"Vibrancy," as Bishop Galante defines it (a large number of paid professional lay ministers in each parish), apparently comes at a price that is simply too high to be sustained.  You may remember when Bishop Galante referred to St. John the Evangelist Church in Naples, Florida as a model for the parish vibrancy he seeks here in the Diocese of Camden.

Quoting from the Philadelphia Inquirer article, which is quoting Bishop Galante:

And all he [Bishop Galante's brother] talks about is how vibrant the local parish is: the people going to Mass, the wonderful preaching, concerts with sacred music and popular music.

The vitality and community his brother has found in Florida are what he hopes South Jersey Catholics will one day encounter in the 66 parishes that will remain.

Now, Naples is a very wealthy area.  Half of the American Fortune 500 CEOs live in Naples, FL.  And this is a huge parish, with 5,200 registered families as of last October (before a downward revision to 3,200 families by removing inactive parishioners).  And yet this vibrant parish, whose bulletin that reads like a magazine so impressed Bishop Galante, is finding this level of paid, professional lay ministry unsustainable.

St. John the Evangelist had a whopping $229,000 deficit for Quarter 1 of this past year (07/01/08 - 09/30/08).  Click here for link to bulletin with minutes for the Pastoral Council Quarterly Board Meeting.  Their March 8, 2009 bulletin showed a year-to-date income of more than $1,175,000 (in just over 9 months), but it also revealed that this was insufficient to support their paid staff: 

Consequently, four administrative support positions have been reduced into two.  We have also had to let go of one full time and two part time members of our maintenance staff.

We are sorry for those who lost their positions, especially in the difficult economy we are facing, but there is an important lesson in this.  Most of our new "mega-parishes" will be less than half the size of this church and our parishioners are certainly much less affluent, on the whole, than those from Naples, FL.  So, if St. John the Evangelist, with all its size and wealth, cannot afford the "vibrancy" desired by Bishop Galante, how can we, especially with all of the ill-will created by these mergers?

As a side note, we are glad to hear that the local bishop has requested St. John the Evangelist church install kneelers. ("[A]t St. John's we stand in joy rather than kneel in fear.")  We are also pleased to hear that they are no longer allowing VOTF to have their annual Mass at St. John the Evangelist.  Now, if they only move their tabernacle from its current location ("in the back of the church on the left side") to front and center and fix a few other problems related to their "understanding" of the Real Presence, they might be OK, despite their financial crisis!

Over at savestmarys, we do not enjoy having to deal with news pieces like this one, but really they make our job easier. This article profiles St. Joseph's "Catholic" McMegaChurch in Richardson, Texas, a church the bishop would like to replicate here in South Jersey.

About 1,500 miles away, officials at the Diocese of Camden want to promote this type of vibrant parish. As part of a planned diocesan makeover...

Here it is in black and white, guys. This is what we're in store for. A "makeover." Yippee! We, too can look just like that cool Church of the Future down in Texas. Wait'll you see what's in store for us lucky Catholics. New buildings with new ideas and new priorities...

 Ironically, in an effort to assuage the fears of Mr. and Miss Average Catholic In the Pews, the Courier Post has done a really good job of confirming that our worst fears about what Bishop Galante and Friends have up their sleeves are true. The prospect that Bishop Galante would want to replicate mega"churches" with labyrinths and cappuccino bars here in South Jersey is a repulsive thought. Why in the world he believes that by instituting flaky, liberal "spirit-trends," souls will be saved is beyond me. Promoting the culture of the world at a supposedly Catholic church and reveling in what one can only imagine constitutes a frequent lack of reverence is simply appalling. Yet the pastor at St. Joe's, Msgr. Fischer,  says,

When people come here, there's a level of energy. It's like walking into a mall at Christmas.

Huh? Is that supposed to make us want to go to this church? Is he off his nut? I for one would like to know the last time that Msgr. Fischer was actually at a mall at Christmastime. These are places that most sane people avoid like the plague. Unless, of course, he is referring to the buzz that certain CEOs might get around Christmastime at the prospect of people willingly parting with their hard-earned money only to get some useless trinkets and doo-dads to fill stockings and gift bags.

Problematic article? Yeah. (But since no one wants a church like that, he did our work for us!)

