• It is not the work of God to tear down His Church or churches. (To do that would be to "tear the Church apart, to create factions, or create dissension in the ranks.")

• 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.

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 was originally posted January 31, 2009. We thought it was worth republishing.

Catholic theology and Church teaching are not accidental. Holy Mother Church teaches unchanging, eternal Truths. Moreover, these Truths are all connected and interconnected. Like all systems, each Truth depends upon the other; they are the structures that support the building. We do not, after all, have an atomistic system wherein one truth may stand up as a pillar without the others. Generally speaking, it is not possible, nor is it logical, to accept one teaching of the Catholic Church and dispense with the others, as if one was unrelated to the next. Once we begin to do this, the structure loses its supports and comes tumbling down.

Take, for example, our church buildings and chapels. They are designed for the worship of Christ, the King of the Universe. They are supposed to give us a glimpse of heaven. They are to surround us with examples of how we should live (depictions of the lives of Christ and the saints), who we are and were designed to be (holy sons and daughters of Our Lord), and the physical and spiritual means of getting there.


As Catholics, we believe that Christ is truly and physically present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and that his Eucharistic Presence resides in the Tabernacle. If the King of the Universe resides in the Tabernacle, it only makes sense that that Tabernacle be located in a prominent place, front and center.


If the King of the Universe in the Tabernacle is located front and center in our churches, it only makes sense that we reverently face Him. If the King of the Universe is located in the Tabernacle, front and center, and we are all facing His Majesty, it only makes sense that we be able to kneel before Him in humility and out of love and devotion to Him.


If we truly believe that Jesus Christ, King and Redeemer of our fallen race has come to be with us sacramentally in the Holy Eucharist and that He resides in our Catholic churches, then our souls and minds ought to be elevated, our whole selves reminded of Him while we are in church, whether mass is going on or not. Throughout most of human history, people have not been literate, and even today we need reminders of what it means to live the Christian life. God allows us to use our senses to know Him. To glorify God and for the help of our souls, we are given works of art in the form of paintings, stained glass windows, statues, and other things within our churches.


Consider this. When you have a guest coming to your house, you clean up. You make ready. You prepare. If you were to have an "important" guest come to your house, you would want it to look good. In this case we have an important guest--the most important Guest possible, our Creator--coming to be with us, so great is His love for us. We should want all around us to remind us of His loving and sacrificial Presence.

Says the Catholic Church of England and Wales:

A Church for us is more than a building - it is a Sacred Space, filled with God's presence. Everything within that space - the paintings, the statues, the stained glass - exists for a spiritual purpose.

This is to provide people with a focus for prayer and an insight into God: literally a 'glimpse of heaven'. The word 'Patrimony' describes the Church's cultural inheritance in terms of architecture, art and artefacts. All witness to our Catholic past: a history of persecution, struggle and ultimately, revival. We are just custodians, with a duty to preserve these sacred treasures for the future. Today we also create the Patrimony of tomorrow by commissioning high quality Sacred art.

But now, after roughly two thousand years of Holy Mother Church teaching us

• about the sacredness the church building,
• about how we must be ever vigilant of the possibility of sacrilege not only personally but also in our churches and shrines,
• about how Our Lord would be with us even until the end of time both spiritually and in the Holy Eucharist in our churches and sacred places,
• about Christians sacrificing all they had materially and even their own lives for the sake of their holy churches erection and continuation,
  
• to fall on our knees before God in our beloved churches,

now, in late twentieth and early twenty-first century America we are told to believe that our churches are "just buildings" and we ought not be attached to them. I don't know about you, but my mother taught me when I was just a child that this is one of the most important things that distinguishes us as Catholics from the protestants: our churches are open because we believe that they are holy places, that Our Lord is there, and that they are not just buildings. My mother was no liar.

Places where Our Lord has come to us sacramentally in His unbloody sacrifice, day after day after day, we are now told to believe are buildings like any other. That isn't Catholicism. That is materialism. And that, my friends, is precisely what the devil himself would have us believe. To believe our churches are only buildings would be to deny Our Lord's Eucharistic Presence, our ultimate and eternal destiny, and that for which we were created--the worship of God. In fact, to claim that our churches are just buildings would be to deny our spiritual nature, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and even our sacred baptisms and confirmations. To claim that our churches are just buildings is to deny the validity of their consecrations and blessings. To claim that our churches are just buildings is an insidious lie. And a lie is a lie no matter who says it.

By a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXII), Mass should not be celebrated in any place except a consecrated or blessed church. Hence it is the wish of the Church that at least cathedrals and parish churches be solemnly consecrated, and that smaller churches be blessed (Cong. Sac. Rit., 7 Aug., 1875), but any church and public or semi-public oratory may be consecrated (Cong. Sac. Rit., 5 June, 1899). Both by consecration and by blessing a church is dedicated to Divine worship, which forbids its use for common or profane purposes. Consecration is a rite reserved to a bishop, who by the solemn anointing with holy chrism, and in the prescribed form, dedicates a building to the service of God, thereby raising it in perpetuum to a higher order, removing it from the malign influence of Satan, and rendering it a place in which favours are more graciously granted by God (Pontificale Romanum).  (From New Advent, the Catholic Encyclopedia.)

In the past, Catholics and Catholic buildings alike have been the targets of hatred and persecution. I need not list the litany of specific examples, but priests have been tarred and feathered, buildings blown up, altars desecrated, the Sacred Body of Our Lord maligned, churches vandalized. The history of anti-Catholicism in this country is well-documented and is, in fact, alive and well today. Of course in this country Catholics not even permitted to run for public office (and even when they were, there was serious doubt about their "patriotism"). Catholics have experienced horrible persecution in this and other countries, and by extension our houses of worship desecrated in the worst possible ways. Suffice it to say that many of you have likely heard the stories of your own ancestors and what they went through to preserve the faith, or even just to get to mass. I know I grew up hearing these stories of perseverance in the Faith, and my own family sacrificed much and for that I am so proud and so grateful. It is a great privilege to be born into a good Catholic family and to receive the benefits of our patrimony. The fruit of all that sacrifice is made real to us by virtue of worshiping in the places bequeathed to us by our ancestors and by the grace of God.


It is amazing that at this point in American Catholic history, instead of the Catholic Church being the object of hostile attacks from without, our church buildings and even the Church itself is being attacked from within. Sadly, our shepherds are leading their sheep astray, and many souls will be lost. Instead of protecting our churches, our patrimony, they are being closed (and often the contents sold on ebay) and when faithful Catholics hold tight to the timeless teachings of their Faith, they are called all manner of things from "disobedient" to "unchristian" and worse. Sometimes these attacks are leveled, shamefully, by their own priests and bishops. Yes, many of the very bishops who

• harbored child abusers, shuffling them from one parish to the next
• affiliate themselves and do business with the likes of criminals who would steal churches and schools right out from under unsuspecting Catholics
• allow the rampant sexual impropriety of priests in their diocese
• advocate such unorthodox doctrine as married, gay, and "womyn" priests; as well as downplay of the sacrificial nature of the mass and many other things
• repeatedly lie to the faithful in matters ranging from real estate transactions to canon law to theological Truth
  
• justify closing churches by claiming there's a "priest shortage" and then persecuting and sending away priests by the dozen...
  

...yes, some of the very same bishops would be so blind and arrogant as to criticize the faithful Catholics who merely want to worship their Lord and Savior in the manner they always have: in their own churches. This is an outrage, and it should not be tolerated by any thinking Catholic.

Churches and priests like the one in this article are at odds with an increasingly liberal church. This is the crux of their problem and, in many ways, the crux of ours, too. However they have expressed their disagreement in the following way:

For 17 years, the parish has refused to allow the local Episcopal bishop to come for a pastoral visit or confirmation, and then stopped paying its annual financial assessment to the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

So now, as they are poised to enter the Catholic Church, something the pastor prayed for daily, they may be faced with losing their property. Since they have not paid their assessments, the Episcopal church is suing them. Ya just have to admire this man's backbone. The church is in Philly, by the way, so not far from us. Read NY Times article here.

We know that there are those of you who have expressed interest in how things are going at St. Mary's generally and so here's a brief update.

We had quite a number of young people confirmed recently [by Fr. Namiotka]--32 if I counted correctly--and this was a joyous occasion for all, followed by a little party in the basement and in people's private homes, too.

Rosary Garden
The Rosary Garden looks beautiful as usual, thanks to God and to our hard-working parishioner, Charlie. Today when I visited I noticed that the roses were in bloom and their sweet fragrance was in the air! I recommend you visit, and maybe even bring a picnic or snack, a rosary and spiritual reading.

Mass
Sunday morning/Saturday evening mass times remain the same (5:00, 8:30 & 11:30), and we continue to pray the beautiful consecration prayer in which we consecrate our parish and our families to the Sacred Heard of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Following mass, we pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Of course, all are welcome. Don't forget, we also have Latin (low) mass on the last Sunday of each month at 6pm, presided over by Fr. Romanowski.

Feast Planning
Plans for the Feast of the Assumption in August are just in their beginning stages. We are sure it will be a beautiful and festive time! If you have any ideas for the Feast or would like to help plan it, contact us or call the rectory (856-694-2576).

