Back by popular demand, this was originally published Dec. 23, 2008. Apparently our "dark humor" is appreciated. It is sad that the American Catholic Church has come to this.

Twas the night before merger, when all through the church,

There were lists of new ministries for all to search.

The coffee mugs were hung by the cappuccino bar with care,

In the hopes that the barrista soon would be there.

 

Most parishioners were nestled all snug in their beds,

And visions of mocha lattes danced in their heads,

And Mama in the labyrinth and I with guitar,

Were amazed the Spirit of Vatican II had come so far.

 

When out in the coffee bar there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my "pew" chair to see what was the matter.

Away to the "community gathering area" I flew like a flash,

Tore through the spiritual dance practice area and fell into the full-immersion baptismal tub with a splash.

 

Whipped cream on the top of the freshly brewed jo,

Gave rise to a grumbling in my tummy below.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a hungry bishop with a New Age liberal agenda near!

 

With a bright shiny plan so vibrant and new,

I knew all our stodgy, old fashioned ways were through.

More rapid than eagles his closures they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

 

"Bye, St. Mary's! Bye, St. Anthony's! Bye, St. Gregory's and Holy Name!

"Bye, St. Jude's! Bye, St. Ann's! Bye St. Maurice, and St. James!

"From the top of the steeple to the floor of the hall,

"Now sell away! Trash away! Smash away all!"

 

As Wawas with crosses point up to the sky

When they meet at the Chancery, everything is a lie.

So out to the parishes the vultures they flew

With all the Conveners and Womonpriest Vollmer, too.

 

And then, at the door, I noticed a sulferous smell,

I looked up to see the director of priest personnel.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

His lackeys pushed the man next to me down to the ground. 

 

Another was dressed all in black, from his head to his feet,

The prettiest priest I ever did meet.

With shoes so shiny, every time he looked

He saw himself shining back and he was quickly hooked.

 

His eyes, how they twinkled! His teeth, how white!

His cheeks were like roses, his abs really tight!

If he worked really hard and kept his nose clean

He would surely climb to the top of the corporate machine.

 

But Terry Odien and Peter Joyce, they did not come alone,

With them was the man who sits on the Cathedral throne.

He had a mean face and a round belly crossed with a chain

That shook when he bellowed like a bowl of chow mein.

 

Bishop was chubby and plump, a right grumpy old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!

But the magnitude of his ego (the size of his head),

Soon gave me to know I had everything to dread.

 

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And emptied the bank accounts, then turned with a smirk.

And laying his fingers on everything he saw,

"To Follieri," he said, "I will sell it ALL!"

 

He climbed up in his minivan, to his deacon gave a whistle,

They smiled at each other, which caused me to bristle.

And I heard him exclaim as they drove out of sight,

"For some change is difficult, but for me a delight!"

 

...and now we're hearing it again.

I am currently reading a 1993 article about one Fr. Grubb. Fr. Grubb was on the forefront of the hippie masses and went just about as far as one could go with this back in the 60s and 70s, even going so far as to bake pot brownies, sew burlap vestments with flowers and peace symbols on them, and invite raucous rock bands to play during "Mass," among other things. In any case, Fr. Grubb long ago repented, realizing his many errors, and became a traditional and orthodox priest. He even began saying the traditional Latin mass in the 1980s.

See if you find some of his sentiments, circa 1969, familiar:

• As people change, the Church and the Mass must change with them.

• The traditional Mass for most people--especially the young--is dull. All over the country, churches are finding that the young people just are not coming to their services. We had to find a way to make Mass a happy, relevant experience for them.

Interestingly, Fr. Grubb noticed that

"no matter what novelty was introduced," attendance at mass dropped. "He began to see that what the people were expecting, and what he had been providing, was not spiritual nourishment, not closeness to God--or even one another--but entertainment.

He also began to notice that his congregation was drifting not just out of his Mass, but out of the Church. Young people especially, who made up most of his following, were abandoning the Faith in droves, preferring the easier religion of drugs and sex. Most, he believes, never returned: "They married outside of the Church, I'm sure"--if they bothered to marry at all. He even began to doubt what sort of converts he had made, which at one point had been many. "I'm not sure what they were converted to," he says today. "I rather think they were converted to me."

The hippie masses may be over, for the most part, in this country. But their ghosts remain, as do advocates of the radical reforms they represented. Now what we face is the closure of our churches, the building of "churches of the future," and the introduction of all kinds of novelties from cappuccino bars to trendy and irreverent christo-pop to labyrinth-walking to the promotion of cremation instead of burial. The point is that what is at stake here is not even the closure of churches and the opening of new ones, but the closure of churches and the replacement of said churches with something altogether different. Like Fr. Grubb, Bishop Galante and Company ought to be asking themselves, "What kind of converts will we make with all these novelties? What, in the end, is the point of all this?" Fr. Grubb's answer was, "To lead them [the people] to God." This is not only the role of a good shepherd, but of the physical church, the Sacred Mass, and Holy Mother Church herself.