Our problem with the article? Well first of all, the article fails in the journalistic integrity department generally because it is a puff piece. It is nothing but a piece of advertising for Bishop Galante and Company, and if I was Jim Walsh I'd be embarrassed by the fact that I'd compromised my professional standards. The article does not attempt to promote a balanced view of the megachurch, dissenting opinions, or even a hint of a critical stance toward the Bishop Galante and his plans. (Wonder what in the world the Courier Post, or should we call it "The Other Catholic Star Herald," could be getting in return for this kind of coverage?)

Of course, plenty of scholarship is available on the pluses and minuses of the megachurch at this point, but not a one was touched by Jim Walsh of the CP. Here are a couple of scholars Mr. Walsh could have contacted. Quote from 2005 ABC piece:

Mega-churches are booming all over the country, not just in the South.

Scott Thumma, a theologian at Hartford Seminary, compares the phenomenon to shopping at a place like Wal-Mart.

"Just as if you go to a Wal-Mart, you can get all of your lists done in one place, it's sort of one-stop shopping for spirituality as well," Thumma said.

Randall Balmer, a theology professor at Barnard College in New York says [of mega-congregations], "It is in many ways consumerism run amok."

In contrast, here's a perfect example of more Courier Post pandering:

One more difference between the regions [South Jersey and Dallas, Texas]: Galante, who often draws angry protests with his controversial plans for parish mergers in the Camden diocese, is recalled with fondness at St. Joseph.

"You tell that bishop we miss him here," barked head usher Chuck Maltese of Wylie, Texas, a retired New York City policeman.

How funny is that? First he says we're "angry" protesters. Now why in the world should we be angry? Guess we're too hormonal again. Oh well! Maybe we should have just handed over the keys and deeds to our churches cuz Bishop asked nice and said he'd give us a latte.  (I like hazelnut, no whipped cream. Although I can't afford those kinds of fancy drinks myself!) Honestly, if barking head usher Chuck Maltese would like Bishop Galante back in Texas, I just know we in the Diocese of Camden would be only too happy to oblige. Heck, we'd pay his one-way fare back and he can bring along Ms. Vollmer and Msgr. McGrath for company, too. On us! First class all the way. (No plastic utensils, and real dishes.)

It's rather odd that the CP would make the claim that Bishop Galante is widely loved and missed in Texas considering we at savestmarys have received more than a few unsolicited emails from disgruntled Texans claiming Galante mangled their diocese in more ways than one. Could you imagine the sordid tales we'd hear if we actually bothered picking up the phone to initiate contact ourselves? We simply haven't gotten around to that yet, but we'd certainly appreciate hearing the stories of the Catholics in Texas who are still picking up the pieces.

Depressing, ain't it?

Aside from the article itself, it's just plain depressing that too many "Catholic" churches are are deviating from the Truth in that they are so susceptible to superficial novelties, and that some pastors and bishops are leading their sheep astray. However Jim Walsh makes finding flaws in this "model church" way too easy, and judging from the comments on the Courier Post website, no one seems to think of this church as something in any way desirable, nor are they buying the ridiculous stats spewed by the Diocese.

In holding up this parish Bishop Galante's true intentions become very clear. It seems he wants to dismiss Catholicism as we've known it and institute something utterly different in its place. Something worldly, something that resembles what's going on in many trendy evangelical protestant churches. Something that embraces aspects of extreme liberalism and new age-iness. Something that dumbs down and dilutes our faith. Something that appeals to no real Catholic.

Keeping up with the culture

From a 2005 ABC News article dealing with the new consumerist megachurches, a parent is quoted:

"You know, the culture is giving our kids a lot of fast-paced media and all different things that are moving along," she said. "Why can't the church keep up and do the same thing for our kids and for us?"

There's an easy answer for that one, actually. As Christians we are to be in the world but not of it. It is not the responsibility of the Church to keep pace with modern American culture. It is the responsibility of the Church to preach and teach the Good News of Jesus Christ, whether or not that conforms to our "lifestyle." How many times did Our Lord tell us that He and His Kingdom were not of this world (John 18:36)? Further in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (2:12-14):

Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom; but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined.

How many times must we be exhorted not to conform ourselves to the things of this world, for it is passing, but God is eternal?

And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. (1John 2:15)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that includes lattes and biscotti.