Sunday School
CCD is done until the Fall, but of course St. Mary's families continue in the religious education of their children all year long, as the Church teaches that the primary educators of the child are his parents. My kindergartner loves CCD at St. Mary's, I think in large part due to its intimate atmosphere. It is very different from the CCD program of which I was a part when I was a child, one that was a lot larger and, well, colder. The littlest children at St. Mary's have CCD in the shrine room, surrounded by the saints and even relics. The older kids have CCD in the church itself, which is wonderful and beautiful. We have, to the best of our knowledge, never had a shortage of catechism teachers, thanks be to God. There is no shortage of generosity at St. Mary's, to be sure. We wish all parishes have the blessing of so solid a CCD program as we've been fortunate enough to have. Thank you to all the CCD instructors!

Fr. Namiotka
We pray our new pastor, Fr. Namiotka, is settling in well and maybe even getting to like us, despite our quirkiness! (He is not living at St. Mary's, though.) He delivered a wonderful sermon today on consecrating our lives to God and we look forward to getting to know him better.

Be a Servant of God by Serving St. Mary's!
Most recently Fr. Namiotka is helping to better organize various parish functions such as ushers, lectors, etc. and will be holding a meeting for all interested people this Tuesday night at 7:00 in the Shrine Room (in the rectory). Luckily at St. Mary's we barely need any "Extraordinary Ministers" for holy mass since we are a small church and most wish to receive the Blessed Eucharist from the hands of the parish priest. However, in the bulletin Fr. Namiotka says his goal "is to have each and every sick or homebound parishioner visited and brought Holy Communion weekly." (Emphasis his.) An Extraordinary Minister needs to be "living a life in union with Church teachings." This is a laudable goal and one which we ought to help with.

Certainly there are so many ways in which you may offer your time as a gift to God through our parish, St. Mary's. Please be sure to attend the meeting if you have an interest in participating in any way! Well, just about every way. Father Namiotka says he will be organizing the altar boys at a later time. If you have any questions call Fr. Namiotka via the St. Mary's rectory or Queen of Angels (856-697-1450).

Fr. Romanowski
Our much loved Fr. Romanowski, pastor emeritus, is still settling in at his house but will be back, we understand, for the Latin mass on the final Sunday evening of each month--that would be next week--at 6pm. Fr. is also very busy with the various events and masses around the region having to do with the Holy Name Society. We hope to publish a list of the dates and locations very soon.

Legion of Mary
The Legion of Mary continues to regularly meet, as well as the Junior Legion. At both, new members are always welcome. The Junior Legion meets Thursdays from 4-5:00pm and the Adult Praesidium meets Thursdays from 7-8:00pm.

Choir
Both the Junior and Adult Choir also continue to practice and sing at mass. News singers are always welcome there as well. Call Angela, our parish secretary, at 856-694-2576 with any questions you may have. Regular choir practices from 7:30-9:00pm on Tuesdays, Junior choir rehearses Tuesdays from 7-8:00.

Here are just a few pictures from the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Mary's. It was so good to have Fr. Gannon celebrating together with Fr. Romanowski. He is also an excellent priest and we are blessed to have him at St. Mary's. The church looked and smelled (from the lilies and incense and candles) beautiful and as always, the mass was well-attended.

Interestingly, we seem to be getting new people attending St. Mary's all the time and from varied ethnic backgrounds. It is heartening to see the St. Mary's family growing! Speaking of family growth, it was wonderful to witness a Confirmation last night, although sadly, without the traditional slap. Witnessing a Confirmation is a reminder to us that it is in our Confirmations that we are made soldiers of Christ. Since the devil is continually at work in our world, we are in the midst of a holy battle...

We would like to congratulate the adult choir. Their singing last night was just beautiful and gets better each week. It is clear that they are working so hard and are dedicated to the glory of God. Last night we especially appreciated their singing the Panis Angelicus and other traditional hymns. (Scroll down to #24 to hear Limbillotte version of Panis Angelicus. It took a long time to find this, by the way. Who knew there were so many versions of this beautiful hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas?) Just wish we'd known and we'd have recorded the the St. Mary's choir for you. Maybe next time.
 

Better think again. We were recently visiting the new website for "The Catholic Community of Christ Our Light" in Cherry Hill. As mentioned in our previous blog post, this is to be the name of the future merged parish of Queen of Heaven and St. Peter Celestine.

Anyway, the interesting thing is that the website has the same job openings as listed in the Courier Post help wanted ad, plus another one:  Coordinator for Sound, Video, and Lighting.

From the position description:

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBLILITES (includes but not limited to all of the following)

· Maintain all applicable electronic equipment for the parish including, but not limited to: lights, video production tools, televisions, projectors, monitors, and microphones.

·Prepare all equipment to be accessible and operable for all parish functions.

·Recruit, schedule, train and supervise volunteers.

· Report to Pastoral Associate for Worship and Music to prepare for upcoming liturgy and services

·Maintain an inventory of equipment and a library of productions.

·Other duties as assigned by the Pastoral Associate for Worship and Music.

Wow! Nothing says vibrant like video production and lights!  Maybe they can get Joel Osteen to swing by and deliver the homilies on Sunday. Maybe some show tunes and liturgical dancing can be added.  Maybe Fr. Tom Newton could play in an African Drum Band.  Maybe they could add "ritual," which always makes people feel good.  You know something like holding hands in a circle and singing kumbaya.

 

I am not even sure what to say anymore, except that we are clearly being turned into protestant mega-churches and anyone who doesn't believe this is being naive.  Anyone who accepts this is compromising their faith.  Remember, at your Confirmation, you became a Soldier of Christ.  Well, the battle is here!

(Here are a couple of examples of "contemporary christian worship" for your purview.)

The Baptism of Our Lord is celebrated in conjunction with the Feast of the Epiphany. In the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church we always give due honor to both feasts. The sacramental nature of Our Lord's Church is stressed by Our Lord's institution of the Sacrament of Baptism. We must do everything we can to teach the true power of the sacraments in our lives.

Preparation is necessary to see the ongoing work of the sacraments. That is why we teach the permanent character imprinted on the soul by the three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. This means that these sacraments operate in the soul constantly.

The Holy Spirit is the True Guest of our souls from the moment that water is poured on the head of the child or adult when he chooses to be baptized. How wonderful it is to recognize the gifts that God bestows on us. Recognize the total forgiveness that God gives to a newly baptized soul--total forgiveness, mercy with no punishment due to sin.

I emphasize the point that when we have faith in God's mercy in the soul of one individual, we recognize that same perfection is appealing to everyone. We see that in our daily lives how we can withstand the assaults of the devil which we always know from the depth of our being that is because of God's grace that we protect and nourish through the all powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother of God.
 

St. Faustina reminds us--no, implores us--to live in that mercy which is the Divine Life. St.Mary's Shrine Parish has been called and chosen by God to bring His mercy continuously into the world and we have the true Sign of the Blessed Mother's words given to us, imprinted on our souls because of our vocation:

Then I saw the Blessed Virgin, unspeakably beautiful. She came down from the altar to my kneeler, held me close and said to me,I am Mother to you all, thanks to the unfathomable mercy of God most pleasing to me is that soul which faithfully carries out the will of God. She gave me to understand that I had faithfully fulfilled the will of God and had thus found favor in His eyes. Be courageous. Do not fear apparent obstacles, but fix your gaze upon the Passion of my Son, and in this way you will be victorious.
--The Diary of St. Faustina

Short interpretation: Believe in the power of the sacraments and know God's Will.

Praised be Jesus Christ,
Now and Forever!
Father Jerome Charles Romanowski, Pastor 

What's Going On?
Since what we're talking about is essentially political and not religious, and in this, an election year, it seems especially relevant to use the politically loaded word "waffle" to describe diocesan positions these days. In any case, there's good news, folks. Or bad, depending on how it goes and what the current "status" of your church is. Looks like, despite every indication to the contrary thus far, that the merger plans are not set in stone after all!

Priest Conveners Calling the Shots?
If you examine the words in the paragraphs below, you'll see that Msgr. Joyce indicates that the "priest conveners" (soon to be announced) will be ultimately recommending which churches will be closed or "merged." So those of you whose church is called a "primary" or "secondary" worship site," look out! Thought your parish was "safe"? Think again. There are already rumors circulating regarding particular priest conveners who intend to switch worship sites and close churches other than the ones previously planned. We'll have to wait and see if these rumors are true.Those of you whose churches are "secondary worship sites" or slated for closure as victims of a "merger," take heart! Soon you will know who your "priest convener" is. Since the decision will be left largely to him--but only "after consultation with the merging parishes"--looks like you can speak to him, write him, email him, call him, arrange meetings with him, and do whatever it is that is necessary in order to keep your parish open. Take action!

Remember, Msgr. Joyce indicates that the "consultation with the merging parishes" is part of the "process," so do take advantage of it. (At least until next time, when Joyce, McGrath, Vollmer, Galante and company decide to switch things up yet again. It's so hard to keep up. Who knows from one day to the next!?)

From Msgr. Joyce
Excerpt from Certification of Reverend Monsignor Peter M. Joyce, J.C.L., V.E. dated August 14, 2008 (emphases ours.)
 

