Country Catholic Churches

[RileyG]

Hi,

VERY random question!

I am aware of many Churches that have parishes in the country, particularly ELCA Lutheran, LCMS Lutheran, Methodist etc.

Is it EVER common to find a Catholic Church in a country, particularly in the midwest?

I haven't. Unless they been shut down.

Blessings!

By country, I mean rural/farm areas.

 

[Gnarwhal]

Hi,

VERY random question!

I am aware of many Churches that have parishes in the country, particularly ELCA Lutheran, LCMS Lutheran, Methodist etc.

Is it EVER common to find a Catholic Church in a country, particularly in the midwest?

I haven't. Unless they been shut down.

Blessings!

By country, I mean rural/farm areas.

This is something I've dwelt on for a while because it's the one area of life where I think Catholicism chafes me a little bit and it's the fact that Catholicism seems to favor urbanism, and I'm a real misanthrope who would prefer living far out in the mountains somewhere distant.

I can't really speak for the midwest because I've only ever passed through, but I do know that there's a tiny town in Iowa called Dyersville with a shade under 4,500 people and they have a basilica there: the Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier.

Here out west my diocese has some pretty rural parishes, a few of them are staffed by priests from larger towns nearby. In fact, I think most parishes have accompanying "mission parishes". Like I go to St John the Baptist, and we have a small sister parish that our priest offers Mass at on Sundays in between our Masses called St James and it's in the neighboring farm town.

There's quite a few like that around here.

 

[RileyG]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

 

[RileyG]

There was a small town that had four Catholic Churches. I think they were all served by one or two priests and one deacon. They alternated between Masses for them. The town was mostly Catholic. For some reason, I forgot about that.