A few interesting things about the church


Cremation: Like the parishes in Florida (churches St. John the Evangelist and St. Agnes), St. Joe's seems to advocate the non-traditional practice of cremation, to the point of having something called a "Columbarium Wall" where ashes may be interred in little niches. It's pretty darn ugly. The Columbarium Wall surrounds the labyrinth. (For those of you who aren't aware, cremation is hugely popular among liberal eco-types because it takes up less space.)


Music: The choir has a CD with the predictable David Haas and Marty Hogan emotional tripe, as well as a "Zulu" song. Yay! How multi-cultural of them. At least now all the Zulus in their parish will feel welcome.

Eastern Stuff: You'll be happy to know they also have "Thai Chi Chih" available.

Questionable Curricula: Interestingly, the catechetical materials they've chosen to use over there have been given a "yellow" or caution rating by catholicculture.org, who "recommend[s] that you avoid Why Catholic." Quote:

Philip Blosser provides a perfect summary when he worries that the program is "designed by revisionists whose devious aim is to use their small group approach to refract ecclesial focus, to undermine magisterial authority, to democratize the Catholic message, to continue the AmChurch decentralization of Catholic Church in America, to continue the process of protestantizing and revising the Church and detaching her from the only moorings she has in her own traditions. . . ."

A Response from non-practicing Catholics

Here's where our coverage of this story will take a turn for the odd. Tonight after work I popped over to my younger sister's house to borrow a couple of Disney videos for my kids, to kiss my new baby niece, and to chat for a few minutes. About an hour later, as I was turning to leave, I just happened to mention this piece in the Courier Post about "a mega[Catholic] Church that the bishop seems to want to replicate here in South Jersey, which has a cappuccino bar."

Now keep in mind that my sister, who is 28, and her husband, who is 32, were both raised Catholic. But, not uncommonly, they are both completely non-practicing. My older niece, who has just begun first grade, has never even been baptized. Other than to attend the baptisms of my own children and the occasional funeral, to the best of my knowledge, she hasn't darkened the doorway of a church in at least five years. She has her own reasons, I know, but we don't talk much about them. The point is, we couldn't be more polar opposite on the religion issue, unless maybe she was a rabid atheist or something.

Without so much as the blink of an eye, the two of them--my sister and brother-in-law--went off. They found the prospect of what a church like this could be, could look like, could morph into, etc. absurd and funny. What struck me most about what follows is that the very audience Galante and Company is trying to entice--the lapsed Catholics, the young families,  professionals, etc.--are the very people who see right through all the crap. People like my sister and her husband, who don't like BS. If there was a possibility of ever being religious, they'd prefer their religion to not be mixed up in materialism. So I thought I'd share some of this [admittedly irreverent at times] rapid-fire back-and-forth between my sister and her husband with you, just to give you an idea of how truly ineffectual all this "nonsense" is. Honestly, I was laughing really hard. They definitely "got it," and with zero prompting by me.

(Article link below)

Again, the thing the Diocese just doesn't seem to get is that they are not giving any local demographic statistics to justify the trends they say exist. Just because a general trend is occurring nationally doesn't mean that that same trend can be applied to every specific region. This is a basic principle of sociology, of course. But apparently the bishop and Mr. Walton think that if they throw a bunch of numbers out to the population at large they'll be dumb enough to buy it. Many don't trust the bishops after they mishandled the sex abuse scandal or think fighting a bishop is useless since they'll run roughshod over the laity anyway. What difference will these misleading numbers make to them?

As I've said before, here in South Jersey, there are only two urban centers, by definition: Camden and Atlantic City. Even if there is a Catholic exodus from these areas, church closure is not necessarily the answer. At St. Bart's in Camden, for example, which is a parish that was established in particular for the Black Catholic population, parishioners drive from various locations to attend this church. In other words, just because the Catholic population in an area may shift, this does not always mean that the church is underutilized.*

People are attached to their churches for many reasons, and it has been shown in recent years that the local (or most geographically expedient) church is not always the one people choose to attend. I myself drive past countless Catholic churches to attend the two churches to which I belong. My neighbors on one side attend one Catholic church, across the street another, and next door to me on the other side yet another. We all live in the same town on the same block and between the four houses we attend five different churches in a total of three different towns. At one church I attend, I don't think I know any parishioner who actually lives in that particular town.