Bishop Galante has announced his intention to join together several parishes in the Malaga/Newfield/Landisville area.  This statement of intention is, in essence, a tentative plan of action and must await the appointment of - and recommendation from -a priest/convener who is charged to pastorally assemble the merging parishes.  The priest/convener is appointed by the bishop to recommend to him - after consultation with the merging parishes - the location of potential worship sites, including the continuation of existing worship sites, the locations to be utilized for liturgical functions, and the request that the merging parishes be designated as a new canonical juridic person.

The final decision as to whether St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church of Malaga, N.J., will be joined with another parish or parishes to form a new parish, whether the church building at St. Mary's will remain open as a worship site where Sunday Masses would be celebrated, where sacraments such as Confirmation and Holy Matrimony would be administered, and where para-liturgical ceremonies would be conducted will await the consultation of the priest/convener with the respective parishes involved in the planned merger and the final decision of the Bishop of the Diocese.  Indeed, even then, that decision is subject to appeal through the canonical courts.

Take St. Bart's, for Example
Here is an example of the waffling we're already seeing. Quoting from Bishop Galante's June 23, 2008 letter to the community at St. Bart's in Camden, a historic African-American parish:

Again, I am concerned that a misunderstanding has led you to believe that I suggested a closure of St. Bartholomew's. In fact, it is my intention that St. Bartholomew's and St. Joan of Arc would serve as worship sites for the Black Catholic community, and retain their own name and would be used as worship sites for this newly merged community.

Well if the parishioners at St. Bart's misunderstood, surely all of us have. Perhaps all of us can retain our own names and be used as "worship sites."

The question remains, though, why exactly would you "merge" two parishes who will retain their own names, their own characters and "missions" (as the bishop calls it earlier in the letter), and their own structures? What is the purpose of this particular "merger," we wonder, if no merger is truly taking place? Why not just let the churches be as they are, both assets to the diocese as a whole and each with the right to exist under canon law. We will eventually find out the true reasons why all this is taking place, but for now we must use the information at our disposal.

At the time of the announcement, St. Bart's was to be merged with St. Joan's, with St. Joan's as the worship site. Now they are both to be worship sites? One can only conclude that, somehow, money is an issue and the "sharing" of funds from one church with the next. But "by no means should one church be singled out to be sacrificed to save another," say concerned parishioners at St. Bartholomew's. We completely agree.

Unpopular to Say the Least
Given the lack of support for the anti-evangelistic church closure program, it's no small wonder that those in the chancery offices are taking a second look at the practicality of accomplishing their destructive and highly controversial goals. We at the COP suppose it's got to be pretty hard to implement the biggest diocesan take-down in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church when--witnessing corruption, apparent ulterior motives, and inconsistent rhetoric--no one agrees with it.

(Thanks again to those of you who submitted the above information to us.)

I think it is time to call on the archbishops and the Vatican (by mail, in person, whatever it takes) for the removal of Galante, making it clear that if they do not, it is a confirmation they are also in on this entire scheme, scandal, conspiracy, or whatever you want to call it!!!

Anthony V. Perrella, Sr.
St. Vincent Pallotti Parish

This past year my family and I witnessed Bishop Joseph Galante's move to revitalize Catholic schools in the Camden Diocese. My children attended Annunciation Regional School in Bellmawr NJ until it was closed this past June. Our closure was part of the bishop's movement to create more vibrant Catholic schools within the Camden Diocese. Strangely enough, Bishop Galante seemed to never pay much attention to Annunciation school in the past. In retrospect, Bishop Galante seemed to have turned his back on Annunciation school long ago. Bishop Galante missed confirmations, our 50th anniversary (even though he managed to attend a mummer's mass the week before), and he missed the memorial service for a former teacher, IHM sister Paul Mercedes, who was tragically killed by a hit and run driver on her way to church one morning in Philadelphia. The Bishop couldn't or wouldn't clear his schedule to attend the memorial mass at Annunciation that honored the life of Sister Paul Mercedes. I ask, what could possibly be more important then paying your respects to a woman who dedicated her entire life to teaching our faith? One has to wonder if Bishop Galante had turned his back on more than just Annunciation school. I wonder how many youth decided against vocations in the Catholic Church based upon their bishop not paying his respects to Sister Paul in front of 800 Annunciation parishioners and 50 or so IHM Sisters. Are we sure this bishop is interested in strengthening the future of the Catholic faith?

Pitting school against school, church against church: something's wrong with this picture

We have all heard of the Bishop's plan to create more vibrant Catholic schools by utilizing steering committees and cluster studies. The Diocese has talked of transition teams working together. We have seen schools pitted up against each other in an effort to survive. The Bishop has talked about how fair this cluster study was. We have seen our priest break down saying how unfairly we were treated. While Bishop Galante spoke about creating stronger more vibrant schools and revitalizing Catholic education, we watched our nuns cry and question their career choices. Something is so wrong with this picture. Are these the building blocks for a stronger tomorrow in Catholic education?
 
In our cluster, it had come down to Annunciation School in Bellmawr and St Francis De Sales in Barrington merging. Both were excellent schools that were put in an unfortunate situation. The object was to find which campus was better suited for all of our children. Annunciation had a fully functional cafeteria, a church hall that doubles as a gym and most importantly, Annunciation sat on over eight acres of land. In contrast, St Francis has no gym, no cafeteria, and very limited land. Everyone, including our priest and nuns, thought that Annunciation's 8+ acres of land would be what saved our school. To our surprise, Annunciation was closed this past June in favor of the St Francis De Sales location.

The school was sitting on money...

I hear the Bishop saying that he is creating more vibrant Catholic schools, yet he wants to send our children to a school with no cafeteria and no gym. How is this better? We thought Annunciation's 8 acres of land would be an asset that would contribute to the preservation of our school. As it turns out, Annunciation's most valuable asset may have led to its demise. The Diocese may tell you that they are studying the need for a Catholic school in the Bellmawr area which would be dependent on significant future enrollment growth in nearby Catholic schools. Open a window, the smokescreen isn't working. Future enrollment growth will be pretty hard to imagine since the Diocese has appeared to create the perfect recipe for disaster! Our diocese is now an environment rife with uncertainty. That combined with drastic tuition increases over the next three to five years hardly leads to dramatic increases in enrollment.

In addition, the Diocese now allows open enrollment. With open enrollment we were told that our children didn't have to attend the merged school at St Francis, we could go anywhere. For the same tuition rate, we were free to select a school with a gym and cafeteria. Does the diocese really want to build enrollment in this area? All signs point to NO.  

...and sitting on money in a booming town is a recipe for closure

Annunciation School is located in Bellmawr NJ, which is currently going through a major revitalization plan that includes adding a Patco high speed line stop, movie theater, hotel, and retail stores. Bellmawr, which already has access to major highways like the New Jersey Turnpike, Routes 42, 295 and 55, will now be a short train ride away from its big city neighbor, Philadelphia. One wonders if the diocese is motivated to one day sell off Annunciation's land. The Camden Diocese has made many statements about the school's land being church property and that the diocese has no claim to church property. That may be true if Annunciation Church stays open. However, all bets are off if Annunciation Church closes.

Can Annunciation stay open long term? Annunciation Church is currently deep in debt and looking at the bleak possibility of losing the support of some families with the closing of their school. Annunciation Church now has the added expense of the upkeep on eight acres of land and an empty school. Will the closure of Annunciation school ultimately lead to the closure of Annunciation Church? The diocese can wait this one out, and time is on their side. In the meantime, the value of Annunciation's property will increase.

Two churches in one town, but no need for a school?

Bellmawr's revitalization plan has a three to five year timetable. If you look at the results of the Camden Diocese's church reorganization plan, it's almost as if the Diocese planned ahead for the future failure of Annunciation church. Bishop Galante has decided to keep two churches open in Bellmawr. Both Annunciation and Mary Mother of the Church will remain open. These churches are only 1.7 miles apart, a five minute drive (see map below).
 


If Annunciation church were to fail in three to five years, the town of Bellmawr still has another Catholic church for its residents in Mary Mother. Think about it, two churches open in Bellmawr that are only 1.7 miles apart, yet the Bishop's plan to close churches has left vast areas with no Catholic church at all? This makes no sense at all. Furthermore, it's odd to think that Bishop Galante saw fit to leave two Catholic churches open in Bellmawr, but doesn't see the need for a Catholic school in the very same area.

But WAIT! There's MORE! Some will be unlucky enough to lose both school AND church. 

The bishop's next blow to the Catholic community will come in the form of church mergers. For my parish Bishop Galante decided to merge St. Anne's in Westville and St. Maurice in Brooklawn into Annunciation. While I welcome all the church members with an open heart, I feel a great injustice is being done to the people of these churches. The material wealth of these parishes will transfer to Annunciation. If this transfer of wealth is against the will of the parishioners, then it is wrong. This wealth belongs to the Catholic communities of St. Anne's and St. Maurice. How can anyone take away what belongs to them against their will? Why would the Bishop close a parish not in debt and transfer their wealth to a parish in deep debt? While I would be heartbroken if Annunciation church were to close, I would suffer an even greater crisis of faith if the Camden Diocese proceeds with their plans to take the wealth of other parishes against their will. It is like stealing.

