican II, he believes, "has given people a new challenge--to describe their faith not in the exercise of practices but in the depth of their soul." Parishioner Don Zirkel, who edits the Tablet, the well-respected weekly of the Brooklyn diocese, likes the challenge. "In the past the church directed us. Now the church says you have to decide for yourself. It is harder and confusing. But it is a great time to live and I am glad I am on this journey."

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