About the most they give us in this article is the following: "Local shifts in population also have occurred." ??? They continue to fail to give any specific information about particular parishes which are situated in areas with significantly decreased Catholic populations. While I'm sure there are a few such parishes, I hardly believe the far-reaching changes the bishop proposes in any way meet the actual statistical data. I am so confident that they are wrong in their conclusions, in fact, that if I had all the time in the world I'd pour over the census data myself. (Unfortunately I have a job and two young children, so I don't anticipate this happening.)

There are at least two things the Diocese, intent on only sociological planning (and poor planning at that) rather than Godly action, have missed altogether:

1. These days, particularly due to the fact that there are churches that do not unapologetically embrace the fullness of the Church's teachings, people will drive to get to a Catholic church they want to and in conscience can attend. St. Mary's and St. Bart's are only two such churches in the diocese. There are definitely others: St. Peter's in Merchantville, the Cathedral in Camden, Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, St. Catherine's in Clayton, St. Lawrence in Lindenwold, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Absecon, etc.

2. We are to evangelize! We are Christians! The bishop's answer to decreasing numbers of practicing Catholics is to close the churches they were baptized and received the sacraments in? Take away the only church that fallen-away Catholics have any attachment to and you take away their last remaining connection to the faith. Besides this, if population changes are truly occurring to the point where drastic action is needed, that drastic action is evangelization, not church closure!!! Maybe instead of investing all this time and money on how to close down churches and turn a profit from property sales, he should be thinking instead about how to win hearts and minds for Christ and his One, True Church. Fill up those pews again, then, don't take away people's houses of God! (Boy I bet they're glad they didn't pack it in in Europe when church attendance fell away. The tourist trade at all those old churches is quite lucrative.)

In any case, without exerting ourselves, we can use their own information to disprove their argument. In the past, the bishop has talked about major population increases in the Pitman area, for example. In fact, Bishop Galante has on several occasions sung the praises of the evangelical protestant Gloucester County Community Church. Well GCCC is two blocks from the Pitman line, and yet he wants to close down Our Lady Queen of Peace in Pitman? That makes no sense. In just about every instance I can think of, Galante and McGrath are seeking to close churches in areas where there is significant population growth.

Again, take the Malaga and Waterford areas. Both these areas are experiencing development, population influx not decrease, and yet Galante and McGrath want to close both these churches (St. Mary's and St. Anthony's). The rationale given (among many depending on the day of the week) is that people don't live in these areas anymore and demographics are shifting. Huh? Just goes to show they haven't done their homework and actually explored these geographic areas. Have exploratory/preliminary studies been done? Doesn't seem like it. All you have to do is look around and see houses going up and know people are moving in, not out.

So far as I can tell, the real reason for the destruction of the Diocese is that Galante, McGrath, and vollmer simply do not like traditional Catholic churches, particularly not small ones. It's an issue of preference. They embrace a different model of church altogether and wish to radically change the face of Catholicism in South Jersey. Just look at the churches the bishop seems to like: Gloucester County Community Church and St. John the Evangelist in Naples, FL. One is protestant and the other a liberal McMegachurch. But if they gave their true reasons, who would be behind them? Hardly anyone is now, can you imagine if they were administered a truth serum and were forced to lay bare their real motivations? We must pray for their conversion, it's our best hope and their best hope. Bishop Galante is the bishop of our Diocese, we must pray for his soul and those who will be affected by these actions!


*Of course, while claiming to promote "unity within our diversity," according to the mission statement of the Diocese, Galante plans to close the only Catholic church in the diocese that was established for the Black population. What an insult. But that is another matter.


Read here if you want to waste your time with more propaganda.

Yesterday morning at 8:15 am Bishop Galante was on Newsmakers with Pat Ciarrocchi on CBS 3. Here are some of Bishop Galante's assertions, with comments and clarifications from savestmarys.net as well as some summaries of sentiments expressed by Leah Vassallo and Bob Walsh (COP) yesterday.

1. The bishop says that families, young families, are moving off barrier islands and therefore there isn't the need for parishes and schools that there once was.

• Where does he get this information from? If families are moving off the islands, then why are so many schools growing and building?
  

2. He said twice that he's responded to letters written to him.

• No he hasn't. He certainly hasn't responded to mine. I know people who have written him countless times and have to date received no response, not even a form letter. For those lucky enough to get a letter, it is only a form letter and usually does not address their concerns.