Join the growing chorus calling for Bishop Galante's resignation

Finally, I pray that the Catholic communities of South Jersey, like those at St Mary's of Malaga, can find a way to survive even if Galante's mission is somehow able to succeed. Galante's proposed mergers have cut into the heart of the Catholic faith. It is time that the Catholic community of the Camden Diocese unites in the call for Bishop Galante to step down. Maybe then the survivors can sift through the rubble, rebuilding what is left into a truly vibrant future.
 
Annunciation Parishioner
Bellmawr NJ

Editor's Note: Mrs. Lamancusa also showed savestmarys many emails and letters that she has written to the diocese, as well as the diocesan replies (when they bothered to reply) as well. She has been vigilant every step of the way in asking questions and seeking answers that make sense. We thank her for her contribution and congratulate her on her good work. Don't give up! Keep the Faith.

7/15/08 Update: Relevant link to newspaper article click here. Priests must submit reassignment preferences by July 15th. "However, Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese, said that priests were only being asked to express preferences for assignment." Boy that's the understatement of the year. Our inside sources inform us that a significant number of priests have not bothered to apply for reassignment or even requested to review the parish profiles. We presume this is because they fully realize that the reassignments are a done deal. In fact, we just learned of three additional priests in the past two days who have already been assigned outside the diocese, and the priest reassignments have not even been announced yet.

Save the Priesthood

by Chris, A Mater Ecclesiae Parishioner

When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul." At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass."

                                                     -St. John Vianney

In the Catholic Church, our religious vocations are the lifeblood that sustains us.  The Camden Diocese is imploding under a modernist agenda that is pushing "lay leadership" on the faithful.  Accept this now for what it is; the blind leading the blind. 

We have slumbered for too many generations in the Church.  We have given and received bad catechesis, we have rebelled against God given revelation and the teaching of the Church.  We have failed ourselves and our children with our contented ignorance.  It is our materialism that has pacified us, and the cost of this comfortably numb state is nothing less than our souls. 

Make no mistake about it.  We are living in, as Dietrich von Hildebrand aptly named it, a devastated vineyard.  The fruitful vineyard of the Lord, that for so many centuries and through so many persecutions and trials that has borne so much fruit, is a withered branch.  Our children leave the church after their confirmation, and are only there so their parents can throw a party for the occasion.  This cultural Catholocism is one who feels no obligation to either accept or reject the teachings of the church as a whole. And why should they, when they are neither taught these things, or that their soul's destiny hangs in the balance of whether they choose to live the Catholic life, or merely a pharisaical version of that life. 

We move toward empty shells, dressed up as adult daycare.  There is a constant drift towards the lowest common denominator, instead of pushing ourselves and each other (as a communion of saints should) toward the highest and the eternal goal which is Heaven.  We have come to assume we will all go to Heaven and have become complacent.  We are more interested in "dialogue" than in truth.  This is a waste of time and usually money.  We have a problem with buying worthy vessels to hold the Blood of Our Lord, but we put much of our treasure into funding committees and workshops designed to distract and never actually come to the truth.

We should be praying as we begin any endeavor, but there is no prayer as our diocesan planning officials begin dismantling the churches and parish communities built by our parents, and grandparents or further back.  Dialogue purports that there is no absolute truth.  Our Lord tells us He is the Way, and the Truth.  Choose your side carefully.  You can flounder away under committee meetings, photo ops and other feel good nonsense, or you can guide your life by the same lamp post that has for generations made men and women better themselves by forgetting themselves and conforming their hearts to Christ's.

Our lay leaders dialogue while the faith is dying.  We are perishing.  Our children stand very little chance in this world without a sense that they can choose a Catholic Church that stands apart from the world, and in most cases in opposition to it, or one that tries to dance with the Devil and make peace with him.  There is no in between. 

I went through a CCD program and observed as it failed my generation miserably.  I fell away from the Church for a time, and when I returned, I noticed that though I had come back I had no peers.  They had left, and had not returned.  Pope John Paul II tells us in Catechesi Tradendae that catechesis is a sacred duty and a right of all the faithful. If we teach error, we have to account for that. It is not our opinion that we teach, but the Faith and how to live it.  It is the right of our children and we are failing. The laity has been in charge of this since my generation, and they have failed miserably. That is why our children are leaving the church in droves. That is why even adults not only don't know the faith, but act with apathy towards it. The designers constantly pander to what their notion of "hip" is (which is usually very outdated) or what they think will bring youth back to the church.  Keep in mind that whatever watered down version of current pop culture they dress up in church clothes, kids will see it as just that, and much less entertaining than what they can actually get with their pop culture.  Entertainment is not religion, nor is excitement religion.  Each year, a new trend arises from the sewage of pop culture, and we are trying to find ways to integrate that into our churches.  By the time it is integrated, it is already outdated.  From the tambourine and guitar bands of the 70's, to the praise and worship bands of today, we look to the world instead of just simply looking to our Catholic Heritage.  Remember G.K. Chesteron's words:

which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.  

True, joyful and undiluted Catholicism is for all time, and in the bosom of this Church can we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  We need our priests to shepherd us.  Who would want to give their lives as a priest in the new "vision" of the church that is being put before us?  Perhaps that is a goal of this agenda.  Discourage vocations by emasculating and removing everything from the priesthood leaving it solely as a sacramental function. 

Without our convents and monasteries, we have few holy examples, few modern living saints to guide us, to pray for us or to sacrifice for us.  Indeed, these notions are largely ignored in the modern church.  When I see a religious habit, I see behind it the power of God, where these days I see religious and see only the power suit. 

We need to pray for holy men and women to lead us out of this spiritual desert.  And we not only need to pray for good and holy priests, but we need to rise up now and defend them.  We have precious few in this diocese, and we are watching as 21 of them at the writing of this piece are being sent into exile, forced into retirement or what have you.  Yet if the priest shortage was the concern, would we not need to keep these priests?  It must follow that they are being persecuted.  I know as a Knight of Columbus that I took an oath to defend the priesthood, which I intended to do with my own life were it ever necessary.  This is a time that I call on all knights of the diocese to rise up and defend their priests.  Their vocations are being destroyed, their priesthood taken away from them, and their spiritual fatherhood disintegrated before our very eyes.  If you do nothing now, you are not living up to your oath, and you will find yourself in a church devoid of the presence of Our Lord and in the middle of a lot of hand clapping and emptiness. 

Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them. -Pope Saint Felix III

We are entering a dark time, and it will require men and women of virtue, courage and strength.  We must rise to meet the challenges of our time, and defend our faith.  Now, the priesthood needs our defense.  Support your priests, and accept nothing less than priests.  Pray and fast for them and for new vocations. 

When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul." If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept." "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest." "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord." O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does Saint Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him. -St. John Vianney

So can we live without our priests?  Can we do without the Mass?  Perhaps as we should, we can place the blame on ourselves.  It is God's justice which brings chastisement into our lives, and it is always just.

St. John Eudes said:

The most evident mark of God's anger, and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when he permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are more in name than in deed, preists who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. 

We have many good priests who are being persecuted, and there are those who are going along with the plan to dismantle our lives and replace it with something entirely different.  If you do not resist, you will find yourself guided by the person that until then sat next to you in the pew, but that thinks highly enough of their place to lead the congregation in a desolate liturgy that is not the sacrifice of Calvary we need to sustain us.  This is not the Church, and will not be the Church when they implement it. Consider the final message of Akita from Our Lady:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their conferees...churches and altars sacked, the Church will be full of those who accept compromise and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.

If you don't see the writing on the wall, or the work that goes against the church your eyes are closed and you are still sleeping.   The following prophecy was given by Our Lady to Ven. Sister Marrianne de Jesus Torres in the 16^th century!

The sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised, for in doing this, one scorns and defiles the Church of God, and even God himself, represented by his priests.  The Demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way, and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them.  These corrupted priests who will thus scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all the priests.  This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church, to the great majority of good priests, and to the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth, who will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of his God and Lord, beseeching light, sanctity and perfection for all the Clergy of the world, of which he is the King and Father.  Moreover, in these unhappy times there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will lose themselves.  Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those whom it behooves to speak will fall silent.

This is for our time.  Our Lady told Sr. Marianne that it was a prophecy for the 20^th century, and the scandals we have endured have done this.  We need our good and holy priests to be an example.  They are trying to put two married ex-protestants on the fast track to the priesthood at present, and they are trying to replace the priesthood with the laity.  And our priests who have given up their lives in service to Our Lord and to us are suffering and they have no one to defend them.  If you are Catholic you are called to defend your priests now.  Accept no model of "newchurch" that has anyone other than a priest pastoring to you.  Offer words of encouragement and support to your priests, as well as your prayers and your fasting.  Storm Heaven with your prayers and fasting now to stop the decimation of the faith in our diocese. 

This letter was sent by St. Mary's parishioner and historian William Sansalone. I thought it was worth publishing here:

Most Reverend Joseph Anthony Galante, D.D., J.C.D.
Bishop, Diocese of Camden
631 Market Street
Camden, NJ 08102

Dear Bishop Galante:

St. Mary's of Malaga is a treasure--and I ask that you keep it a free-standing parish. My letter is motivated, primarily, by a desire to ensure that you have more information regarding this church. I frame my request around four points:

• St. Mary's is an established faith community. About 100 immigrant families established this rural church 86 years ago. (For details about St. Mary's origins, please see the enclosed commemorative booklet.) Many descendents of these early settlers still live in Malaga, and their family histories are deeply rooted in the baptisms, confirmations, etc. that have taken place at St. Mary's. The disppearance of this church would have a soul-searing effect on them.

