Make no mistake about it. St. Mary's parishioners continue to resist the merger and subsequent closure of their church. Why? Because merger is closure and we as a parish have a right to exist and to worship in peace.

Let us be clear: If our "convener" thinks that he is going to merge St. Mary's without significant inconvenience, he is mistaken. We are not like the frog in lukewarm water that is slowly boiled by turning up the heat just a little each time. We are not that stupid.

It has been argued that in order to somehow "prove" that we are all good little Catholics, we must "cooperate" by worshiping at the other churches in our "merger group." Well many St. Mary's parishioners do in fact  worship elsewhere from time to time or even regularly: St. Martin's or St. Anthony's in Hammonton, Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, Sacred Heart or St. Isidore in Vineland, or even Mater Dei Nursing Home to name just a few. We recognize that the Catholic Church is, by definition, universal.

However, the agenda of the convener (and those pressuring him) is to get St. Mary's to merge with other churches and to eventually close. Therefore worshiping at these locations potentially undermines the cause of St. Mary's autonomy and right to existence. This would be nothing less than false unity: a unity at the expense of Truth and Justice, a unity at the expense of the continuation of the Faith, a unity at the expense of the existence of a parish, and a unity that tramples on the God-given right of the Catholic people to worship in a church they built and maintained without incident for over 80 years. This is not unity at all, but instead the unnecessary destruction of unity and of a true community of Faith.

For that reason, if necessary, it would be better to attend any services at any other Catholic church than those in our "merger group" or even to worship privately in the home on days that are not holy days of obligation. Furthermore, if we at St. Mary's have no desire to merge with these other churches, (and as we understand the sentiment is mutual,) we should not be forced to.

We are one Catholic community throughout the world, but that does not mean we should consolidate into fewer and fewer Catholic churches. May God have mercy on those in our diocese responsible for the persecution of the Church. They will one day have to answer for their actions and for the loss of souls that results.

(As a side note, it was stated in St. Mary's bulletin this week that small children should not attend the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil Mass, long as it may be, is intended for everyone, even "restless little children." How dare anyone state that a member of the Body of Christ should not be welcome at mass. For shame! How anti-family and anti-life to imply that only certain people are worthy to attend mass. What about those with disabilities or those who have conditions requiring them to move or occasionally make an utterance? Lord have mercy! What are we coming to? The mass is for all people and it is not always necessary to be able to hear a pin drop.)

Snip:

"To be honest, this is driving me away from the church," said Karen Countryman, 63, a parishioner since she was 10.

For Denise Mungiole, moving to a new parish after 21 years is akin to a "death," a fact that the bishop is doing little to allay, she said. "This is my church, my faith," she said. "You get invested."

Pamala Messina, who grew up at Most Holy Redeemer, forced herself to go to Mass recently at St. Patrick's. She was so shaken up, she said, she left in tears.

"I want to go to St. Pat's," she said. "I can't do it."

Nothing can shake her faith, Mrs. Medany said. She will celebrate Mass -- not at Holy Angels, because she cannot set foot in there, she said, but somewhere. Nobody should be surprised, though, if she takes a piece of her church with her. Her family donated a pew decades ago to honor her brother, who died fighting in World War II.

"When you see in the papers a story about an old woman who was walking down Delsea Drive with a pew on her back, you'll know it's me," she said

From Jan. 31st paper: Read NY Times Article HERE

We are glad that the NY Times chose to profile Most Holy Redeemer in Deptford Township, but unfortunately the premise of the article is largely wrong. They assume that attendance is dwindling and that there is a priest shortage, that somehow the parishes slated to close are closing because they have financial difficulties. Those of us who are paying attention to the facts know that this is not the case. We have spoken to employess of the Diocese who work in Camden who have told us, off the record, that the the closure pattern makes no sense from a parish financial stability point of view, so something else must be going on. (We have been repeatedly told that many of the churches that are to remain open or that are seats of the mergers are among the worst off financially.) We have shown that the priest shortage is, in reality, not the case statistically and where it is not, it is being created by the Chancery in the form of priest reassignments (usually away from service to parishes) and the discouragement of priestly vocations.

Though the NY Times article seems sympathetic to parishioners and their "pain," it fails to question the basic presumptions of the mergers/closures and the motivations of the bishop who has spearheaded the travesty. Sadly, they buy all the numbers spewed by the Diocesan officials, and in this sense it is poor journalism because we've seen these "facts" regurgitated before.

The bottom line is that our parishes are a part of our Catholic history, identity, and the way we worship. A good parish should also be a community of faith, and this is nothing that should be taken for granted. It is a sad state of our Church when, even if a parish was having financial difficulties, that that would be justification enough for its forcible closure. For example, what in the world is the Bishop's Appeal for if not to support the Body of Christ?