3. He said that people are moving from "urban centers" in South Jersey.

• What "urban centers"? Camden and Atlantic City? South Jersey doesn't really have "urban centers" in the way other areas do. The truth is that Galante wants to close churches throughout the diocese in places that are urban, suburban, and rural. Closures ("mergers") are widespread across the diocese, despite the environment. The bishop is using national trends to justify actions that are local, even if the general national trends do not apply to our particular region. In fact, Bishop Galante wishes to close churches in areas whose populations are growing. This is opportunism, pure and simple, and the diocese uses whatever rationale seems expedient at the time.
  

4. He said "the Eucharist is the center of our faith and without priests we cannot have the Eucharist."

• This is an interesting statement considering that Bishop Galante (1) discourages priestly vocations (see below) and (2) holds up as models for future Catholic churches in South Jersey a protestant church (Gloucester County Community Church) and a radically liberal Catholic megachurch in Naples, FL that has publicly espoused heretical views about the Eucharist and other matters of faith. LINK
  

5. The bishop said we need a "new springtime" in the Church of South Jersey (as he calls it), "a renewal of our faith and our practice." We need outreach, love, and service of God and neighbor. Bishop Galante says that as a shepherd he is to animate, call, and lead people to that understanding of faith. He is to help people to know Jesus more intimately and love Jesus more ardently.

• I have only two things to say about this: (1) We do not intend to have this be a "silent spring." We do not trust in the type of "renewal" Galante wishes to impose. We will fight the destruction of our Church, our churches, and our Faith and will not do so quietly. (2) As our "shepherd," I would truly like to know how the bishop is leading us toward a love and knowledge of Jesus. I certainly don't see it. By closing our beloved houses of God, how is this helping us?

6. Bishop Galante said that young people hunger for deeper meaning in their lives.

• Of course this is true! But then why would he want to close houses of God that young people are attached to and that in many cases their ancestors built? In a society that increasingly destroys places of significance in favor of generic strip malls, developments, and chain stores, why would a bishop want to impose more of the same? South Jersey has been colonized by forces that seek to destroy its character for long enough. Why would young people or any people support the destruction of the place where they have come to know and love Our Lord? Why should he want to destroy churches that radiate traditional Catholic culture and values and erect nondescript McChurches like we see elsewhere in the country (and sadly, even within our own diocese)? Does Bishop Galante have any idea how devastating something like that can be to any person? Some are so disgusted by what's going on they are considering leaving the church altogether. I know young adults who have left the church and what Bishop Galante is doing in closing churches just seals the deal, so to speak. Places are important, the places we worship in are important, and they are not so easily replaced.
  
• If Bishop Galante will look to numbers with complete objectivity, he will clearly see that diocese, orders, and fraternities that are attracting young adults are disproportionately ones that are traditional, which is the very thing Galante wishes to undercut. Here are several links to just a handful of such groups. There are certainly lots of others:
  
• Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter stats page (Their regular page)--They send priests throughout the country when the bishop allows them in. This is what they were set up to do. The FSSP priests are not just in one particular place.
  
• Nashville Dominicans
• Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist

7. Bishop Galante always likes to say that he spent so much time "listening to the people" during the "speak out sessions" and deanery meetings, claiming the process (as well as the closures he thinks were a natural emination of that process) has lay support.

• No one I know is in support of the mergers and closures. Not a single person. People think that the loss of their houses of God is inevitable and that there is nothing they can do about it. This assumption of inevitability must NOT be construed as support!
• We all know that we must be careful when evaluating "studies" done by organizations that have an agenda. The diocese is no exception. As Leah and Bob pointed out in the video response, this is a fake "process" and the studies and polls that are cited are almost always fake as well. We can make numbers say whatever we want and make studies prove whatever we want by structuring them in certain ways. No diocesan study ought to be trusted. Interestingly, as Leah Vassallo pointed out, there has been no poll on parish mergers because no one supports them.
• Bishop Galante is taking advantage of the Catholic faithful's trust of their bishop--trust that he cares for them, listens to them,and is leading them along the right and godly path. Instead, he is abusing their trust by taking away from them something that is most precious because he has an particular agenda. This is an abuse of his power. The closing of half the churches in our diocese is absolutely wrong and must be resisted.
  

