I agree that Churches are in a position to help, but there are lots of obstacles to overcome. Church attendance is shrinking. Older Churches cost a lot of money

I agree that Churches are in a position to help, but there are lots of obstacles to overcome. Church attendance is shrinking. Older Churches cost a lot of money to maintain, and even more modern Churches still are not free to operate. In the Diocese of Pittsburgh, donations to parishes have shrunk by 20-30% since the AG report came out (rightfully so). Outreach services depend on volunteers (and to a lesser degree, money). There are a lot of Parishes where young people are increasingly hands-off/un-involved. If you don’t have young people, your volunteer pool to provide outreach services continues to get smaller. Add in Parishes merging and your Church building closing, people feel less invested in the “community” of their Church. My mom does volunteer to spend time with people in nursing homes via the local Parish, but a once a week visitor isn’t much. Many of the people tell her that their kids rarely visit (or are too far away to visit) and their friends are also not mobile or have passed away. Even if the Parish had a mountain of volunteers, to visit everyone in even one 90 person home 3 times a week for an hour means 270 hours. That is a part time job for 10 people and that is only one small nursing home!