We hope top have a few more pictures for you soon. The church was absolutely packed during Mass and the Feast activities were very well attended. The music was great, the food was great (my personal favorites were the snow cones and Maria Fricano of La Pizza's crepes!!!). The fireworks were fabulous! Enjoy the slideshow.


Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Despite the fact that Fr. Namiotka's sermon on this festive day went something like this [below], we did not let it dampen our celebration! Ok, the video clip is a slight exaggeration, but the gist was definitely the same--various tales of horrific, sudden death and the shortness of our lives, how "death comes unexpectedly." What a hilarious and classic scene from Disney's version of Pollyanna. Enjoy the incomparable Karl Malden in this all-time great movie scene.

Can "unity" be dangerous?

False unity can be dangerous. False unity is unity that is not based on Christ's Truth but on our own personal agendas, ideas, or whims. We all know this and have likely seen examples of this in our own lives or in history. Perhaps the most striking and horrible example one could think of would be Nazi Germany. It would appear that there was a certain widespread unity in favor of the Nazi agenda, otherwise they would not have been able to achieve their evil deeds. This is an example of unity that was not good. There are countless other examples one could cite. 

St. Mary's parishioners have made some interesting observations lately. Part 3 in our series, here are a few more of them:

• Though St. Mary's has been threatened with closure, (and make no doubt we continue to fight and do not believe we will be closed because it is not God's will), it is interesting that no mention has been made regarding the closure of either of the two churches in Buena. Now, we at St. Mary's have always held and continue to hold the position that no church closures are necessary or justified and we are loath to see any church close. We nevertheless wonder what sense it makes to leave Malaga with no church while leaving two churches in Buena. (Here we are not even counting the proposed large chapel planned to be built at the Padre Pio Shrine, also in Landisville.)

As you can see from the map below, Our Lady of Victories and St. Michael's, the two churches that make up Queen of the Angels Parish, are only 1.1 mile away from each other. According to Google Maps, you can walk this in about 20 minutes and drive it in 3.


View Larger Map

• Fr. Namiotka has proposed--with a pastor still in place in Newfield!--that the St. Rose of Lima rectory should be turned into office space. (Out of the other side of his mouth, he claims that he has always shown respect and deference for St. Rose's existing pastor.) Let's be realistic. If it is already "too far" to come all the way from Buena to St. Mary's for Mass or Benediction, then what sense does it make to put office space in Newfield??? Though St. Rose is supposed to be the seat of the unwanted merger, the most Namiotka has held out to them is the hope of office space along with the phrase, "for now." Anyone who believes in the practicality or the plausibility of these plans ought to have their head examined.
  

• Despite the fact that the Core Teams have pointed out gaping holes in the supposed "process" practically every meeting, including the fact that their voices are not being heard or respected and that the steps are not being followed, our convener, Fr. Namiotka, has utterly disregarded them and continued to plow through, continuing to do nothing but pretend to go through the steps. Members of the Core Teams feel utterly powerless because they believe Namiotka just does whatever he wants, the Core Team "process" itself being a complete farce. They fear that they will become the "fall guys" for the church merger/closure fiasco that no one is in favor of (except Ed Namiotka and the bishop).
  

People at St. Mary's have raised some very interesting questions recently. Some are not new concepts, but they bear repeating:

• One of the premises of "merging" churches is that there will ultimately be far fewer priests. In our particular scenario, we currently have three priests living in a large, "3 suite," recently upgraded rectory in Landisville, Buena [right]. Fr. Namiotka has multiple times expressed his desire to have this be the main residence of the pastor/priests of the entity he would like to see merged because it can house multiple priests comfortably. If we are expected to have only one priest in the future,* why have such a big house? Wouldn't it make more sense to rid ourselves of an expensive and too large property in Landisville and make use of perfectly sufficient, smaller, more economical rectories in either Newfield of Malaga [left]?
  

• Of the four churches involved in the St. Mary's merger/closure group, St. Mary's is, to date, the only one to lose things. We have lost our Saturday evening Mass, a day of Eucharistic Adoration (which we were willing to extend!), and other devotions on top of it. None of these losses has been necessary! Not only that, despite the number of priests, we do not have a priest available to us consistently and we have office staff forced upon us that do not do their job efficiently. This makes it difficult to even get in touch with a priest, get a Mass card, schedule baptisms, or other such simple things. We have been forced to accept staffing that our pastor himself would never accept at "his" church. Point is, ironically, we have as many if not more priests now than we have in the past. Why, then, are we losing ANYTHING?