If a community of Catholics needed to demonstrate its ability to materially support itself before building a church, then what is the point of missionaries to poor areas? What is the point of evangelism? Christ came to teach us many things, among them charity to the poor and the necessity of spreading the Faith. Christ did not come only for those who are financially solvent.* It seems to us that the current Diocesan administration is a sad example of these two basic Christian teachings. Instead of helping those in need, they say instead, "shut 'em down!"

*Luke 6:20: "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."

Andy Walton, Diocesan spinmaster (spokesman), was quoted in the CP article we linked to yesterday as saying, "the [law] suit was premature because 'no (merger) decree has been issued and there's been no alteration of the parish.'" Well that's an interesting perspective, isn't it? Using this logic, all "core team" meetings and other plans to close, consolidate, and otherwise alter parishes and churches are also premature. Of course, if a decree had been issued, they would argue that if a complaint was to have been registered it should have been raised before the decree was issued. Let's face it. Any parish who sees the writing on the wall needs to act quickly and proactively, not after the ink is dry and the wrecking machines are in place. When wrong is being done, we are obliged to speak out about it. Using Divine law as a guide, all plans to destroy God's churches and, as the current Diocesan administration intends to do, change the Catholic Faith to resemble evangelical protestantism, are always premature since they are entirely unwarranted and wrong. But it doesn't appear the Diocese is using Divine law as its guide, but instead corporate law, or something equally ungodly.

Keep Wildwood Catholic HS Alive

For those of you left out there who think everybody's cool with the church and school closure fiasco, look again. The whole Wildwood Catholic thing has caused these feelings of disgust to erupt. Beware, the emotions are raw and the feelings strong. Here's just one example:

That article in the Star Herald made me sick! I wish the Star Herald had a Spout Off. So I just wrote one in the Cape May County Herald how I feel. It Read like this. I hope that Bishop Galante,Father Field And Wallace feel the pain of their hearts being ripped out before they die. Like the way they ripped the hearts out of so many children in Cape May County

Yes, people are angry. They are sickened with the corruption in high places, the lack of priestly support, and perhaps most of all that kids are being caught in the crossfire. I know as a parent, I have felt the same way at the prospect of not just my church, but theirs, a place they dearly love, is being threatened. As adults, taking something away from us that is due us is one thing, but taking it away from our kids is worse.

There is a family in our church with four foster children. In the words of their mother, "They have had everything taken away from them." They are such a nice family and the kids love to help out around the church cleaning, sorting, and organizing. To have yet one other thing, a beautiful and good thing that is their patrimony, taken from them in their young lives would be nothing less than a crime. All of the kids at St. Mary's love their church. They feel comfortable and cared for there. The fact that it is a small, tight community is no doubt part of that. It sounds like a lot of the kids at Wildwood Catholic feel similarly about their school. That is not always the case at schools, so the teachers there must be doing a pretty good job.

For the record, we get emails and verbal reports daily from people around the Diocese whose churches have merged and closed. It is simply not possible to post everything and every story we hear. Needless to say, they are not happy campers. Worst of all, many people's views of the priesthood have, sadly, deteriorated. They wonder why the priests they had come to love and respect have not spoken up about this travesty. They feel abandoned and confused, without leadership. Many wonder why their priests were taken from them and shipped abroad with the military or to Rome or to God only knows where. (We had another "missing priest" inquiry just yesterday. Sadly, we cannot help, we just shrug our shoulders and say a prayer.) They wonder why what they were taught about the Church growing up stands in such stark contrast to what they now see. Quote:

When I was a kid, we were told stories about martyrs who would die for their Faith. But now we have leaders--priests and lay people--who wouldn't even give their pension. On the one hand I don't blame them, but on the other, what's most important here? I always thought the priests would lead us along the right path. I don't know what to think anymore. I'm confused, disappointed.

Those who are content seem to be few and far between. It seems that mostly these people fall into one of three categories. There are those who are jockeying for paid "ministry" positions in the new merged "entities," there are the people whose churches are "stand alone" (so the most they see is overcrowding, which we also hear plenty of complaints about, which of course is all the more reason to demolish those churches and build megachurches), and there are the vast majority of people who are, sadly, nominal or "Sunday" Catholics.

That people cling to the Faith through all this will be nothing short of a miracle. Welcome to Galante's "Church of South Jersey." Will it still be the Bark of Peter when the audio visual equipment is installed, the tabernacle nowhere to be found, and all the dust settles?

• Is closing half the churches in the diocese "scandal?"

• Would erecting in their place quasi-catholic megachurches be "scandal?"

• Are corruption, greed, and lies from positions of authority within the Church "scandal?"

• Is needlessly causing one's church to be difficult to get to physically, logistically, or psychologically, "scandal?"

• Is closing a holy place "scandal?"

• Is seeking personal political gain by climbing the "corporate" ecclesiastical ladder at the expense of the faithful one is charged to protect, "scandal?"

