Much blame has been meted out in a variety of directions for the demise of St. Patrick's Church in Watervliet. However, the cause that has received scant attention is the one and only real reason St. Patrick's is gone. That is, in recent years, hardly anyone went to church at St. Patrick's anymore.
There are many, many reasons why people no longer go to a particular church or no longer go to any church at all. Some are as simple as changing demographics. People move from urban areas, such as downtown Watervliet, to the suburbs and go to their new parish church rather than old St. Patrick's. Other reasons are far more complex. Elderly St. Patrick's parishioners die off and their children and grandchildren today are less inclined to be regular church attendees. Many bemoaned the demise of St. Patrick's because that is where they were baptized and married. But did all these same people go to St. Patrick's on every single Sunday year-round, or did they become just Christmas and Easter Catholics?
St. Patrick's and every other Catholic church building closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany are gone because Catholics stopped going there to church. Again, there are many reasons. But as the classic comic strip "Pogo" said so well, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
David R. Paige
Albany