• Although it has been pointed out to us that church attendance is down (truthfully, it fluctuates to the point that some Sundays the church is very full and others less so), it is our understanding from talking to other surrounding churches that attendance is down at all the local churches. Not down as in, "well, people just aren't religious anymore," but down as compared to a year or two ago. We can only conclude that people are not necessarily choosing to go to different churches, but not to go to church at all. The fact that the diocese not only expects this decrease, but accepts it reflected in the fact that it says to only consider 75% of a church's ordinary income going into a merger. So they expect to lose 25% due to attrition or decreased giving, both of which would reflect dissatisfaction to say the least.

Why are people leaving? Our guess is disillusionment and despair. People see what's going on, for goodness sakes. How is this helping the Church? Or souls? We at Save St. Mary's predicted this would happen, but do the diocese, Church leadership, or even local priests care? Apparently, they do not care enough to see the writing on the wall and stop merging and closing churches.

* Frankly, we have no idea if a reduction in priests is realistic or not. Right now we have more priests and fewer services. One of the three priests in Landisville is a religious order priest who is in the process of incardinating into the diocese.

What are we implying  here? Certainly not that St. Mary's wants to merge. Here we are showing that our convener, Fr. Ed Namiotka, is only superficially going through the steps of the "Destroying God's Gifts" process. He has made it perfectly clear that he has no intention of actually completing the steps, but just having the meetings so it looks like he's done what the Diocese requires.

The input of the various Core Teams, who were selected by the conveners, is totally and completely dismissed by him. Namiotka dismisses any input contrary to his agenda, which seems to be to destroy our parish and "merge" us against our will. While stating that he "has no intention of closing St. Mary's" numerous times to many people, he has also threatened to close us up if we don't do what he wants us to do, which is to go along with his merger process. In fact, at our little rosary rally last night, an elderly member of our parish asked us this: "I thought he said he was not going to close St. Mary's?" We think you can probably guess what our answer to his question was.

Despite the lack of substance, and the fact that the conveners previously stated a 3-5 year timeline was likely, Namiotka has suddenly decided that he wants us merged by January 2011. Someone breathing down your neck, Fr. Ed? Let us again state here that St. Mary's has NO intention of merging.

Have a nice second vacation, relaxing on those Caribbean beaches, Fr. Ed Namiotka. Must be nice. More to come.