• Is showing a complete indifference for the loss of souls, "scandal?"
  

• Is directly causing a decline in Catholic faith and practice, "scandal?"

• Is sending away priests by the dozen, discouraging seminarians, and then claiming priest shortage, "scandal?"

• Is saying nothing in the face of wrong, "scandal?"
  

• Most importantly, is watering down the Catholic Faith and claiming churches are "just buildings," just "bricks and mortar, wood and nails," "scandal?"

Here is what the Church says. From the Catechism #2285-2287:

Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his  neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obligated to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."* This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn away from moral values.

Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"

*Pope Pius XII, 1941

• Because a church is a sacred, consecrated space. Churches are permanently consecrated. The one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church has always taught this, continues to teach this, and it has been a major point of difference and contention between protestants and Catholics. While mass can be held anywhere, ideally it should not be held just anywhere. That is why Catholics have churches. God deserves reverence and this is why a beautiful and lovingly created church is best suited to His worship in the highest form of prayer, the holy sacrifice of the mass.*

• Because we love our little community. For goodness sakes, that is reason enough! If "the Church is the people," as is the popular sentiment these days, then it does matter that when I look around the church, I know the people around me. It does matter that I can notice someone has been absent awhile and I can check on them to see if they are ok. If one has not been a member of a true and united community of Faith like this, it may be hard to understand why that community is such a treasure. This treasure should not be needlessly destroyed.

• Because small is wonderful!

• Because with the loss of churches come the loss of souls who are not as strong in the Faith or who are disillusioned by the corruption around them. These souls matter to Our Lord and should not be written off as unimportant. We need to try to help them and strengthen them in the Faith. We can only do that if our doors are open and if the churches they know, love, and are familiar with are still there. Because of this, when we close our church's doors, we often close off the last possibility that a soul will return to Holy Mother Church. Those who have already left the Church--and they are many--are no longer around to tell their stories.
  

• Because in struggling to hold on to our parish, we are hope and strength and justice to others who are not strong enough to speak up. We have been confirmed in this countless times.
  

• Because in the case of St. Mary's, we are truly an "intergenerational" community, which is something the Diocese sorely wants churches to try to be and is trying to implement in its "lifelong faith formation" program. We already are, so why destroy it only to try to rebuild something that approximates it?

• Because while we are happy to do things with others, a parish has a right to existence as stipulated by canon law. Wanting one's parish to remain as it is does not make one an "isolationist." It makes one content.

• Because our forefathers and mothers worked hard and sacrificed to give us the great gift of St. Mary's and we do not take this gift for granted.

• Because the church belongs to the people of the parish. They built and maintain it and it belongs to them.

• Because St. Mary's has been financially solvent and debt-free since 1922 and there is no reason it cannot continue to be. St. Mary's parishioners have always been very generous in donating, fundraising, and contributing their time and efforts to directly maintaining the parish. This is part of our culture.
  

• Because we are obligated, by virtue of our baptism and confirmation, to defend the church from error and attack, both from within and without. See Pope St. Pius X's encyclical against the modernists for more on this. It is not just St. Mary's and other churches that are under attack here, but the Faith itself. Purporting that our churches are "just buildings" is example enough. Look at the bishop's job positions, which include audio visual technicians whose job is to install and maintain screens and sound systems, as well as the inclusion of rock bands during mass. Visit any number of "modern" catholic churches which have had their tabernacles removed from a place of prominence on the altar. Look at how many times Bishop Galante has held up Gloucester County Community Church, an evangelical protestant church, as an example to be striven towards. We could go on. Which leads to the following point...

• Because we want to remain Catholic, and that includes holding on to our traditional churches.  

• Because St. Mary's has had and continues to have wonderful devotions available to all, including Eucharistic Adoration from Wed. morning through Friday evening every week. This is something not found at every parish.

• Because our CCD program is small, personal, affordable, our kids love it, and it is worth saving.

• Because we should not have to defend our right to exist, and no parish should.

• Because there has never been a saint who became holy by closing churches, only saints who became holy by erecting them.

• Because many priests, bishops, and even popes have been wrong in the history of the Church. We have an obligation to defend Her. Many saints have been redeemed in time. Saints Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avila, Thomas More, and John Fisher (the only bishop to defend the Faith against evil Henry VIII), ora pro nobis!

• Because keeping open or closing a parish is not a "managerial" decision. Our Church is not a corporation and should not be run like one.
  

• Because we must obey Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church first and foremost, not men.
  

* We have written extensively on this in the past so we will not include references and links here. If you would like them, search our site or the Catholic Encyclopedia online (newadvent.com). You may also refer to the Catechism of John Paul II, the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, the Baltimore Catechism, canon law, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, countless papal encyclicals, and on and on. That the church is "just a building" is a protestant view, not a Catholic one. Now this heterodox view is expediently and shamefully used by the very men charged with defending our Faith and our churches and because they are in positions of authority, people trust them, listen, and believe them.