8. Bishop Galante claims that he supports and desires priestly vocations.

• In reality, the bishop is actively discouraging priestly vocations. He has (1) lowered the mandatory retirement age, (2) refused priests from outside the diocese (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Indian Carmelites, African priests, and others, only to import one of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in order to bolster his own liberal agenda), (3) spread seminarians among three seminaries, and (4) reassigned, forced out, or forced into retirement more than a dozen priests to date.
• Why is he discouraging vocations to the priesthood? Two interconnected reasons. While it is bizarre to think any "shepherd" would do this, it is simply fact that with the diminishing availability of priests comes the scarcity of the sacraments. Without the sacraments to strengthen us in the spiritual life, we are in trouble! Instead of encouraging and inviting priests who make available the sacraments, Galante has a lay-led initiative ready to implement, which will begin with lay staff at each parish. The hiring of all the lay staff will likely cost each parish, according to the diocese' own salary scale, somewhere in the vicinity of $200,000 each year in addition to their normal operating costs. The bottom line is that Galante wishes to change the character of the Church altogether.

9. Bishop Galante has repeatedly stressed the importance of offering social services to people in the hopes that they'll come to church. (The "build it and they will come" mentality.) Services like day care for seniors and children, to start with.

• Church isn't about convenience, it's about fatih. While services are nice, do we really want to encourage a view of the Church in which people assume a relationship of convenience and comfort? The bishop is coming about this whole thing backwards. We need to build up the spirituality of the churches first and foremost, and if services are needed or wanted, they must be connected to that spirituality. Without Christ at our center, all services, as good as they may be, will be superficial and will not draw people to Him.
  

On the Newsmakers coverage:
In my opinion, CBS 3 has certainly given the movement excellent coverage in the past and I know they will in the future. The most recent news piece was extremely good. However I must admit I personaly did not think Pat Ciarrocchi challenged the bishop, nor would I consider the bishop's stint on Newsmakers an example of balanced journalism. It was obviously pretty one-sided. In fact, I was disappointed to see she even fed Bishop Galante answers at various points. It was really great, though, when she pointed out the "tremendous resistence" to his plan, and the bishop took issue with the word "tremendous." In any case, I know that CBS normally has wonderfully balanced coverage of this issue and I certainly anticipate more critical analysis of the diocesan crisis going into the future.

This article has little to do, directly, with the campaign, but it definitely reveals the mindset of those Galante and McGrath surround themselves with. Like Ms. vollmer, formerly of LA and then Dallas, of "it's a process, not a program" fame. Liberals love "process," let me tell you. It makes things appear to be in flux rather than a set plan. But I digress.

Funny thing, I wasn't aware that the "social Gospel" was the "one and only Gospel." I just thought the Gospel was the Truth, the message of salvation, the Word of God, the Good News...the Gospel. Bizarre.

Funnier thing, I do consider myself a "liberal" when it comes to social programs and things, yet I don't at all relate to this rhetoric. Making political (ie something secular, worldly, and generally icky) the Sacred Heart of Our Lord is just not my thing. The implication here, to my mind, is that Jesus and St. Benedict were sort of proto-Marxists. They did Marxism better. Ummm...ok? I guess I just don't get it. I think of Our Lord as my Savior, the One who leads us unto all Truth, not a political figure.

Reminds me of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Naples, FL that Bishop Galante wants to model the new "Church of South Jersey" after. They'd love this stuff. (More on St.John the Evangelist parish here.)

Snippet from Fr. Gregorio's article (emphasis mine):

Priests and deacons preaching the social Gospel (i.e., the one and only Gospel) often are accused of siding with one party or one economic school, even failed ones like Marxism. They should reply that Jesus came before Marx, and that Marx inadvertently borrowed from the rule of Benedict and how Benedictine monasteries run: classless society, ownership of the means of production by the proletariat, no private property, etc. However a monk is always free to leave the community while one may not leave communist China.

Beware of the old rubbish being resurrected about the evils of liberalism. Many damn this leftward slant because of its squishy tolerance of sexual hedonism but ignore its thrust to use government to raise the minimal standard of living of the nation's disadvantaged, most of whom by serious analysis are where they are because of an economic system flawed so badly it would break a bleeding heart.

Naples, Florida: Golf Capital of the World and Home of Bill and Mary Anne Galante's Ultra-Liberal St. John the Evangelist Church

"More holes per capita than any other community." (From Wikipedia entry on Napes, FL)

I'm referring here to golf links, of course. Naples, Florida is everything you think, and more. Half of the American Fortune 500 CEOs live in Napes, FL. Yes, little ol' Malaga, NJ: You, too, can be as authentic, spiritual, and non-materialistic as Naples, FL. Yay! Guess who lives part of the year in Napes, FL? Bishop Galante's brother and sister-in-law.