ITEM #	DESCRIPTION	STATUS COMMENTS
1-1	Decide who will take minutes at this meeting.	COMPLETE.
1-2	Review the overall process of merging to ensure common understanding.	COMPLETE (more or less).
1-3	Prepare a common announcement to inform parishes that the merger process is starting. Decide the date of the announcement so all parishes receive the same information at the same time.	COMPLETE.
1-4	Decide how to introduce the CORE TEAM members to the merging parishes.	Not done.
1-5	Set the date, time, and place of the next 2, 3, and 4 meetings. Rotate the locations among the merging parishes whenever possible.	Not done during Meeting 1.
1-6	Ask Pastors to complete the "Facts About the Parish" form for Meeting 4 and make the needed number of copies (see Merger Manual, Appendices: Section B, Forms)	Not done or at least never distributed.
1-7	Decide who will inform the participants of meeting 4 of the venue and whether you will have written agendas, how they will be created, distributed, and who will take minutes.	Not done - probably why Meeting 4 was a disaster.
1-8	Prepare for the Meeting 2 agenda, setting a typical format, and normal length of meetings.	Not done, but then neither was Meeting 2 agenda.
2/3-1	Orientation to the role and focus of the work of the CORE TEAM in the merger process. The focus should always be to bring the merging parishes into one, to prepare for the administration and staff of the new parish, to strengthen ministries toward greater vibrancy.	COMPLETE (more or less).
2/3-2	Decide whether there has been sufficient attention paid to the grieving process. If needed revisit and arrange for any of the six processes for Coping with Change (see Section A-6) to aid the merging parishes with grieving.	Not done.
2/3-3	Discuss and decide on some community-building events or processes which can bring the merging communities together.	Not done - discussed having event on Feb 14, but never did. Communicated some Christmas events to other parishes. "Community" Penance service - around 25 attended from all 3 parishes - almost all from Q of A.
2/3-4	At Meeting 2, distribute and discuss the information provided on the form "Facts About the Present Parish" (Appendices: Section B) completed by the pastors. Parish Profiles already completed for priests applying to be CONVENERS should also be made available.	Not done.
2/3-5	Arrange to gather information about the history, customs, and traditions of each parish.	Not done.
2/3-6	Name the values, skills, and present feelings the parishes hold in common.	Not done.
2/3-7	Brainstorm effective ways to communicate to the parishes as a whole.	Not done.
2/3-8	Prepare for Meeting 4 with the Pastoral Councils, Finance Councils.	Not done other than to set date and place.
4-1	Orientation to the merger process to ensure common understandings.	COMPLETE (more or less).
4-2	Clarification of the different leadership roles in the merger process.	COMPLETE (more or less).
4-3	Pastoral Councils members discuss their own Parish Overview Worksheets (Merger Manual, Appendices: Section B Forms) and the Financial Summaries.	Not done - at time of meeting only Q of A had been given the worksheets. Financial summaries not discussed at all - only cost of priests discussed in generic terms.
4-4	There is no meeting 4, agenda 4 item listed.	N/A
4-5	Observations and discussion areas should be reflected in the minutes.	Not done.
5-1	Decide which values and priorities need to be brought forward to the new parish based on the data gathered about each parish in the merger and the input from the Pastoral Councils and Finance Councils, Parish Profiles, history, customs, and traditions will need to be considered in accord with the Facets of a Vibrant Parish. It is important that the new parish moves toward vibrancy. Past practices of all the parishes need to be considered to see which ones should be brought forward, modified, improved, or consolidated.	Not done.
5-2	Discuss an initial outline of a plan and timeline, using the general outline of sections in the Merger Manual, to accomplish tasks in order to establish the new parish.	Not done.
5-3	Decide what committees are needed to assist their work. Be clear about their goal, the scope of their task and put that in writing. Decide on the means of selecting membership and chairpersons and how committees will report. (Short written reports are very helpful to keep CORE TEAM meetings moving).	Never discussed what committees are needed - mandated, then discussed each committee briefly.
5-4	Decide on ways to communicate with the parishioners and councils of the merging parishes (see Merger Manual, Section A, "Communicating during a Time of Change," p.7).	Not done.
5-5	Set a visit time to walk through each of the facilities of the current parishes.	Only partially done prior to Malaga having CORE TEAM members . Convener stated that he has no intention of completing.
5-6	Prepare for the Meeting 6 agenda.	Not done.
6-1	Written reports given by committee chairpersons.	Three committees presented written reports - all were very formational/preliminary.
6-2	Continue discussion regarding a draft of an overall plan. In the planning always focus on ways to bring the parish communities together, spiritually, socially, and ministerially.	Not done.
6-3	Begin to develop a comprehensive draft of a plan of how the new parish will use the existing facilities. Ultimately this plan is presented for diocesan review to ensure that it complies with both canon law and civil law.	Not even started - listed some of facilities to be considered.
6-4	Begin working with the naming process for the new parish. This is not intended to be accomplished in one session (See sample process, Merger Manual, SECTION D-7, page 51-55.)	Not even started.
6-5	Prepare for Meeting 7 agenda.	Not done.
7-1	Report on the social, liturgical, and information calendar for promoting unity among parishes.	Pushed off until September for social. No mention of liturgical or informational.
7-2	Complete the draft regarding the use of the facilities so it can be submitted for review by the Diocesan Merger Review Committee.	Not even started - committee has not met.
7-3	Report on the continuing engagement of the parish with the process of naming the parish.	Pushed back to September.
7-4	Discuss how to blend parish ministries and what methods are appropriate for each ministry and program.	Talked briefly of what will do in future, mostly related to music. No substantive discussion.
7-5	Discuss the composition and role of a staffing committee to assist the PRIEST CONVENER and CORE TEAM with the hiring of personnel for the new parish.	COMPLETE.
7-6	Prepare the Meeting 8 agenda.	Not done.

For those of you who received the July 2nd Catholic Star Herald propaganda sheet (oops, we mean the Diocesan newspaper), you may have noticed an article on page 13 about the "Marriage Encounter" weekend. There's a little inset picture on the bottom with gray haired couples in matching turquoise t-shirts embracing each other. Needless to say, we're really glad we weren't there. Fr. Ed Namiotka, our current "pastor" at St. Mary's (at least officially), is really big into this Marriage Encounter stuff. Good to know he's got time for something, because he certainly doesn't seem to have any for us at St. Mary's! 

We were recently made aware that Fr. Ed Namiotka wants to reduce hours of Eucharistic Adoration premised on the idea that it would be too burdensome to our priests to make a trip alllllllllllll the way to St. Mary's for Benediction. As an alternative, our Adoration Coordinator requested to instead extend Adoration through Saturday morning when a priest would be there anyway for daily Mass.