St. Mary's is also the spiritual home to families that began to move to Malaga after the Second World War. Working together, parishioners (old and new) established a Praesidium of the Legion of Mary during the postwar years. Many residents have been--and are being--brought back to the Church through the legion's visitations.

• St. Mary's is in solid financial condition and has a pastor in place. The parish is in sound fiscal condition owing to its long-time conservative mode of operation. About 35 percent of registered parishioners use envelopes for their weekly contributions. This is a respectable percentage, considering parishioners' modest incomes. Structurally, the church, rectory, prayer garden, and outdoor Stations of the Cross are in good condition. Much of the maintenance is performed by parishioners at no cost. In short, St. Mary's has never been the cause of financial problems for the Diocese of Camden, nor will it be in in the foreseeable future.

Our pastor, Rev. Jerome Romanowski, has been in place 11 years and is in good health. He promulgates traditional Catholic values that Pope Benedict underscored during his recent visit to the United States. Father Romanowski is a spiritual comfort to his parishioners. 

• St. Mary's is situated in a unique location. Because St. Mary's sits at the intersection of two major highways, travelers to and from Atlantic City (Route 40) and to and from Cape May (Route 47) frequently visit the church and its outdoor prayer sites. For this reason, then Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio designated St. Mary's a Shrine Church almost 10 years ago. If this historic landmark were to disappear, it would diminish the impact--regionally as well as locally--of Pope Benedict's recent message of hope and renewal.

• St. Mary's future plans. Under the leadership of the pastor and parish council, the Legion of Mary is implementing a plan with the following aims:

- expand the number of registered households (great potential exists in Malaga),
- increase the number of current registrants at Sunday Mass, and
- encourage vocations.

Pursuit of these aims started on Mothers Day weekend and will continue through spring and summer. On May 24 when I visited St. Mary's and spoke with Father Romanowski, he told me the above initiative had already yielded positive results.

As you probably know, New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein selected St. Mary's to illustrate the problem of church closures in the United States. (Her article appeared on the front page of The Times on the eve of Pope Benedict's arrival in the United States last month.) St. Mary's must have caught the eye of Ms. Goodstein's editors as well. Both photos accompanying her story show striking views of the church. This article attests--albeit from a secular perspective--to St. Mary's singularity.

We prayerfully hope you can view historic St. Mary's as a treasure--one that should be preserved.

                                                                            Sincerely Yours in Christ,
                                                                            William R. Sansalone
                                                                            (Native of St. Mary's Parish
                                                                            and author of St. Mary's of
                                                                            Malaga: 1922-1997)

cc: St. Mary's Parish Council Chair (Malaga, NJ); Pastor of St. Mary's (Malaga, NJ); His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. (sent to the USCCB, Washington, DC); Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States (Washington, DC); and Cardinal William Joseph Levada (Vatican City)

Enclosure (St. Mary's of Malaga: 1922-1997)

Notice so many spearheading the movement to save our Faith from immanent destruction are under 50, even under 40. Here's an article that explains why.

Here's a snippet (for more read the entire article below). Catholic leaders are saying that:

"Young people are leaving the Church in droves because of its refusal to conform to the times!" As a young person, I tell you this is rubbish.  It is a smokescreen.  I do not dispute that there are many young, "enlightened" Catholics who have left the Church with these reasons on their lips.  But they are using these reasons as excuses to mask the real problem:  They have either lost their faith or they never really had it.  The need in this case is not for accommodation, but for conversion.  These young Catholics have never been taught that Christianity is not about self-fulfillment, it's about self-denial; it's not about worldly power, it's about humility; it's not about control, it's about obedience; and it's not about some misguided, gender feminist idea of equality, it's about Truth.


I Was Robbed!
by Leila Miller     

I was robbed.

I am a "Generation X" Catholic, raised and catechized in the tumultuous aftermath of Vatican II.  I was a victim of "renewal" and experimentation gone awry, and so were my peers.  With great regret and without exaggeration, I contend that the results have been catastrophic for my generation.  It is my firm belief that the overwhelming majority of young Catholics don't have even an elemental understanding of their Faith.  As a direct result of that ignorance, young Catholics are leaving the Church in a steady stream (or, dare I say, tidal wave?).

It's not entirely accurate to say that I left the Catholic Church (though I considered it), but it's clear to me now that for most of my young adulthood, I was not in the Catholic Church.  Let me give you an overview of my upbringing, which will sound familiar to countless young Catholics.  I was born in the late 1960s into a believing and practicing Catholic family, and my sister and I were taught by our parents to love our Faith.  Barring illness, we attended Sunday Mass and holy days of obligation without exception.  We attended public schools, but we were enrolled in weekly CCD classes at our parish every year.

By the time I began religious education, memorizing the Baltimore Catechism was out, and feeling the "experience of Christ" was in.  My parish priest, I believe, could not have known how the new, more "enlightened" philosophy of catechism would affect the moral development of those in his charge; at the time, he was simply caught up in the so-called "spirit of Vatican II," and was being obedient to what were considered Vatican II "mandates."  Meanwhile, my parents, like the other parents, trusted that religious education classes would teach us the Faith.  Sadly, that never happened.

In general, the volunteer CCD teachers were good-hearted parishioners who probably tried their best with the vacuous material they were given.  Looking back, I can see that a couple of them must have been alarmed at the "new and improved" methods, and wanted to teach us the fundamentals of our Faith; for example, one year a teacher made us memorize the Ten Commandments; another year (9th or 10th grade, I believe) I heard the word transubstantiation for the first and last time.  Aside from these rare moments, I assure you that precious little substantive information was imparted to us youngsters; the countless hours I spent in religious education were missed opportunities.

I can tell you in three phrases the content of a decade of catechesis:  God is good, Jesus loves you, and love your neighbor.  (All very good and true, don't get me wrong, but if you read your Bible you'll see that that's only half the Gospel.  And sometimes half of the truth is more treacherous than an outright lie.)  We were shown a lot of cartoon slide shows depicting Jesus and his parables, and I have nice images of multiplying loaves, the Good Samaritan, and Jesus' empty tomb.  I don't remember anything particularly Catholic about the presentations, aside from a foray into the sacraments when it was time for First Communion or Confirmation.  (But if you'd have asked me to explain what a sacrament was, I couldn't have told you.)

We weren't taught any Catholic prayers, although we all knew the Our Father from Mass attendance, and in my case from nightly prayers.  I learned the Hail Mary along the way, but for many years I knew only the first half.  We never discussed the lives of the saints, or even mentioned their names for that matter.  (Sitting at Mass, I could never figure out who this "Paul" fellow was who wrote so many letters!)

I am thankful at least that I was born before the last vestiges of Catholic tradition could be stamped out, and in the 1970s some of the more pious and beautiful hymns were still often included in the Mass.  Songs like The Church's One Foundation, Immaculate Mary, and At That First Eucharist were powerful to a child, and they have stuck with me to this day.  The dramatic, colorful Bible story books I read at home also presented an unshakable image of a just and mighty God and his glorious and majestic Son.  These haunting melodies and images, combined with my parents' faith and the common themes of my religious education did instill some important truths in my heart:  I never wavered in my belief in God Almighty and in the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of His Son.  Just who or what the Holy Spirit was or did was anybody's guess, although I did recognize that the Holy Spirit was one of the Persons of the Trinity -- whatever that meant.  (I believe this particular bit of knowledge came from the repetition of another traditional hymn, which spoke of "God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity."  Since traditional hymns are no longer sung on a regular basis, I can only surmise that young Catholics today are learning less than I did!)

I went through my school years believing I was a strong Catholic -- in fact, as I got older I would often identify myself as "devout" -- and after my high school graduation I chose to attend a Jesuit university, in part to increase my chances of meeting and marrying a nice Catholic man and raising children in a strong Catholic home.  I made many Catholic friends during my years at Boston College, many of whom were products of Catholic elementary and high schools and most of whom were, like me, practicing Catholics. Just touching on this subject brings up many difficult emotions in me, but it is hard to overstate the tragedy occurring at most Catholic universities across the country -- namely, the betrayal of  parents entrusting a child to a college that identifies itself as "Catholic" while it allows and even encourages fiercely anti-Catholic beliefs and practices to permeate the campus and poison impressionable minds.  I do not know one Catholic who grew in his or her Faith at B.C.  Indeed, many who entered Boston College as practicing Catholics graduated indifferent or hostile to Catholicism.  I assure you that Satan is having a good time at B.C. and universities like it.  Though modern sensibilities may scoff at this notion, I don't mean it metaphorically.