Quoting from the Philadelphia Inquirer article, which is quoting Bishop Galante:

And all he [Bishop Galante's brother] talks about is how vibrant the local parish is: the people going to Mass, the wonderful preaching, concerts with sacred music and popular music.

The vitality and community his brother has found in Florida are what he hopes South Jersey Catholics will one day encounter in the 66 parishes that will remain.

The local church his brother and sister-in-law attend, which is the model for what Bishop Galante hopes South Jersey churches will become, looks like this:

Charming, personal, quaint, and inviting, huh? And the pastor, Fr. Glackin (who in is photo doesn't even bother to wear a collar), for Mother's Day/Pentecost Sunday, quoted Erma Bombeck. Cute. Here's a link to that:
Fr. Glackin's Mother's Day Inspiration

You May Laugh, But It's A Little Scary
There are a couple of sort of humorous things on the church's site. On the RCIA website, they claim that confession is "not for the guilty." Of course, it's pretty ridiculous. It of course begs the question, if you're not guilty, then why confess? But I digress. Onto stranger things. You'll notice below (image taken from their website) that they have an image of a skinny, topless, somewhat androgynous-looking woman about to be touched by an outstretched hand. I presume this to be the primordial symbol of conversion. Kinda reminds me of an alien abduction or something, it's sort of unnerving.

 

Compared with the hefty material I will take on below, mentioning anything so minor as the music at St. John the Evangelist seems petty. Nevertheless, since the bishop wants some "vital music" injected into the South Jersey Catholic liturgical scene (read: begone traditional Catholic hymnody). I thought it would be good to include a photo of the music director of St. John the Evangelist parish. Check out his website, if you'd like to listen to some of the "vibrant music" Bishop Galante would have us integrate into our "liturgies." Paul Todd's site Mr. Todd has opened for the Pointer Sisters, Joan Rivers, the Gatlin Brothers, and others. All that and he works on a TeleTubbies-like cartoon for kids.

 

Puts us to shame over at St. May's, what with the teeny little choir loft and simple a cappella singing. The bigger the better, after all.

Pastor Promotes Group that Undermines Church Teaching
On a much more serious note, Father Glackin, pastor of St. John's, is a ringleader of the radical group, "Voice of the Faithful," Link here, which Catholic Culture assigns a "danger warning" for fidelity. Archbishop John Myers of Newark, NJ says that

VOTF...has used the current crisis in the Church as a springboard for presenting an agenda that is anti-Church and, ultimately, anti-Catholic.

(See Naples Daily News, September 19, 2003. Link here.) Glackin keeps trying to bring in speakers from Voice of the Faithful to St. John the Evangelist parish and the bishop of the Diocese of Venice keeps denying him. Instead VOTF brings speakers like the notorious Fr. Curran to a local Greek Orthodox Church. See article here. Voice of the Faithful's real goal, among many, is fairly obvious: it wants to change the character and structure of the church by "promot[ing] turning the Church into a democracy." Furthermore their conferences "feature prominent speakers who are known to support homosexuality, abortion, contraception, female priests and other dissident principles." The gist of their philosophy is to build up the laity and create an atmosphere of equality and interchangeability among the roles of the sexes and even the clergy and laity. (catholicculture.org)

Voice of the Faithful "is tied to dissident, radical, anti-Vatican groups, such as Call to Action and We Are Church, which strongly reject Catholic moral principles," according to the well regarded and orthodox catholicculture.org. Fr. Glackin, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Naples, is lauded by VOTF on its website: Accollades from VOTF for Fr. Glackin. VOTF holds their monthly meetings at the Parish Life Center, so the pastor's connection with this dissident group is hardly hidden. (The meeting location is listed on the VOTF southewest Florida website.)