Despite the fact that this would have no impact whatsoever on any priest, our coordinator was told "no." Fr. Namiotka said that he wants to "reduce things, not make them bigger." When "things" are actually the worship of God, that's scary. We thought the role of a Catholic priest was to encourage the worship of God, and make His worship "bigger." But nowadays, we live in Opposite World.

When asked why our coordinator would do the opposite of what Namiotka wanted by requesting an increase and not a reduction of Adoration, our coordinator simply replied, "Because I'm Catholic!" and hung up the phone. Well said!

We at St. Mary's are very upset that we have needlessly lost Christmas, Easter, Saturday 5:00 pm Mass, and other Masses and devotions. But not everyone's upset. Fr. Namiotka's enjoying more time in his de-LUX kitchen and going on several vacations this summer. Good to see he's got his priorities straight. Given their priorities are lining up more and more lately, we're sure Satan's smiling, too.

In a recent bulletin,* Fr. Edward Namiotka used his bully pulpit to elaborate on his pipe dream of destroying our parish in the name of "merger." We will elaborate on his points in coming posts, but today we will begin with his desire to ensure his continued comfort.

In discussing what supposedly was accomplished at a core team meeting, he says,

During the meeting I suggested that Queen of the Angels Rectory is best suited as the future residence of priests since there are 3 suites (bedroom, sitting room, and private bath) in this building. It easily and comfortably accommodates three priests without any necessary renovations. The parish office could be located in another building.

Of course, this parish, "Queen of the Angels Parish," is where Namiotka has been located and it is the parish that he has repeatedly referred to as "my parish." (We at St. Mary's are like sheep without a shepherd other than Our Lord Himself.)


We find it interesting that in the face of devastating so many people, Namiotka is concerned primarily with his own personal "comfort." If you were to see the exterior of this rectory building in Landisville [above and below], you would probably notice that it is a rather large house to accommodate only three adults. It is certainly much larger than the homes of most people we know. Of course, we don't happen to know anyone who has a one-bathroom-per-person home.

Following is the content of a May 4, 2010 letter to Bishop Galante (emphasis is ours).  The letter, which speaks for itself, was signed by the members Newfield's Parish Council and Newfield's Core Team. The letter was publicly posted on the door of St. Rose.

 

Dear Bishop,

As members of the St. Rose of Lima Parish Council and responsible and constructive members of our local community, we wish to share with you some of the concerns about our local merger.

Change is a part of life and is to be expected in both Church and any social group or organization.

You will remember the great interest amd turnout when you arrived here for the Speak Up Sessions.  St. Rose was among the top parishes in number of attendum at these sessions.

We have cooperated fully with the deanery meetings concerning mergers.

When you announced in the Cathedral your intention for the new entity, St. Rose of Lima, Newfield, Queen of the Angels including St. Michael of Minotola and Our Lady of Victories of Landisville, St. Mary's of Malaga and Our Lady of the Lakes, Collings Lakes, under the two Co-Conveners, Fr. John Cavagnaro and Fr. Ed Namiotka, we participated in all that was required of us.

As of December 2009, we learned that Our Lady of the Lakes had been removed from the new entity and that Fr. Ed Namiotka is the sole convener.  Where things may have been bad in the past, they have now become worse.  We are concerned that we are considered part of a rebellious group.

We have experienced change with Collings Lakes now out of the mix.  The fact that the two co-conveners could not work together is known by all.

In place of moving forward, building unity and consensus, the Convener has placed us on the fast track to merge in January of 2011.  The meeting of the Parish Councils and the Core Groups ended with the Convener enraged and leaving the meeting with business unfinished.  Many questions remain unanswered.

The Convener is moving on with the merger for January.  He is having meetings just to have meetings and to get them over with.  Many questions remain unanswered with little positive outcome.  The Core Group members were picked by the Convener and some now feel like they are puppets, being told to do this or else you will be replaced. 

You must be made aware of this sham as we do not want this to reflect on you or your office.  Transparency is very important.

A January deadline with the manual not being followed, we fear will only create rebellion and lawsuits which will benefit no one.

 But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.

...But never you fear! The fight continues on!

What was said?