Anyway, to give you an idea what all of those years of religious training and formation amounted to, allow me to throw out a short list of terms that, for my first 28 years, had no meaning to me:

Sacred Tradition	Mass Cards	Scapular
Sanctifying Grace	Benediction	Pentecost
Magisterium	Act of Contrition	Four Marks of the Church
Sacramentals	The "Glory Be"	Joyful/Sorrowful/Glorious Mysteries
Corporal Works of Mercy	Apostolic Succession	Four Last Things
Indulgences	Perpetual Adoration	Spiritual Works of Mercy

In my experience, most Catholics of my generation are unable to explain or even recognize the above.  And to follow are some terms that may sound familiar to my post-Vatican II peers, but that they don't understand correctly and/or believe for a second:

Purgatory	Communion of Saints	Papal Infallibility
Transubstantiation	Mortal and Venial Sin	Immaculate Conception

The attitudes of my Catholic peers are no mystery.  Confession?  Sure, great sacrament -- I'll get there one of these years (wink, wink).  No pre-marital sex?  No artificial contraception?  Yeah right, get real!  Evangelize?  Are you kidding?  Why?  After all, Buddhism, Islam, New Age, Christianity -- they're all equal paths to God.  Who are Catholics to say they have the truth?  A mature spirituality requires the understanding that everyone can be right!

In general, Generation X Catholics don't feel any obligation to live as the Church teaches, and I promise you that they do not fear the fires of Hell, nor do they believe in Purgatory.  (But really, how could they?  They've gone to Mass faithfully for decades and never heard such topics discussed, much less defended!)

The culture we live in is merciless when it comes into contact with a poorly catechized Catholic.  American society today is designed to destroy one's faith, as objective truth and moral absolutes are rejected concepts.  When modern, "enlightened"
catechesis echoes the messages of the culture, and when those charged with informing the Catholic conscience and transmitting the Faith take an "experiential" rather than informative approach, what can you expect?  You can expect exactly what was taught.You can expect young Catholics who believe "conscience" means "opinion" and you can expect subjective feelings and personal experience to supplant objective truth.  In fact, the prevailing philosophy of my peers is that there is no one "truth" -- truth is whatever we want it to be.  You have your truth, I have mine.  (Kind of puts the lie to Christ's definitive statement, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" doesn't it?  It also doesn't sound like anything worth dying for -- those silly martyrs!)

We reap what we sow, and when pop-psychology all but replaces sound catechesis the results should not surprise anyone.  The practices and beliefs of my circle of Catholic friends tell a sad story.  Pre-marital sex?  Yes, with a series of different partners.  Contraception?  Of course -- it's a virtue.  Living together, a.k.a. living in sin?  It's a non-issue.  (One Catholic friend did go so far as to find a "compassionate" priest who consented to give her absolution before she moved in with a man!)  Active homosexuality?  A lifestyle choice.  Abortion?  Sad, and we don't like it, but it's a woman's private decision -- too bad her partner didn't use a condom.

Most of my Catholic friends attend Mass sporadically or not at all.  Some get their spiritual guidance from gender feminism (which is a fiercely anti-Catholic movement) and/or New Age philosophies. Overall, the Catholic call to holiness is an unfamiliar concept to them, and I do not for a moment attempt to exempt myself from this scrutiny.  Confession is a sacrament that was never emphasized (I made my first Confession at nine years of age while sitting on a priest's lap), and after my first couple of confessions during grade school, I never went back; I shudder when I think of how often I received Holy Communion unworthily.

So how is it that a Catholic who went to Mass every Sunday and went through all the proper catechism programs at her church could continue on unconcerned while carrying several serious sins on her soul?  I do not offer this as an excuse for doing wrong, but you must understand my actions in the context of what I was taught.  My generation of Catholics grew up with a keen understanding of God's infinite love for us.  We knew that His mercy could not be exhausted, no matter how badly we behaved.  But at the same time, we heard almost nothing about God's justice.  That while God is perfectly merciful, He is also perfectly just.  Somehow, that part was lost, or suppressed.  I guess no one wanted to hurt our feelings with Church teaching; for example, that by persisting in serious, unrepented sins, we could damn ourselves to an eternity in Hell.

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate.  The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it.  But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!" (Matt 7:13-14)  Jesus mentions Hell over a dozen times in the Gospels, but our teachers and priests only presented us with the Jesus of the Beatitudes, or the Jesus who continuously forgave sinners.  We were never reminded that Jesus forgave repentant sinners, those with contrite hearts and the intention to sin no more.

The God presented to American Catholics today is the Rodney Dangerfield of gods:  He gets no respect.  Today, God hardly needs to be worshipped, since He's our buddy, our pal, our equal.  No need to fear Him or stand in awe, no difficult obligations on our part -- we need only feel the warm fuzzies He showers upon us, until we die and He takes us instantly to Heaven.

Such was the image that my generation got of God our Father.  But what would we say of any other father who asks no obedience, forgives every sin unconditionally and automatically, with no requirement for an apology or recompense?  We would call him a wimp, a pushover, a sap, a fool.  Good and loving parents don't reward bad behavior and disobedience.  They set down boundaries that a child, for his own good, must not cross.  Should that child choose to persist in disobedience and wrong-doing, good parents don't expand the boundaries to encompass his bad behavior, they hold firm and hope for his repentance precisely because they desire his happiness and success.  They do not cease to love him, even as they let him experience the consequences of his poor choices.  Such it is with God and sinful man.  He loves us infinitely, but He cannot force us to love and obey Him against our free will.  None of this was explained to post-Vatican II Catholics.

Although many of my peers will leave the Church and Christianity altogether, many will do as I did.  That is, I never once considered forsaking Christianity, nor did I question Christ's divinity (I felt strongly that to deny Christ would be blasphemous and a sacrilege).  But I was guilty of presumption.  I thought that because of my "deep faith" I could continue in one or another mortal sin and God would forgive me, or make an exception on my behalf.  I just knew he would respect my "conscience!"

I never did disagree with the Church's stand on controversial issues such as abortion or homosexuality.  I had even heard, almost by accident, some of the Church's arguments against artificial contraception, and they made sense to me.  I thought the Church was probably right on this issue (how magnanimous of me!), but of course I could never be expected to actually go along with this teaching!  I did plan to learn Natural Family Planning one day, sure, but certainly not now, in my young married years.  After all, God understands.

Though I presumed on God's mercy, I still believed in moral absolutes, and I never went the way of moral relativism; in fact, another young mother and I spent a year and a half writing an editorial column for our state's largest newspaper in which we rejected moral relativism and defended the concept of objective truth.  This friend, Kim, had spent six years as a gender feminist and New Ager, but motherhood combined with writing our column eventually led her back to Christianity and into a local Bible church.              (Read Kim's story here)

Kim had been a lapsed Episcopalian and I was a waning Catholic, so we had never really had religious discussions until then; but because of my strong belief in an objective right and wrong, I was attracted to what she was telling me about the Bible church.  These evangelicals stood firm on moral issues and were not afraid of offending anyone with Christian moral truths.  I couldn't say as much for the Catholic parish I was sporadically attending, where moral courage was sadly lacking and politically correct sermons and liturgies were the norm.  A Church that sought to blend in with the culture was not the kind of religious community I wanted.  I was raising children in a scary society, and I needed support from others who believed as I did and who would be a refuge from the "pagan world."  In my disgust with what American Catholicism had become, I flirted with the idea of leaving it for the Bible church.

Let me back up here and fill in some details.  Shortly after I graduated college, I became engaged to Dean Miller, a nice agnostic Jewish boy (so much for my attempts to find a Catholic husband!).  My identity as a Catholic was strong enough that I had come to this relationship with certain non-negotiables:  I would never get married outside the Church, and any children of mine would be baptized and raised Catholic.  Dean (who, ironically, attended a Catholic high school) respectfully and unselfishly agreed to my conditions, and we were married a year later in a Catholic church by my childhood priest.

Over the next four years, I gave birth to three beautiful babies.  As you might imagine, this provided me with any number of excuses for not going to Mass on Sundays, and almost never on holy days.  Of course, when one does not understand what takes place during the Mass, it is easy to become lax about attending.  During those years, I lived in two major cities and had done a bit of "church-hopping," trying to find a parish I liked.  I became disillusioned by the seemingly endless (and lame) attempts to make the Mass "hip" and entertaining.  All of the hand-holding, applauding, trite songs and political correctness was a monumental turn-off for me.  I felt no reverence, no awe; there was nothing in these Masses to snap me to attention, to take me out of myself and focus my mind and heart up to God in His Heaven.  I wasn't "getting anything out of it."  (Like so many others, I did not fully comprehend that one doesn't go to Mass to "get something out of it" -- one goes to worship God.)  When I did get myself to church, I felt as if I were "putting in my time," mechanically fulfilling an obligation.  I often ducked out right after Communion.

Because I was raised to never miss Mass, I felt guilty for skipping it so often (as well I should have, considering the gravity of the sin!).  I half-teasingly blamed Dean for my not getting to church, but he wouldn't let me get away with such scapegoating.  He and I knew I had no one but myself to blame.  Though my actions were inexcusable, allow me once again to explain my state of mind during these years.  I had grown up in a culture that had, with amazing rapidity and nonchalance, thrown all of the old value systems out the window.  Nothing was sure and eternal anymore, and it had gradually become unacceptable to believe in a right and wrong.  The idea of sin was deemed positively medieval, and  "morality" became a dirty word.  "Getting one's needs met" was the focus of each individual's personal growth, with the question being,  "What's best for me, and what makes me comfortable?"