But many of us grew up in churches where many of the means of being led to God--those sure, tried-and-true ways passed down through the centuries--were altogether absent. Even in the church I grew up in, which was built after I was baptized (in the late 70s), there were almost no statues and I'd never even heard of benediction, Eucharistic adoration, communion rails, most traditional Catholic hymns, Gregorian chant, a "morning offering," the Angelus, votive candles, an "examination of conscience," or any myriad number of other things. I don't remember being taught how to say the rosary, for that matter. My home parish was far from radical in the vast scheme of things, and my mother, though a product of her generation, was certainly a devout Catholic. These many rich means of growing closer to Our Lord--mostly traditional Catholic sacramentals--were effectively deprived the people in my parish, and particularly those in my generation--because they were seen as unnecessary and perhaps even embarrassing. One of the things we did have in my parish, and to the best of my knowledge it still exists, was a "guitar group" and quite a few "Eucharistic Ministers." Don't get me wrong, I have many fond memories of my home parish and certainly of our good and true pastor, but even our seemingly staid parish had its novelties.

Well, I took the long way around just to say that it happened before and it will happen again. Many look in vain for "novelty," and sometimes for all the best intentions. But truly there is nothing new under the sun. The only thing that will truly gain people's attention and keep it is God Himself.

From article, "The Prodigal Priest," by Jeffrey Rubin in Latin Mass Magazine Special Edition, 1993.

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. 

Part 1: The Origins of St. Mary's
Part 2: 1922-1939: A Mission Church of Sacred Heart Parish
Part 3: 1939-1961: A Mission Church of St. Rose of Lima Parish
Part 4: Since 1961: An Independent Parish
Epilogue: Pastor's Vision for the Future
Acknowledgments: About this history

In June 1961, the Most Reverend Celestine Damiano, bishop of Camden, formally established St. Mary's as an independent parish and appointed the Reverend Charles Zimmer as its administrator. To accommodate the increasing population in the Malaga area, Father Zimmer added a third Sunday Mass. In addition, he offered Masson weekdays--something that had not been possible during St. Mary's four decades as a mission church.

Building the Rectory

During his first months in Malaga, Father Zimmer used the church sacristy as a temporary home and office. Early in 1962, Bishop Damiano approved the building of a rectory across the street on land acquired four years earlier.

As was the case in 1922 when St. Mary's Church was built, the people of Malaga responded generously to the fund-raising campaign. One hundred and seventy-four individuals gave approximately $20.000. Father Zimmer officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony on March 31, 1962, with Messrs. Joseph Ali (1923-1992) and Charles Colucci, trustees, assisting. The latter volunteered his services as general contractor; the subcontractors were mostly local craftsmen who worked with care and dispatch. Before spring ended, Father Zimmer was able to move into the completed rectory.

Vatican Council II and the 1960s

In the fall of 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the twenty-first ecumentical council of the Catholic Church, generally known as Vatican Council II. Father Zimmer was quick to implement its threefold mandate--renewal, modernization, and ecumenism. He changed the position of the altar so that a priest could say mass facing the congregation. He becam to say Mass in English instead of Latin, he formed one of the first parish councils in the area, and he fostered dialogue with neighboring churches.

By the end of the 1960s, St. Mary's had changed. Part of this change was due to the dictums of Vatican Council II. Another factor was the influx of young, newly married couples, who were attracted to the Malaga area by housing developments within commuting distance of their workplaces. (This influx was akin to that of Malaga's immigrant population a half century earlier.)

The death of many of St. Mary's founders during the 1960s (and 1970s) also augured for chnange. The annual Feast of the Assumption, for example, no longer featured fireworks, a band, and other Old World attractions. Because virtually all the founders were farmers, and because most of their descendants had gone on to other pursuits, the 1960s marked the end of an era during which farming was the dominant occupation of St. Mary's parishioners.

The 1970s and '80s

During the 1970s and for most of the 1980s, Father (later Monsignor) John McCaffrey was pastor. He often said, "My whole interest is in reading and studying the Word of God," and he considered the CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) program to be vital for the children. Monsignor McCaffrey organized a cadre of volunteers to supllement the teaching by nuns from Villa Rosello (Newfield) at that time.