When we questioned a core team member (who, by the way, was not from Malaga) about the April 6th "core team" meeting, they stated that "priest convener" Fr. Ed Namiotka,  intends to ram through a merger no matter what anyone says. He apparently stated that, as he has done to the present, he has no intention of actually following the steps outlined in the merger manual, but only having the meetings and not actually doing what the merger manual states should be done. In this way he intends to push a merger through by January 2011, even if he has to meet "without St. Mary's core team." How can you have a "process" with "representatives" but then refuse to meet with them and listen to what they say? What's the big rush, Father? Someone breathing down your neck?

It is ironic that out of one side of his mouth he claims that this process is honest and open-ended, but in reality he intends to do precisely what he wants, even if it means just superficially glossing over the steps and forcing the merger and consequential closure of our church. For shame!

Moreover, more than once he has threatened to replace core team members if they fail to do just as he wants them to do. Yes, it's a puppet process.

St. Mary's is Unified in Opposition

St. Mary's parish has been completely unified in opposing this merger and closure since day one and has been consistent in this position. St. Mary's core team, our "representatives" according to our "convener's" own words, have consistently advocated that the "process" needs to be re-started from Step 1 since none of the steps have even been followed in the least. Our "representatives" have not been listened to but have instead been told that their "representation" of us will specifically not be listened to and that our "convener" will do what he wants to do. Some representation! What a farce!

Secrecy is the Name of the Game

Further, he has told us, the parishioners of St. Mary's, that these meetings are "closed meetings." He has previously told the core team members that what goes on at these meetings is to be kept "under the veil of secrecy" due to all the arm-twisting and intimidation that goes on there. If this "process" was truly a "representative" one, if this "process" was truly honest, there would be no secrets because there would be nothing to hide. Apparently there is plenty to hide in the Church and too many bishops and priests are well practiced at employing the "veil of secrecy" method of doing business. This veil of secrecy gives our religion a bad name.

But we all know this is not a process and St. Mary's Parish has said so since the beginning. It is a program of intimidation and the forced closure of churches. Well we at St. Mary's intend to fight this sabotage and evildoing because it is wrong. WE WILL NOT BE COMPLICIT IN THE CLOSURE OF OUR CHURCH. WE WILL FIGHT IT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. We will continue on as we always have, functioning as a true parish family, not an artificially concocted one.

Whose Will is it these "Priest Conveners" are Doing, Anyway?

Again we say, what kind of priest goes around and closing churches? And whose will is he doing? Surely not God's, because God would never advocate lying, intimidation, secrecy, and the closure of His House. One can only wonder what such a priest hopes to obtain in the end, after doing such nefarious work.

But the Church Herself teaches that one cannot do evil in the name of good (or even in the name of some reward one hopes to obtain someday for one's obedience/complicity). Just because a bishop says, "Jump!" does not mean one should respond, "How high?" If nothing else, the fallout from the child abuse scandals should be proof enough of that. No, we must be ever-vigilant and remember that although evil will never prevail against the Church, evil can certainly penetrate.

There is only One's will to be done here and that is God's. There is no gray area. God requires our obedience to Him first and foremost, and nothing can contradict that. As St. Thomas More said, "I am the king's good servant, but God's first." In the end, before His throne, we the faithful have to answer to Him and will have to explain how we defended the Church (or didn't). Priests and bishops will also have to answer for how they defended the Church--or were instrumental in leading souls away from the Church by closing churches down.

The Semantic Game

When I first met our current pastor/priest convener, I made it clear to him that, "You won't have an easy time closing us, Father." Looking startled, he responded, "I'm not here to close the church." I looked right at him and I said, "Good. Glad to hear that." Needless to say, I intend to hold him to his word. Though I fully realize that to him it's probably merely a game of semantics, that he feels that somehow he's not technically "here" to "close" the church but only to "merge" it and attend to our spiritual needs (although he's shown his intense dislike of us so many times since he first arrived that it seems that's just as much his role). Others at St. Mary's have likened this "I'm not here to close the church" response to going to the movies and using the restroom facilities. We did not go to the movies specifically to use the restroom, we just happened to do that while we were there.

Anyway, we all know what happens at the end of "merger." The people of St. John Vianney and other parishes can attest to that outcome and to the many lies they were fed in the "process." Therefore we must be so careful to listen to what is being said and not said, sift through the verbiage, and figure out what is really happening. We must be careful that we ourselves do not fall into the devil's trap of lies and semantic games. God doesn't want us to play fast and loose with semantics. The Lord Himself said, "But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no,"* We should be direct and truthful with our words, and our lives ought to follow suit.

In any case, at St. Mary's, we're not stupid. We will clearly see if he was telling the truth over a year ago. What's he really here to do? So far as we can tell, he's a convener, and as a convener he's agreed (not been forced, but has agreed) to try to "convene" (force the merger of) four churches. But what's the carrot? Time will tell.