Of course, Christ's message to the world is exactly the opposite.  We Christians must die to self, take up our crosses in suffering and sacrifice, and do the will of our Heavenly Father.  The Catholic Church in America seemed to me to have forgotten this message, and was all too eager to fit right in with the culture.  Instead of the Church going forth in courage to influence and change the world, the world was influencing the Church.  Worshipping and glorifying God seemed to take a back seat to worshipping and glorifying ourselves.  I knew enough about Christ's message to recognize that a serious gulf existed between what the Pope and the Bible were saying and what American Catholics were hearing.  At some point, the American Church and the world became almost indistinguishable in my eyes.

Case in point:  The only moral challenges given to the faithful from the pulpit were (and are) calls to help the poor, or admonitions against racism and sexism.  But it was obvious to me that every good atheist, pagan or non-believer out there was saying the same thing.  So why bother being a Christian?  Why get out of bed on Sunday morning and go to Mass when I could turn on any news program or TV series and get the same message?  Young Americans generally are sensitive to social justice issues, since we've been immersed in a culture that never ceases to speak out on such things.  To this day, when I hear yet another social justice homily, I want to yell out:  "We get it!  We get it!  But what we never hear about is the need for personal morality!  For repentance!  For conversion!  For holiness!  What we don't understand is our Faith!  Teach us!  Challenge us!  Help us get to Heaven!"  Have too many leaders of the Catholic Church in America forgotten that their mission is to save souls?

The abuses and trials one must endure at Mass today are legendary among the faithful, and it was just such instances which helped fuel my estrangement from the Church.  For example, I have been at Masses where I have been driven to distraction as I read the words of Sacred Scripture in a missalette while the lector read a distorted "inclusive language" version of the same text.  My intelligence has been insulted as I've witnessed the disappearance of words like "brothers" and "men" from both liturgy and song -- apparently the political correctness police have decided that I as a woman am either too stupid or too fragile to understand that such words include me, too.  I have sat through an Easter Mass where the priest donned a bunny suit for a homily/skit, and balloons were tied to the pews.  And I have sat with my mouth hanging open as I heard one priest use that morning's gospel reading to condone homosexuality.  After a while, it didn't seem worth it anymore; I could no longer see the point to attending Mass.  Looking back, it is clear that I had lost respect for the Catholic Church.

Which brings me back to my flirting with the idea of leaving for a Bible church.  I had listened to my friend Kim tell me about the powerful and courageous sermons she heard week after week at her non-denominational church.  The pastor spoke out against the immorality that surrounded Christians today.  He spoke of right and wrong, and he used Sacred Scripture to show his flock the proper way a Christian should conduct himself.  The evangelicals at this church did not pretend to blend into the culture, they were fighting against it, in a loving, Christ-centered way.  They kept their eyes on God.  And the faithful were actually instructed in Christianity!  Kim was attending Sunday services, weekly Bible study, a doctrine class and a Christian parenting class.  She loved it because her soul was being fed, and for the first time she understood what it meant to be a Christian!  What a contrast to what I was experiencing in my Catholic parish.  No wonder a good portion of her church's congregation consisted of ex-Catholics -- young ex-Catholics like me, who were raising families.

Maybe this is a good place to debunk a myth that desperately needs debunking.  One of the classic lines from liberal, dissenting Catholics is this:  "The Church needs to change its outdated teachings and must ordain women, replace the patriarchal language in the liturgy, allow divorce and remarriage, sanction birth control, masturbation, homosexuality, abortion [and so on, ad nauseum].  Young people are leaving the Church in droves because of its refusal to conform to the times!"

As a young person, I tell you this is rubbish.  It is a smokescreen.  I do not dispute that there are many young, "enlightened" Catholics who have left the Church with these reasons on their lips.  But they are using these reasons as excuses to mask the real problem:  They have either lost their faith or they never really had it.  The need in this case is not for accommodation, but for conversion.  These young Catholics have never been taught that Christianity is not about self-fulfillment, it's about self-denial; it's not about worldly power, it's about humility; it's not about control, it's about obedience; and it's not about some misguided, gender feminist idea of equality, it's about Truth.

But for all of the young Catholics who leave the Church because it is not politically correct enough for them, there are equal numbers (mainly those who have begun families) who are leaving for opposite reasons; namely, they feel the Church has become too liberal, too morally lax, too reflective of the secular culture.  These Catholics are filling the pews of fundamentalist and evangelical churches, whose leaders hold fast to Christian morality, and where the Ten Commandments are still understood to be commands, not suggestions.  These young adults are searching for an anchor in a world gone mad.  They are searching for Christ and a high standard of Christian morality, and they don't believe they can find either in the Catholic Church.  (Ironically, by leaving the Catholic Church, they are actually walking away from the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and leaving the faith that holds the highest and most difficult moral code of them all!)

I leaned toward a Bible church because of the moral courage I knew I would find there, because of the pride in Christ Jesus that so permeated the place, and because I would receive instruction in my faith, not an apology for it.  Yet if you ask a liberal, dissenting Catholic why Catholics are leaving the Church, they'll tell you it's because we haven't gone far enough in liberalizing the Faith!  It's as if they're saying, "Let's neutralize Christianity completely, ignore our heritage and traditions, throw out the sacraments, deny the existence of Original Sin, disclaim the divinity of Christ, drain the Faith of any truth or meaning, and then the churches will be bursting at the seams!"  It makes you wonder if the people so hell-bent on liberalizing the Catholic Church are acting out of love for the Faith or acting out of a desire to destroy it.

Nevertheless, by February of 1995, I just wanted out.  I was ready to send out a trial balloon to my mom, to see how she would react to my inclination to leave the Church.  I specifically did not approach my dad first, as I knew he would be heartbroken at the thought; but because my mother was raised a Protestant (she came into the Catholic Church when I was three), I thought she would be easier to talk to.  Mom is a very rational and stoic person, and she is known for giving sound advice.  After I popped the question:  "How would you feel if I left the Church for a Bible church?" she gave me the answer that would change not only my life, but the lives of many others as well.  She said, "Before you leave, you should find out what it is that you're leaving."

She then proceeded to give me some of the reasons she had left Protestantism.  For instance, she said it never made sense to her that Protestants place all their belief in the Bible alone.  The question for her became, which Bible?  There were so many different translations, and everyone had a different view on which version was authoritative.  She was also wary of non-denominational churches in general, and she talked about "the cult of the personality," or the tendency in such churches for the congregation to rally around a well-liked, dynamic pastor who usually had a new and "brilliant" interpretation of Scripture.  He would be the reason that they came, and if that particular pastor left, the congregation would leave with him.

Everything she said made sense to me, and that evening my thoughts of leaving Catholicism were at least neutralized.  The big blow came a couple of weeks later when my mom, in her matter-of-fact way, presented me with a book.  It was the kind of book I had never seen before.  The kind of book I never knew existed.  It was a book of Catholic apologetics.  It was Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism .

Some people may roll their eyes in disbelief when I say that I never knew such a book existed.  I don't blame them -- even I cannot believe that it never occurred to me that someone out there might find it necessary, useful, even noble to defend the Faith!  It seems so silly to me now.  How could I have been ready to jump ship to a Bible church without even investigating the doctrinal issues involved?  Why did it never even cross my mind that a Church of 2,000 years might be able to present an argument on her behalf?  Maybe it's because in my lifetime as a Catholic, I had never heard anyone defend the Faith.  No one had ever given me any reasons why Catholics were right, why we had the fullest truth.  The only thing approaching an apologetics argument was my parents' statements that ours was the oldest Christian church.  That we Catholics were here first!  During my childhood and adolescence, I remember being quite proud of that fact.  Too bad no one ever elaborated on that point.

But once that glorious book was placed in my hands, it was all over.  I was excited, amazed, impressed that someone had taken the time to spell out the differences between Protestants and Catholics, not mechanically and neutrally, but passionately and full of love for the Catholic Faith!  And Mr. Keating used the Bible itself to illustrate the truth of Catholic doctrine!  It only took reading a few pages of this wonderful book to not only keep me Catholic, but to set me on a path of knowledge that has led my soul to burn for the Faith.  Sound dramatic?  It is!  Thanks to two years of study and the grace of God, I have found treasures that I never dreamed possible in this world, and yet I have come to understand that I have only dipped my little toe into the vast and glorious ocean that is Catholicism.

Over the next several months, my friend Kim and I engaged in a series of friendly, but extremely intense, theological debates. We went back and forth about issues such as Papal authority, the Real Presence, Mary, sanctification of the soul, and the implications of the Inquisition.  We gave special attention to the two doctrines that separate Protestants and Catholics:  sola scriptura (the Reformers' belief that the Bible is a Christian's only authority) and sola fide (the Reformers' belief that we are saved by our faith alone).  At times it was like the blind leading the blind, but I used the best arguments for Catholicism I knew at the time, and Kim got a hold of the best apologetics that Protestantism had to offer.

The phone calls were intense, and they would leave us physically and emotionally drained.  A couple of our conversations lasted seven hours!  After about six months of this mini replay of the Reformation, we hit what we call "the brick wall" and we agreed it was time to stop talking about theology for awhile, as we were frustrated and getting nowhere.