By the mid-1980s, Mr. Ronald Bonner had been coordinating the CCD program for several years and enrollment had soared to over 100 children, including preschoolers. The preschool instruction motivated numerous parents to send their youngsters to St. Rose of Lima School in Newfield (instead of a public school). At one point, about fifty pupils from Malaga were enrolled at St. Rose's.

Soon after he arrived, Monsignor McCaffrey established a Praesidium of the Legion of Mary to serve the Malaga area. The legion stresses Marian spirituality through attendance at weekly meetings and through a variety of apostolic activities. St. Mary's legionnaires welcomed new families and registered them in the parish.

In addition to helping newcomers with the practical aspects of getting settled in a new community (locating stores, services, medical care, and so forth), members of the legion sounseled them in spiritual matters. During the 1980s, many residents, both old and new, were brought back into the Church as a result of the legion's activities.

During Monsignor McCaffrey's tenure, the diocese's Third Order of Mount Carmel elected to make St. Mary's parish its home. St. Theresa's Rose Garden, which symbolizes her devotion to souls in purgatory, is located on Harding Highway, west of Malaga Lake. A part of the garden, St. Anne's Cenacle, continues to be a site of prayer for Carmelites and others.

Recognizing the importance of music to the beauty of the liturgy, Monsignor McCaffrey encouraged Mrs. Sally Bonner to organize a folk group to provide music that would appeal to St. Mary's youth. Mrs. Bonner's guitar playing and singing, together with that of the younger people under her tutelage, has enhanced Sunday Masses since 1982. (Her long-term dedication is reminiscent of that of an earlier musician, Mrs. Simone Walsh [1899-1985], who served as organist at St. Mary's for twenty-five years.)

St. Mary's in the 1990s

The Reverend Abbott Hope was pastor of St. Mary's from 1989 until his retirement last February (1997). During his first years in Malaga, Father Hope was assisted by the Reverend Mr. Philip Harris, deacon.

In August 1992, the parish celebrated the seventieth anniversary of the building of St. Mary's Church. The celebrant of the High Mass was the Most Reverend James McHugh, bishop of Camden. Monsignor Patrick Madden, Monsignor Edward O'Connor, and Father Hope were concelebrants.

Father Hope continued to strengthen the spiritual programs at St. Mary's. he focused on making the parish ever more youth-oriented by providing religious instruction for children who attended public schools. (Rising tuition costs at local Catholic schools had caused a shift back to public schools.) He helped start a youth group, which now has 23 members. The group carries out service projects and sponsors recreational activities for its members. Currently, Messrs. Andrew Nuar and John Dalesandro, Jr., represent their peers at parish council meetings.

Father Hope worked closely with his parishioners in operating St. Mary's programs, which are now staffed by the following people:

                                                        Lead Person
Building/grounds.............................................Mr. Charles Chamberlin
Carmelites.....................................................Ms. Mary Whittam
CCD..............................................................Mr. Ronald Bonner
Diamond Jubilee.............................................Miss Theresa DiMatteo
Feast............................................................Mrs. Louiuse Mancus
Fellowship Sunday.........................................Miss Carmella Castelli
First Friday Adoration.....................................Dr. Aime Nuar
Legion of Mary...............................................Ms. Cynthia Herzler
Liturgy...........................................................Mrs. Sally Bonner
Music............................................................Mrs. Sally Bonner
Parish Council...............................................Mrs. Louise Mancus
Youth Group..................................................Mrs. Cindy Merckx
                                                                    (Adult Coordinator)

During his final months as pastor, Father Hope oversaw the purchase of the property next to the rectory (the former Hopkins residence) with funds bequeathed by Mrs. Evelyn Tonelli of Dutch Mill Road, who died in 1994.

Early this year (1997), the Reverend Jerome Romanowski became St. Mary's twelfth pastor. The traditional Catholic community into which he was welcomed comprises nearly 400 registered parishioners--about four times as many as when St. Mary's Church was dedicated seventy-five years ago. Even more significant than this growth is the community's transformation from a group of foreign-born farmers to a population of American-born technicians, tradespeople, large-scale farmers, and professionals.

Over two hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers declared our national motto to be "E Pluribus Unum" (one for many). They envisioned a nation to which many peole could come, transcend differences, and unite.

Today, a small, southern New Jersey Catholic community continues to help fulfill that dream under the leadership of an energetic, forward-looking pastor.

---

Part 1: The Origins of St. Mary's
Part 2: 1922-1939: A Mission Church of Sacred Heart Parish
Part 3: 1939-1961: A Mission Church of St. Rose of Lima Parish
Part 4: Since 1961: An Independent Parish
Epilogue: Pastor's Vision for the Future
Acknowledgments: About this history