This was sent from an anonymous reader. We get lots of email since we are so prominent in the struggle to save our church.

Do not be misled: These mergers (closures) are not going well and people are not happy about them. Even at Diocesan sponsored events, we have heard widespread discontent, and this is among those who are sticking with "the program"...for now.

People are leaving their churches in droves, and in some case they are so disgusted they are leaving The Church. Why? They are appalled. They are disillusioned. Their Faith as been shaken, and who can blame them? If your answer is, "who cares?" let us enlighten you. You should care if for no other reason than that they are taking their wallets with them.

But money or no money, downsizing the Church does not strengthen the Church. Among Christ's words were not, "Go, therefore, and consolidate." No, he said this: Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19

We ought to care of souls are being led astray! As this reader and so many others have expressed, what is happening is evil. If we are children of God by our Baptism and soldiers of Christ by our Confirmation, we cannot support that which is evil. We are called to resist it.

Email follows:

As of today, 1/13/10, St. John Vianney has ceased to exist as a Catholic parish. It feels as if there's been a death, it's heart rending and gut wrenching. I can hardly believe any of this has happened, the destruction of the Catholic Church in the Camden Diocese.

The wonderful ex-pastor of St. John Vianney will now be doing non-pastoral work, along with many other good priests from the diocese. If there's a priest shortage, why on earth have there been so many assignments to work other than pastoral work?

I cannot understand how people do not see this is evil work being done? Is this diocese blind? Is Rome blind? It seems there is a systematic destruction of the Catholic churches schools, orchestrated by the current leadership--the thing is, I cannot figure out why? It has to be more than power. It has to be more than believing their left-of-center ways are "best"? It is nothing but pure, unadulterated evil.
.....
...this bishop has no mercy and no compassion, and I think he'll do anything he can
to close every single remotely-traditional parish in this diocese.

Take a good, hard look. We at savestmarys are not saying we agree with all the sentiments expressed, only that this is the inevitable result of the message that is being sent by the Diocese. We are not surprised at people's disillusionment. Souls will be and are being lost.

See also: Keep Wildwood Catholic High School Alive Facebook Page and Save Wildwood Catholic High School Facebook Page

These comments are only from the last few hours from the Wildwood Catholic article. Bishop Galante, Average Joe and Jane Catholic are pissed, disgusted, fed up. Don't you care? People are leaving the church, and those who have already left are feeling justified in their decision. Don't you care? Souls are being lost. Your reputation is in the garbage bin? Don't you care? You will go down as the bishop who single-handedly destroyed the Diocese of Camden and drove people from the Church en masse. It is your job to care. Why don't you care?

Wakeup People the Catholic church has been dieing for the last few years, They have been closing churchs and catholic schools in the area for the last few years. Why would they leave WC open when they can force you to go to HOLY SPIRIT for a lot more money. I am surprised that WC was not closed years ago.

Donnachie: What was your posting about? Especially that last line? If you are a practicing Catholic you should know better than anyone how the institution manipulates the flock toward one end -- and only one end --and that is always money. The whole irony here is that the Catholic Church is the richest organized religion in the world and is now hitting on some tough times with the abuse scandal payouts but we have to believe its coffers are FAR from empty. Many of us know or have read about the Vatican's vast real estate holdings and silent partnerships around the world and the true "business" that the church really is. For hundreds of years, these male church leaders have always been dominant and controlling with little regard for the nuns (except to dictate how they should conduct themselves and their order) and other "second class citizens" (females and children)who serve in different capacities throughout the system.

From "Galante Has To Go"
With all the school and church closings in this diocese, a good businessman would realize that the next step is to consolidate the Diocese of Camden with another, larger diocese. Exactly what is the overhead of keeping Camden as a diocese? The bishop's expenses - living quarters, food, car & drivers, secretaries; the staff at Catholic Charities & Diocesan Housing; the Star Herald newspaper. Wow! We probably could have afforded to keep our schools open if the schools were given the money being used to maintain this top heavy organization.