I personally have always believed Fr. Namiotka's here to try to shut us down, and every action has been to that end. If that is the case, and that seems to be what he came right out and said at the core team meeting the other night, then we have different interests a heart and have chosen up sides. Everyday when we wake up in the morning we choose--will we do God's will today or someone else's?

* Matthew 5:37, James 5:12 

Your response to the Wildwood Catholic fiasco has been incredible. Here is the response of just one of our readers:

"If Catholic high school enrollments are the sole criteria in determining which high school is closed, then look whose high school is next."

Paul VI High School, Haddonfield -- 1,192

Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill -- 844

Gloucester Catholic High School, Gloucester City -- 729

Holy Spirit High School, Absecon -- 749

Sacred Heart High School, Vineland -- 289

Saint Joseph High School, Hammonton -- 417

Wildwood Catholic High School, North Wildwood --194

What does the reader mean? Sacred Heart High School, with the next lowest enrollment according to the Diocese/Catholic Star Herald, is the school at which Fr. Edward Namiotka, St. Mary's current pastor, has been president of for some time. As a side note, this is my (Julie's) mother's alma mater, a school my family supported and helped to found.

In saying this I personally am not claiming that Catholic schools do not need improvement. It is my sense that they do. However Bishop Galante has chosen, rather than attempting to improve these schools, to instead abandon them and, by extension, their students and teachers, alumni and communities. Let's face it. It's easier to just close a school than it is to wrestle with real problems, to pray for God's guidance, and to seek and implement real solutions.

In closing smaller, community schools, is low enrollment intended to be a reflection on administrative flubs, reflective of intentional sabotage (as has been stated by some in the case of Wildwood), or is Galante's real agenda to simply bus all Catholic high school kids in South Jersey, no matter the distance, to his proposed megaschool in Gloucester County? Maybe he just likes everything to be big.

Link to the Catholic Star Herald Stats above

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step 1: Select a bulb.

St. Mary's current pastor has decided to axe our annual Christmas midnight mass for no apparent reason. The only thing we can come up with is that he wants us to get used to not getting what we want. Apparently, we're like spoiled children, wanting mass all the time. The nerve of us!

To us, using mass as a cudgel is never a good idea. As is the case in so many other churches, this is one of our most highly attended masses of the entire year, and one of our prime opportunities for evangelism.

So why would a pastor choose to end a many decades long tradition of midnight mass?  Fr. Namiotka says it's because no priests are available - he has reserved himself for midnight mass at the parish he repeatedly refers to as "my" parish, Queen of the Angels in Landisville/Minotola.  (By contrast, he only refers to us as "St. Mary's in Malaga"...as if we don't know what town we're in.) 

In fact, when asked about the lack of midnight mass, Namiotka specifically responded that "no priests are available." However, we inquired with one particular priest who regularly assists with masses and Namiotka had never even asked him if he wanted to say midnight mass.  And another priest, who has said many masses at St. Mary's in the past, actually requested to say midnight mass and was told "NO" by Namiotka. 

To add insult to injury, a longtime, elderly parishioner of St. Mary's was told by Namiotka that, "The pope is saying midnight mass. You can watch it on tv."* There's a shepherd of souls for us! Ya want mass? Go watch it on tv.

*Extended footnote/follow-up below:

Supposedly, according to Fr. Namiotka in a letter received February 4th, over a month and a half after the incident, he "actually said, 'Not even the Pope is having Midnight Mass this year (in Rome). The Mass is at 10 PM. You can watch the TV to see that this is true.'" He follows up by saying "I did, in fact, celebrate Midnight Mass as I annually do--just not at St. Mary's Malaga." This is precisely our point, and he made it for us. It's a shame that we don't a priest who truly wants to be at St. Mary's.

Further, the EWTN Christmas Mass to which he refers was, in fact, repeatedly billed by EWTN as "Midnight Mass." CLICK HERE here for just one example of this "to see that this is true" and the Vatican's rationale for "moving up" the time. Besides, it was a rude comment to make to an elderly, long-time parishioner.

In our view, either version of what was said is pretty terrible and demonstrates how little he cares for us since allowing another priest to say mass at St. Mary's would have required no effort on his part and would not have cost us anything. If anything, it would have brought the church money and perhaps a few souls would have returned to the Church for Christmas.

Interesting article. Read it here.