Meanwhile, my husband Dean was being sucked into all this "God talk" whether he wanted to or not (I was so excited about what I was learning that I discussed it with him when he let me).  Together, Kim and I had "discovered" the Old Testament prophesies which so clearly vindicate Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, and I excitedly pointed out these passages to my dear Jewish husband.  I'll never forget the almost panicked look in Dean's eyes when he reluctantly admitted one night that it appeared Jesus might actually be the Son of God.

In their own journeys to faith, both Dean and Kim had one overriding principle:  They were searching for objective truth.  They didn't make their faith decisions based on their own opinions or what "felt right."  They weren't looking for what was comfortable, they were looking for what was true.  And of course that's what God asks of each of us.  Just as the Savior took up His Cross, we are each expected to take up our own, following in the footsteps of Truth Himself, even if it costs us our comfort, our security, even our very lives.

In Kim's quest for Truth at all costs, she kept praying and studying, even after we hit our "brick wall."  She gave the Catholics one last chance to prove themselves by reading Patrick Madrid's now legendary book, Surprised By Truth , in which eleven converts -- many of them Protestant ministers -- give their reasons for becoming Catholic.  In three nights (she calls them the darkest nights of her life), she was shown the Biblical and historical truth of Catholicism.  Six months later, at great personal cost but with great joy, Kim did what was previously inconceivable to her:  She received the Sacraments of the Church, and is now a devout Catholic.  Within a year, and after an initial reluctance, her husband announced his own intention to convert.  And with great rejoicing and all gratitude to God, I can report my husband Dean's profound conversion as well.  (Yep, I got a Catholic husband after all, and a devout one at that!)

Some other fruits of my "conversion"?  I have returned to confession after more than fifteen years, and I now reap the graces of that wonderful, previously unknown sacrament.  Mass, which I once avoided, is now an other-worldly experience for me.  Contraception?  Gone, with great benefit to my marriage.  I continue to uncover the treasures of Christ's Church, and Kim and I now teach the Faith to others.  I guess you could say that in Catholicism I've found the secret of the universe, and nothing can compare to its majesty.

Which brings me back to a sadness.  How easily I could have lost it all!  How easily my friends and contemporaries have lost or could lose a Faith they never really understood.  Feel-good, inoffensive, nebulous psycho-babble catechesis doesn't provide an even minimal foundation of faith, and a faith built on such a weak and erroneous foundation could not withstand even the smallest challenge.  For proof of this, note that fundamentalist Christians have successfully pulled millions of Catholics out of the Church just by quoting a few Bible verses out of their proper context.  And at the other end of the spectrum, feminists and New Agers lure Generation Xers out of Catholicism simply by loudly and repeatedly applying snide labels to the Church, such as "patriarchal," "oppressive," "reactionary," "judgmental," "irrelevant," etc.  A poorly catechized Catholic is virtually helpless against these tactics.

So, just what did I learn on my own that I never learned in religious ed.?  Almost everything, but here are some of the biggies that shocked me:  I learned that after Christ's ascension into Heaven, He did not leave us floating out here alone on Earth with just a book to try to interpret individually until He comes again (and since the vast majority of humanity was and is illiterate, why would He?).  I learned that the Catholic Church is the one Church explicitly founded by Jesus Christ on the rock of Peter, the first pope, and that the Bible is a product of the Catholic Church (and thus subject to her interpretation).  I learned that as Christ promised, the Holy Spirit has been protecting and guiding the successors to Peter and the Apostles for all these 20 centuries.  I learned that, because of this promised guidance, the teaching authority of the Church cannot err when speaking on issues of faith and morals; the Church does not, has not and will not change such teachings because she cannot!  The deposit of faith has remained pure and intact since public revelation ended with the death of St. John, the last Apostle.  I learned that the Church has always rightly claimed to be the protector of Christ's Truth, with the authority to proclaim, explain and apply that revealed Truth to the world.  I learned that submission to Church teaching is submission to Christ.

I learned that the crown jewel of Christianity, the Eucharist, is clearly evident in the New Testament, and that it was brilliantly prefigured in the Old Testament by many different writers, thousands of years prior to Christ's institution of that sacrament.  It's no wonder, then, that the earliest Christians and all of the Church Fathers were staunch believers in the Real Presence, and were thoroughly Catholic in the rest of their doctrine.  The writings of the Fathers would stun any Protestant, and most Catholics as well!  I learned that the seven sacraments of the Church were explicitly instituted by Christ and are the direct channels of God's grace into our souls, the surest links between Heaven and Earth.  I learned that God did not make it difficult for man to find the Truth, provided that man seek the Truth.

The thing that shocked me most of all?  Everything I mentioned above can be proven biblically, historically, and through an exercise of reason.  Catholicism is not a religion of blind faith.  Kim and I have played devil's advocate for every controversial claim or issue regarding the Church, and the Church has won every time -- in fact, the Church's case gets stronger and more exquisitely beautiful every time it's tested!  Yet young Catholics were never told any of this.

As I said at the beginning:  I was robbed and my peers were robbed.  The loss is incalculable, as how do you count the cost of even a single lost soul?  As for blame, well, there's enough blame to go around, and I am fully aware of my own culpability in all of this.  I could have asked more questions, and I could have sought to do God's will as best I understood it, but in many cases I did not.  I have had long discussions with my parents, and they have willingly accepted their share of the blame as well.  But if I were giving a prize for biggest subverters of the Faith, it would have to go to liberal, dissenting Catholics, especially those in positions of power within the Church, be they theologians, bishops or catechetical directors.  They have witnessed an entire generation raised up in complete ignorance of the Faith as a result of catechetical failure, they see wide-scale rebellion and disdain for Church teaching and authority, and yet they still push to further liberalize the Church, pushing more and more people out of the Light and into darkness.

When I hear of dissident movements such as Call To Action and We Are Church, and when certain bishops, priests and sisters support and even lead these causes, I am indignant.  While these so-called "progressive" Catholics work to undermine the Faith and  fall all over themselves apologizing for the teachings of Holy Mother Church, I just wonder when any of them is going to apologize to me?  Or to my contemporaries?  When will they apologize for putting a  generation of souls in jeopardy?

Maybe they should be reminded of the Second Epistle of St. John, verses 9-11:  "Anyone who is so 'progressive' that he does not remain rooted in the teaching of Christ does not possess God, while anyone who remains rooted in the teaching possesses both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you who does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house; do not even greet him, for whoever greets him shares in the evil he does."

Or how about St. Paul writing to the Galatians (1:8-9):  "For even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel not in accord with the one we delivered to you, let a curse be upon him!  I repeat what I have just said:  If anyone preaches a gospel to you other than the one you received, let a curse be upon him!"

Here are Jesus' words on the subject:  "Whosoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matt. 18:6)

Catholics -- be they priests, bishops, religious, theologians or laymen -- who do not profess loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium should have the integrity to identify themselves as Protestants, for that is what they are, i.e. they exist in a state of protest against the Roman Catholic Church.  And those influential Catholics who have so obviously lost their faith have no business teaching or influencing the next generation.

I am not so naive or despairing to believe that even wide-scale apostasy among American Catholics at every level will destroy the Church.  We know from Christ Himself  that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against His Bride.  So even though we needn't be concerned with the Church's survival, we should all concern ourselves with the Church's primary mission on earth: the salvation of souls.  Too many souls have been allowed to slip out of the Church due to catechetical neglect, and it's time to stem the tide.

Perhaps the first step in reversing this trend is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God, begging forgiveness for the mess we've made in His Church and His world.  Second, we must pray for the conversion of those within our Church who seek to undermine the very Faith they claim to profess.  Third, each Catholic must take it upon himself to learn the Faith, and then commit himself to a life of proclaiming the Truth to others -- this is the "new evangelization" by the laity advocated by His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Finally, I humbly propose a Catholics' Bill of Rights, to be handed out to every new Christian along with his baptismal candle.  Maybe it could go something like this:

You have a right to your Catholic heritage.  You have the right to hear the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  You have the right to have the Faith of the Apostles transmitted to you unfiltered and undefiled.  You have the right to be catechized by an instructor who must first be required to profess his loyalty and obedience to Rome, and who humbly submits to all the teachings of Christ through His Church.  Anything less is not only nonsensical but scandalous, and might lead you away from the truth of the Church.  You have the right to expect Catholic orthodoxy in all Catholic classrooms and institutions, and you have the most blessed and merciful right never to hear radical feminism or pantheism taught as if it had anything remotely to do with Catholicism.  You have the right to remain Catholic.  If you give up that right, it will be your free will choice and not the result of poor or scandalous catechesis.  (In other words, you have the right to know what you're leaving before you leave it.)  And finally, you have the right to be indignant if you look back 28 years from now and realize that most of these rights have been denied you.

Praise God, my joy at having found the Faith is greater than my righteous anger at those who had a hand in keeping it from me for so long.  I know that I cherish my faith so dearly precisely because I almost lost it.  I know that God's ways are not man's ways, and I am forever grateful that He chose this way to lead me back home.  I only pray that He might somehow lead my contemporaries back home as well.


Leila and her husband have five beautiful children.
You may send her email at this address.
Leila@lisaslighthouse.org