What an absolute disgrace, the so-called Christian decision makers should be ashamed of themselves. From the start what happened yesterday at Wildwood Catholic High School was horrible. While you can understand the point of financial problems, which raises the question, how did these problems come about? What you did to these poor children and the families was anything but Christian. What it is is just another example of how mismanagement is destroying the catholic lifestyle. So to the local managing body or the Bishop, you could never imagine what it is like to get a phone call from your child, crying uncontrollably saying that they were just told that their high school is closing forever in 6 months. Knowing that after being there for three years of their life, knowing that they will not graduate from their school, the horrible feeling of not knowing where they will go, if they will be with their friends and how this is going to affect the rest of their lives. You made these decisions without any input, concern, questions from the families. I understand that decisions like this are difficult but you could have let the families know what was going on, what was being considered, to give these families and children an idea of what to expect. And what about the teachers and the school administration, these teachers were not told anything, the school administration was not told anything until yesterday about your misguided, ill-managed and totally insensitive decision. Let's talk about the financial point. These people put their heart and soul into this school. Working for less money then any other teacher would in the public sector. I do not blame the teaching and administrative staff of Wildwood Catholic for this disaster; I blame the Catholic Church administrators and the people who were responsible for the decision to close this school. Enrolment is down because tuition is too high. The powers to be would say tuition is high because enrollment is down. You should have "bit the bullet" for a while and lowered tuition to increase enrollment. Most importantly why could you not keep the students at wildwood catholic there until they graduate, or at least keep the junior class of this year there next year to graduate. Its not like the school building is going to be closed,,, you are boosting about how the grade school is moving in there and how wonderful its going to be,,,so keep these kids there and let them graduate over the next three years and then do away with the high school level. It is such a cruel, uncaring decision. Lets not give up! Facebook Keep Wildwood Catholic High School Alive

This is a direct result of problems that the Principal Barbara Byrne from Bishop McHugh School has caused. She personally drove the enrollment from 420 to 200 in 3 years. Bishop Galante refused to take action and left her there. The priests of the sending parish's did nothing also. Galante has systematically destroyed the morale of Cape May and had done gamage to the Church that will take generations to repair.

2 points here of comment. Who on earth would bus their kids to Holy Spirit/ It is easily a 45 minute to one hour ride to Absecon. The school pools from all Cape May County and if you live south of Court House the ride is easily as stated.Second the students of Wildwood Ctholic will be in for a real culture shock if they attend public school now. The culture is night and day plain and simple!!!

Welcome to the new world of the "Economics of the Christian Religious Faith". Unfortunately this, once again, shows how religion in America has less about morals,values, and faith and more a business. The bureaucracy of religion has put America's faith and values directly in its crosshairs. Is it a wonder why we have a crisis in America concerning morals, values, and faith? However, this does nothing for the youth and families of these youth of Wildwood Cathlic High School. Keep the faith even if the Camden Diocese took a non-Christian approach in announcing their decision. Merry post Christmas!Yep, run down to Wildwood, tell the school youth of the decision without their parents present, and then run right back out of town without facing the parents after school or in a nightly meeting. What Christian values and morals did this teach these youth? This community? Maybe the Camden Diocese needs to take a look at their own faith and values. Agaim, keep the faith to the students, faculty, staff, and community of Wildwood Catholic! Even if the Diocese mo longer does.

"If you want your children to lost the faith, send them to Catholic School". Fulton Sheen said this 30 years or so ago and how true it has come. The Anarchy after Vatican II- all the changes we Traditionalists feel have gone way too far- well I would not ever send my children to a Catholic School. The Catholic Schools are not Catholic anymore. We would rather homeschool our children and bring them up Catholic than send them to Catholic school and have them lose their faith. The Diocese needs to wake up, the Church needs to wake up. Liberalizing is not drawing people to the Church, it is only driving true Catholics away.

I just wanted to say how sad this is for Cape May County. Many family members and friends were proud to call this school their school. But this is no surprise given the way this bishop has continually treated area students and their families. Perhaps if he had cleaned house at Bishop Mc Hugh 5 years ago those 80 families and the subsequent 125 kids wouldn't have chosen public school over their precious Catholic school. And if he hadn't lied to the families at St. Raymond's they wouldn't have gone onto to public school. And the same goes for Star of the Sea parents this year. My family has moved out of the area-to the Southern Bible Belt in fact. The few Catholic schools are thriving and there's an enrollment wait list and tuition for elementary is nearly same as Wildwood Catholic. Proudly, we are in planning stages to build a Catholic High School here. So many Catholics are fed up with the North East and the lies and have moved. People stand in the aisles for Sunday mass. Nobody should be surprised that familes and especially children come behind the almighty dollar and concealer.

As a Catholic, I detect an insurmountable public relations problem for the entire institution that started early on when this -- the most rapidly growing religion and today still the one claiming the largest membership of any other -- employed the practice of constantly "poor-mouthing" and the "do as I say not as I do" mentality. This fund-raising strategy imploded when the abuse scandals finally came to light. Denial has always been among the leadership's most reliable tools; however, with the testimony of real live pedophilia victims over the last two decades, there's no recourse but to pay --- in millions of dollars and image. These bishops are a bunch of businessmen (Galante only pretends to care when he sits in at the parish pow-wows attended by very distraught and long-time, old-school parishioners who actually think their protests will make any difference) and not very good ones at that. But I'll betcha their retirement packages are secure -- strong and solid as the gilded walls of the Vatican.