Parish Promotes Irreverence & Misunderstanding of the Real Presence
St.John the Evangelist Parish, which the bishop holds up as the model for Catholic churches, is a bastion of anti-Catholic and non-Catholic (well, essentially Protestant) thought. On the church website, to put it charitably, there is a very definite mixed message relayed with regard to the Real Presence, among other things. For example, kneeling during the consecration is roundly condemned as something born of fear. They claim that the early Church stood during the consecration, but provide no evidence for this assumption. From the church's RCIA program Q&A about the Eucharist (for entire article click here):

Why do people at St. Johns stand for the consecration, where at some other Catholic churches, people kneel? In the early church, people stood for the consecration as a sign of respect and joyful celebration. As the centuries progressed, people began to kneel, as a sign of sorrow and repentance, and focused so much on the Divinity of Christ that his humanity was almost forgotten. Kneeling was a sign of fear before a king. This practice still continues in some catholic churches today. But with Vatican II, the church recovered the early church's focus on joyful celebration. So, at St. John's we stand in joy rather than kneel in fear.

A little further down, the question is posed, "Who can take communion?" Here is a piece of the answer St. John the Evangelist RCIA provides potential converts:

(The church teaches that it needs to be baptized Catholics...but Christ doesn't check our ID's) Sometimes at weddings and funerals, non-Catholics may be invited to receive communion.

In other words, they come right out and say that the Church teaches one thing, but they teach another. This church actively and unabashedly flouts the teachings of the Catholic faith not only through direct affiliation with groups that undermine the faith, but also by egregiously offending Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist by allowing non-Catholic Christians to partake. They belittle those who would revere His holy presence by kneeling in adoration. It would make sense to cease kneeling if the Real Presence is not understood properly...

Most alarming of all, it is clear by reading the entry on the Eucharist that at St. John's there is a complete misunderstanding of transubstantiation. They say, "The wine is still wine, and the bread is still bread, but somehow it is also more than just bread and wine." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was essentially heresy. I quote the Catholic Encyclopedia here (and I'd really encourage you to read the entire entry on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist here):

That the consequence of Transubstantiation, as a conversion of the total substance, is the transition of the entire substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, is the express doctrine of the Church (Council of Trent, Sess. XIII, can. ii). Thus were condemned as contrary to faith the antiquated view of Durandus, that only the substantial form (forma substantialis) of the bread underwent conversion, while the primary matter (materia prima) remained, and, especially, Luther's doctrine of Consubstantiation, i.e. the coexistence of the substance of the bread with the true Body of Christ.

As I understand it, the Body and Blood of Our Lord maintain only the appearance of bread and wine. Again from the Catholic Encyclopedia (from this piece on consecration):

It is called transubstantiation, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of breadand wine do not remain, but the entire substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the entire substance of wine is changed into His blood, the species or outward semblance of bread and wine alone remaining.

I could go on, since there is an abundance of erronious information so readily available, but I won't. Truly frightening is the prospect that lays before us: that Bishop Galante seeks to model his new-and-improved Catholic McMegachurches after St. John the Evangelist parish, a church that so clearly propogates irreverence and error. Is this what we want the South Jersey Catholic churches to be? I don't. I want to worship God as He is, not as I wish Him to be.

A Model Church for Us Unsophisticated South Jersey Hicks
So anyhow, yes folks, this church of St. John the Evangelist is the model for what Bishop Galante sees as a "vibrant" church. I don't pretend to know what you might think of pastors who promote organizations that undermine the Faith, pop-culture references mixed into your religiosity, Yanni-esque music directors, large and impersonal McChurches, too-cool-for-you RCIA programs, hip self-improvement "confession," and "communities" that boast some of the richest people in the world. And "more holes per capita than any other community" to boot! But I for one prefer that old time religion, the faith of our fathers, "the least of these," and all that stuff. I don't want a big, fancy, modern church with larger than life "contemporary" music. I want a church that reminds me of who I am in the grand scheme of things, not a church that puts me in the center. I want a church that's real, on a human scale, leads me to God, and doesn't remind me of a country club.

The majority of the churches the bishop wants to close are authentic houses of worship with the Real Presence front and center, kneelers, and histories that predate Vatican II. They are traditional. They are characteristically Catholic, replete with the sacramentals that empower us to fight the Enemy. They are the powerhouses of prayer. And yet, according to the Inquirer article, "the scope of the closing appears to be the largest ever for any of the nation's 195 Roman Catholic dioceses." And many of the churches that stand to be closed are ones very much like St. Mary's. Should we make way for a bigger, better sort of church? A one-stop-shop like the evangelical protestants have? Will we accept compromised theology and liturgy? Or are we finally going to acknowledge that what people really want is Truth...simple and straightforward Truth, and that it's Jesus in the Holy Eucharist who offers it?

By the way, in case you want to read it, click for the Inquirer Article here