Quote (first few paragraphs):

VINELAND -- An expansion of Sacred Heart High School is necessary, but is at least another year or two away, the Rev. Edward Namiotka, school president, said.

School officials want to expand the building to better accommodate its 295 students and staff while also modernizing a facility that hasn't undergone any large-scale renovations in about 50 years, he said.

Money, though, is the main reason Namiotka cited for why Sacred Heart cannot proceed.

Namiotka estimates the project costs roughly $6 million -- about $2 million more than when the school first planned to expand a few years ago.

"It's prudent to wait and see before we run head strong into it, but we certainly want to do this," Namiotka said.

A friend of mine who's my age (early 30s) recently moved with her husband and little daughter to a new town in a nearby state. They were over our house yesterday. In her words, she wanted to start "living right." She wanted to have her house blessed, begin going to church again, and have her daughter baptized. She also hoped to have her daughter attend the local Catholic preschool. She went to the church hoping to schedule a date to have her house blessed. When the priest opened the door, before she even had the chance to introduce herself or tell him why she had come, he said to her, "I can't help you financially" and closed the door.

Needless to say, my friend was devastated. Here was a woman who has not had the easiest time of it in life. She once was very devout. She had fallen away from the faith for awhile and wanted to start over, so to speak. I don't think she was expecting much from the priest at this church, but she did not expect to be treated so rudely. It occurred to me that even if she had been a "vagrant" looking for a handout, what harm would it have done this man to say, "I'm sorry that I can't help you out right now, but please allow me to give you a blessing?" Is it to be assumed that any youngish person who comes to a Catholic church in the middle of the day is just looking for a handout? Anyway, she's so upset. And this happened months ago.

I feel terrible for her. But worse, I don't know what to say to her. I have no practical advice for her. The most I could come up with was something along the lines of, "Hey, at least it ain't 16th century England. Much worse has happened in the history of the church. This is small potatoes in the vast scheme of things," to which she responded, "It still sucks. It still makes me feel nauseous." And you know what? She's absolutely right. It might not be the worst thing that's ever happened in the history of the world, but it still feels like crap.

I hope this was just a case of someone waking up on the wrong side of the bed. But whatever it was, if a man of God, a priest of Christ, can treat someone he's never met so horribly, what does that say about his Faith, about THE Faith? We cannot afford to make these kinds of mistakes.

For those of us "on the inside," who are able to persevere in the Faith by the grace of God, it may seem silly to consider that such an interaction could so upset a person. But it does. It's only natural.

She's not so strong in her faith, but she wanted to grow in it. She is hurt, and she is very, very angry. Now she and her family are considering attending a church of a protestant denomination, but she said, "I don't want to go there. I want to be Catholic." But she's so hurt and conflicted she doesn't know what to do. She does seem to know she needs God and needs a community of faith to help her know Him. We are all made to know God, but if she can't even get in the door of the church, she's got to go somewhere.

So it seemed ironic when I read the pastor's column in the St. Mary's bulletin today. Fr. Namiotka wrote about the importance of community:

So when people tell you that they can "pray alone without a church" remind them that they are meant to be a part of something much bigger than themselves. Jesus didn't mean for us to go it alone. He established the Church for us. We are called to be a part of it. The priest is meant to be there for his people and the people are supposed to support their priest(s).

Our pastor is, of course, absolutely right. Fr. Namiotka goes on to encourage us to invite people to attend mass with us. And I did this yesterday with my friend, but St. Mary's is special, our pastor is (thank God) orthodox, and the people kind and friendly. Not all Catholic churches are like St. Mary's, and besides, she doesn't live nearby.

Well, I would like to say that this experience is merely an isolated incident. However in the course of the past year and a half I have heard way too many stories like this to count. Lately I think I'm averaging one a week. I heard another one only this past Thursday about a parish (actually several parishes that are supposedly merging into one massive church) in our own diocese. A mother in this parish had worked very hard to establish a youth group intended for high school age kids, only to suddenly lose the support of the pastor. He had, apparently, decided that this youth group was "not necessary" and that instead he would like to establish a youth group for the younger children, six and up. She was mystified, frustrated, and said she wouldn't be volunteering her help anytime again real soon. To add insult to injury, this capable mother and college graduate was told that they needed to find "qualified" people to teach CCD and head up such groups...certified school teachers and persons with advanced degrees. Uh-huh.

I do not want to perpetuate any stereotypes about young adults or young families as religiously indifferent, because I believe this is far from the truth. In case you wonder why there aren't more young adults and young families in your parish, though, let me assure you, this kind of stuff is why. I'm not saying every younger adult has had a "run-in" with a priest or an "incident" at their parish. Not at all. But what I am saying is that people want to be treated decently. If they can't even get in the door, there's not much chance they're going to keep coming back.