What a total contradiction. Earlier, The Press reported that the rumors of the school closing were unsubstantiated... Who wants to bus their kids from Wildwood to Holy Spirit and who is going to pay for that transportation?

after school or in a nightly meeting. What Christian values and morals did this teach these youth? This community? Maybe the

Read Press of AC Article Here or scroll down

Fresh from the desk of our "pastor," Fr. Edward Namiotka, comes this "bright idea. Here is another example of why we continue to fight to save St. Mary's. Over the past two years and, arguably, since the 1970s, more and more strange ideas in the name of "Catholicism" have been made, and so many have been suggested in the past two years by the Diocese of Camden. But never you fear! Rest confidently that this particular innovation is the brain power of a Sacred Heart High School administrator. Is it just a way of getting you to part with your cash, or is it a new-fangled spiritual practice? You be the judge. However, we wouldn't recommend you try this at home. Let us give you some background, first.

Father says in his Jan. 3 bulletin that since the light bulbs in St. Michael's Minotola need to be replaced, members of this parish ought to sponsor a light bulb ($25 a bulb). Apparently the labor cost of changing light bulbs is into the thousands. He calls this the "Guiding Light" project. In the interest of spirituality, he says that light bulbs are just like votive candles. Ya know, candles give light and so do light bulbs. Yeah, we see the similarity. We quote:

It is not that far removed from the practice that we have of lighting candles in a church in memory of someone. And these light bulbs should radiate in the church for a significantly longer amount of time than a candle--potentially a couple of years or more. [emphasis his]

However, from our point of view, as Fr. Namiotka has previously pointed out that nothing is permanent, including our churches, and that they are nothing more than just buildings, we're not sure we understand the point in making that sort of an investment. A light bulb that lasts two years? Gee wizz. All things are changing, right? As he pointed out a few bulletins back, our churches could get bombed out tomorrow just like the ones in Europe during World War II (or, alternatively, stolen by a bishop and his conspirators). Therefore we're not sure that kind of investment is warranted. A more practical approach might be for each of us to just bring our own flashlights to mass. Heck, that might be fun, like a camp out, but we digress. Father goes on, imploring us to think:

Think about it. Every time you enter the church you can look up and think of someone who shone like a light for you. Hopefully it will help you to remember them and to pray for them. [again, emphasis his]

Ummm, I could remember my loved one or I could go blind from staring into a lightbulb. Uh-huh!

Then he goes on to say, and we could not possibly make this up, that there are "three mouths to feed in our rectory household while the weekly collection has not increased proportionately." Ain't that cute? They're like hungry little kittens who've come scratching at our back doors or something. Remember to put out a bowl of chow!

Some of us have lost our jobs, are struggling during this recession, have families to feed, and don't own Rolex watches, nor do we have our auto insurance, rent or mortgage, gas, utilities, and other life expenses paid for us by our employers. No one shops for us, cooks our meals, or cleans our houses, either. To top it all off, they're threatening to steal our churches away from us, but that's not enough. They want more, more, more. Their mouths need feeding.

The pastor's hungry? Well cry me a river. We've made you pierogies, taken you out to eat, and had you over for dinner. Not enough? We'll set an extra place for you any night of the week at our dining room table. Come on over. Open invitation. Again, we've digressed from the light bulbs. Sorry.

We're supposed to mark our envelopes "Guiding Light" and bring our contributions, along with the names of our dear departed loved ones, to the rectory. In the spirit of the "Guiding Light" project, we have furthered the innovation. A natural extension of the prayer rock, we now have the prayer light bulb, intended to remind us to pray for our loved one.

Step 1: Select a bulb.

Once again, Jim Walsh ought to be ashamed of this poor excuse for balanced journalism. Link here.

"We are grateful that the Congregation, after a thorough examination of this matter, has affirmed Bishop Galante's intention in both process and substance to strengthen parish life in this area of the diocese," the Rev. David Klein, the diocesan chancellor, said in a statement.

Cute. This Fr. Klein sounds like a regular charmer.

We seriously doubt that it is even Bishop Galante's intention is to "strengthen parish life." How could it be? He is destroying long-established communities of faith. To the Catholics we know, the clear opinion is that he and his small group of supporters on the inside are intentionally killing "parish life" in the service of their own warped agenda.

It seems to us that any Catholics who disagree with the bishop's unholy agenda he'd be just as happy to see leave the Church altogether, because that's precisely what's already beginning to happen. For shame! Churches and parishes are not disposable, and Rome ought to be defending the lay faithful from continued abuses from corrupt American bishops on high. In the cases of many dioceses, (and our own diocese remains to be proven since we do not have access to the evidence), first the bishops allow the stealing of the innocence of our youth and now they perpetrate the stealing of our churches to pay for their evil acts. No matter the reason given for this horrendous injustice, it still reeks.

My parents were married at Sacred Heart Church in Vineland, the church my ancestors helped to build (both the original Sacred Heart as well as the "new" Sacred Heart, that is). My grandmother's side was from St. Mary's Malaga northern Italian "cousin," the East Vineland St. Mary's. (Apparently, they  used virtually identical blueprints for both St. Mary's churches.) Anyway, my mother went all through Sacred Heart grade school and high school way back when it was...well, back when there were habited religious sisters teaching there.

My mom died back in 2000 just after she turned 50 following a long, long, long battle with cancer, and my father has recently remarried. He let me borrow the wedding album awhile back to scan in these pictures of their wedding day. As you can see, they were clearly awesome! This was back in 1974, the height of blue eyeshadow, side burns, chunky heels, and general awesomeness all around.

On a serious note, it is nothing short of a complete and utter travesty that the bishop wants this beautiful church, every bit as beautiful and comparable in size as the cathedral in Camden, closed. It is totally unnecessary. This is the sort of thing that devastates people and drives them from the Faith in complete disgust, mistrust, disbelief. But hey, I guess it looks too...Catholic. Time to make way for the generic McMegachurch. Change the mass, change the church, change the religion. And hey, St. Isidore's has got plenty of land behind it...

We can't link to the article for you since the Diocese of Camden, oops I meant the "Catholic Star Herald," took the article down. One wonders, why? Do they have something to hide? Why is it they do not want people to know the truth of the matter? When you're in the Truth, you have nothing to hide. But then, I guess we all know by now that our current diocesan administration is very far from the Truth.

We will share the article with you when we get it, but for now, the gist of it is this: the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy has notified St. Vincent Pallotti that their request for recourse regarding the merger was not upheld. The Congregation wrote that "decisions as to the location of the offices of the merged parish, and the appointment of the pastor for that parish, fall within the direct competence only of the local bishop, and therefore outside the scope of a canonical recourse."

This is a continuation of parts I, II, & III.

Those who promote the notion that our churches are "just buildings" deny the sacramentals contained therein, the fact of the church itself as a sacramental, the reality of the consecration of that space to God, the true Eucharistic presence of Our Lord contained in the tabernacle, and of course the right of a Catholic parish to stability and to its patrimony! What we face at this time and place in history is a much larger agenda than even just our individual churches. We face something that Pope St. Pius X predicted over a hundred years ago. In the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis he warned us that modernists are
 

the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For...they put into operation their designs for her undoing, not from without but within. Hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate. Moreover, they lay the ax not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. And once having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to diffuse poison throughout the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth which they leave untouched, none that they do not strive to corrupt.

The great pontiff argues that the modernist does not believe in the inherent efficacy of sacraments and sacramentals, but instead in what Pope St. Pius X calls "theological symbolism."

These errors are truly of the gravest kind and the pernicious character of both will be seen clearly from an examination of their consequences. For, to begin with symbolism, since symbols are but symbols in regard to their objects and only instruments in regard to the believer, it is necessary first of all,according to the teachings of the modernists, that the believer does not lay too much stress on the [human rather than divine] formula, as formula, but avail himself of it only for the purpose of uniting himself to the absolute truth...

The great pontiff hit the nail right on the head. The symbolic formula, the instruments, are good "only as far as they are helpful to him, for they are given to be a help and not a hindrance." Once they have outlived their usefulness, it's back to the drawing board. Time to cook up some new liturgical, dogmatic, or architectural innovation or "novelty," all of which are born of mere human "impulse" or "need."

Finally, Mr. Davies leaves us with the profound words of St. Athanasius:

The Church has not just recently been given order and statutes. They were faithfully and soundly bestowed on it by the Fathers. Nor has the Faith only just been established, but has come to us from the Lord through His disciples. May what has been preserved in the Churches from the beginning to the present day not be abandoned in our own time; may what has been entrusted to our keeping not be embezzled by us. Brethren, as custodians of God's mysteries, let yourselves be roused into action on seeing all this despoiled by others.  

This is a continuation from Parts I & II.

An outcome of so much of the Vatican II fallout, says Davies, is that mass is no longer an experience of peaceful reverence for many Catholics, but instead "going to Mass has become a misery for them, they come away disturbed and distressed." For many it is a chore rather than a joy. Naturally many of us have witnessed this fact. Still worse, many thinking Catholics find themselves in situations in which they "quite reasonably wonder whether the sacraments they are receiving are valid." In retrospect, I wonder the same thing about some places I have visited.

Davies believes that we are living through a period in Catholic history not dissimilar to the time of St. Athanasius in which heresy--in our age, modernism--is rampant. Even the age old mass, now known as the Tridentine mass, was unjustly outlawed until our current pope, the Lord bless him, corrected and clarified this error in his Motu Proprio only a few years ago. And so we find ourselves at a crossroads in American Catholic history, a time in which tradition is roundly and summarily dismsissed, our "church buildings" not far behind.