Further, if we don't start supporting people's efforts to help young adults, kids, and all Catholics to grow closer to the Lord in the context of their own parishes, the fall-off is going to continue. Frankly, we ought to be nothing short of amazed to witness any religious and priestly vocations at all.

Finally I'd like to mention something I've noticed about my generation. It's been my observation (and I know I'm not alone in this) that my generation, for whatever reason, has a desire for the authentic and a general distaste for the hypocritical. If they catch a whiff of hypocrisy, they're outta there. Maybe it's because they are a generation that grew up in broken families and divorce, who knows? We can leave that to the sociologists. But whatever the reason, they are realists. They want to live their lives authentically--in whatever way that may be to them. They dislike people and organizations, be they religious or secular, that say one thing and do another. This is why--at least in part--we see such personal devastation when someone representing the church behaves so badly. It stinks of both inauthenticity and hypocrisy. It's just yucky. So I think the resistance of younger people to institutional religion, as they may see it, is not accidental. It is not intellectual or religious laziness. It is deliberate, and it is often well thought out. They have their reasons. And yes, sometimes they are understandable. After all, what good is a religion that turns us into mean people, liars, or worse, totally corrupt people?

So let's all try to remember that, whether we're lay or religious or priest, we all represent the Church. People will enter its doors based--at least in part--on how we treat them and how we live our lives. If we want people to come into the Church, we have to act like people matter. 

Just a few snippets from Fr. Namiotka's column:

Fr. John Buckthese, OCD, a Carmelite priest from India (via Spain) will be helping at the parish during the month of July....Fr. Bernard Gannon, Fr. John Tumosa, Fr. Martin Smith, OSA, and Fr. John Bruni will also be assisting on various weekends and/or particular weekday situations at St. Mary's. We welcome their help and support.

May the Year of the Priest invigorate all of us who are ordained to serve you more fervently while we strive for a deeper holiness and love of Our Lord.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Editor's Note: We appreciate the priests who help us out and visit us regularly, including Fr. Smith and Fr. Gannon. We definitely enjoyed having Fr. Smith and look forward to his return to St. Mary's, and of course we all love Fr. Gannon and have known him for many years. Many of us also know Fr. Tumosa from St. Rose of Lima and certainly we will no doubt enjoy having a Carmelite visit us in the near future.

In any event, it has been expressed by many at St. Mary's that we would also love to have Fr. Romanowski say mass for us more frequently, even though he is so busy filling in at so many parishes around the diocese and keeps busy with his work with the Legion of Mary and Holy Name. We are very glad to have him say the Traditional Mass for us once a month and look forward to it with great eagerness. Since Fr. Romanowski is willing and able, there is really no reason why he cannot fill in just as any of the other priests can.

We welcome all of these good priests to St. Mary's. Thank you for your service to the Church. And instead of despairing of a seeming lack of priestly vocations (and we know this is not true since all we have to do is look to the traditional orders and to the FSSP to see that this is not the case), let us pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life and encourage our children to consider these possibilities!

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.

Happy Mother's Day! On this day we are especially reminded of our "true," Heavenly Mother and God's goodness in giving us so great an advocate. Both Fr. Romanowski and Fr. Namiotka reminded us of this in their sermons today.

This weekend (as well as tomorrow morning) Fr. Romanowski said the traditional Latin Mass at Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin and a bunch of us went there for mass and to see him. It was wonderful and as always, Father did an excellent job. We were fortunate to be able to speak with him after mass. He seemed very happy. He is also extremely busy unpacking, particularly the 50 boxes of books. (I'm not joking.) It goes without saying that everyone at St. Mary's wishes Fr. Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae, a good rest and speedy recovery. He is in our prayers.

Meanwhile, back at St. Mary's, Fr. Namiotka presided over a little crowning ceremony in honor of our Blessed Mother today, as is his custom on Mother's Day. I snapped a few pictures but since my three-year-old was very wiggly by this point and of course there was action involved, they turned out a little fuzzy. It was a special blessing to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet, consecration prayer, and St. Michael prayer after 11:30 mass this afternoon. We are united in our desire to implore God's mercy and protection of St. Mary's.

You will also see that there is a white mantle that is currently on the statue of the Blessed Mother inside the church. On it is sewn the names of this year's First Holy Communicants as a special blessing. Truly she looks over our little church!



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