Never before in the entire history of the Church has there been such an abrupt and violent breach with Tradition and established custom. We can say with St. Thomas: "It is absurd and a detestable shame that we should suffer those traditions to be changed which we have received from the fathers of old."

I believe that the forcible closing of our churches in favor of what can be reasonably looked upon as "the new church" both physically and spiritually may fall under the heading of "an absurd and detestable shame." The very structure of a traditional Catholic church is under attack. In a "traditional" Catholic church we all face forward, not in a circle or semi-circle so that we may stare at our "community" during "the liturgy" (even the term, "mass" is apparently, by many, considered a relic of the past). We have kneelers, holy water fonts, stations of the cross, and, typically, stained glass and other art that educates and illuminates the faithful, as well as many other things. Perhaps most importantly, the tabernacle containing Our Lord's precious body is front and center, where it should be, for the purpose of proper dignity and worship!

In the case of St. Mary's, we are also blessed with an altar rail which clearly delineates the space where the Holy Sacrifice takes place. In addition, the choir loft an organ are in the rear of church, where they belong. In a traditional Catholic church, the mass is not a show, therefore we need not see the musicians. The music is meant to elevate our souls to God, who comes to us body, blood, soul, and divinity via the priest who stands in persona christi.

To be continued in Part IV.

On Friday November 20th, I attended one (of two) days of the "Lifelong Faith Formation" seminar/workshop/conference/whatever. It was held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Absecon. Honestly I had no idea what to expect in terms of particulars, but my expectations were fairly low. (This way I could be pleasantly surprised.) I hoped to come from the day with a few ideas for our parish pertaining to RCIA or adult religious education, and maybe some curricula to flip through. Well, I really didn't get either of these. As it turns out, the seminar was mainly intended to help parishes implement a specific "faith formation" program. It was largely an "insert Tab A into Slot B" type of thing, with some options to make the program suit your own "community," but it was definitely a program. And yes, it was alarming, but I'll talk more about the program generally in the future.

Our Lady of the Lakes in Collings Lakes, formerly part of the St. Mary's Malaga, St. Rose of Lima Newfield, and Queen of Angels Parish (St. Michael's Minotola & Our Lady of Victories Landisville) merger/closure group was just permitted to remain stand-alone. Why? We have received no answer to this question. From their Nov. 15th bulletin:

I have received word from the diocesan Vicar General
that the bishop has approved the Core Team proposal that
our parish would remain a stand alone parish. But we are
encouraged to share resources and programs with the
merging parishes of Buena, Newfield, and Malaga.
This is great news for our Parish because we can continue
as usual serving the needs of the Collings Lakes area.
This is a good news 'short term' situation considering the
underlying problem of a priest shortage in our Diocese.
As more priests retire the present active priests will be
called on to do more. All of us must be ready for the future
when there may not be a priest in residence here. In the
meantime lets be a vibrant sustainable community.
To celebrate this good news we will have a wine and
cheese, coffee and cake celebration in our hall after the
Saturday evening Mass next week. Invite your friends and
family to the 5pm Mass which will have our new
'Lures of the Lakes' choir singing. Then socialize,
celebrate, and relax with your friends and neighbors.

What a slap in the face to the "process" and to all of the other churches in this diocese that would also like to remain stand-alone. "Core team" arm twisting is, apparently, part of the open and honest "process," but how such decisions are made remains a mystery to all of us. Political expedience, string-pulling, and personality conflict at high levels seem to be the order of the day. In truth, we the Catholic faithful have no real input at all, though we are required to speak the Truth by virtue of our baptism and confirmation.

This is taken from the St. Joseph's Picture Book, The Sacramentals of the Church, intended for children as young as kindergarten age. (Written by Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, SVD, Imprimatur Joseph O'Keefe, Archdiocese of NY, Nihil Obstat Daniel Flynn JCD.) There are so many other children's and general catechetical books I could quote that say similar things, but this is the one we are finishing up with today in our homeschool religion lesson.


Bishop Galante and all those who would have us believe our churches are "just buildings" ought to pay attention to what is being taught to our children at the kindergarten level: the basic Truths of the Catholic Faith. If a five-year old can grasp the concept, surely they can, too. (Although, it seems that they also believe the estate in Pittsgrove is just a house.) From the book:

Besides sacred times, there are sacred places. These places are set aside for Divine Worship. This means God is there in a presence that is more grace-filled than His usual presence in creation.

All churches are sacred places. The activities that Catholics carry out in them will be more open than any other place to God's grace and beneficial to their own salvation and that of the world.

Cleary's Notebook/Gloucester City News continues to follow the church closing debacle in their "Part 3" of a three-part series.  Most of the interviews were completed last winter, but not too much has changed since then.  Paula Carlton is an excellent writer and journalist and has done extremely thorough research for all three parts of the article. Thank you, Paula, Gloucester City News, and Cleary's Notebook.