Was reading the Bible today and this seemed especially relevant:

Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And of your own selves shall arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. -Acts 20: 28-30

See also Titus 1: 7-16.

From the most recent "Catholic" Star Herald:

"About a third of the parishes in the diocese are struggling with deficits and debt and are unable to meet basic financial needs, according to the diocese."

Had to laugh out loud when we read that last bit.

Interestingly, this "fact" has not stopped the diocese from continuing to beg for money for the bishop's House of "Charity" Appeal (see page 2, right). And if there are churches genuinely struggling, why in the world is the appeal not used to aid them? Because only the well off may survive? Wow, there's the spirit of Christ and the early Church for ya.*

Sadly, the Star Herald does not appear to realize that "according to the diocese" does not meet journalistic scrutiny, neither have been the numbers that have come out of the chancery office, but that should surprise no one.

*See James 2: 1-10, 1Corinthians 16: 1-5, Romans 15: 26-30, 2Corinthians 9: 6-15, Acts 20: 35, among others.

Anecdote

A funny thing happened the other day. There's a well-known and well-liked lady in our town who has for ages run a restaurant. She recently changed locations (again) and I wanted to get a look at the new spot, so we stopped in for a bite.

Now this is the type of woman who has at least one prominently placed crucifix in her place and gushes over your "babies" (kids). She's the Catholic grandmotherly type, gregarious, enthusiastic, easy to talk to, a great cook. True to form, my younger son, who happens to be austistic and who also happens to have a great sense of direction, starts crying out, "St. Martin's!" which sounds similar to, "St. Mark's," neither of which were very far from us.

Hearing this, the woman says, "Yes, sweetie, St. Mark's. That's my church. It's right up the street." Confused and rarely one to keep my mouth shut when I'm curious, I say, "I thought you belonged to St. Martin's."

"Oh yes, I used to go there. But I sang at a wedding at St. Mark's and just fell in love with it. They're just like Catholic, you know, they even use our same books. They just don't believe in the pope." And on and on about how great a place it is, how wonderful the pastor and his minister wife are, and how she donates food for their dinners and things.

In case you haven't guessed, St. Mark's is an Episcopal church. To be honest, although I don't know her well, this is one of the last people I expected to suddenly leave the Church. But she doesn't see it that way. In fact, I would doubt she has refrained from considering herself to be Catholic, since by her own standards, her beliefs and manner of worship have not changed at all.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Listening to her talk about her new community, though, my husband and I realized that what was likely going on was not necessarily conversion to a different Christian denomination in the sense of a change in belief or theology, but conversion to a community. Having been to St. Martin's many times, I can honestly say that there just isn't much going on there. It's a fairly large, impersonal church. The priest turnover has been incredible, not to mention the ongoing uncertainty of the status of any of our town's (and diocese's) churches. Let's face it, when people go to church, that's the one thing they want to be sure ain't goin anywhere! The church is central to their religion, it's the House of God, and in the midst of life's day-to-day craziness, it's reassuring just to walk or drive by. Stability: it's Who God Is and what the Church is supposed to be.

Now if you were to see St. Mark's, you'd notice its small size. I'm unfamiliar with its typical attendance, but physically it's about the size of St. Mary's. And it's not so hard to feel at home and quite a bit easier to get to know people in a small church. Our assessment is that that's what she was looking for. Something clicked for her. She felt welcomed, noticed, valued, at home.

But is it all the Same?

In the midst of this transition, though, probably unbeknownst to her, she has in fact migrated to a group whose beliefs and history are, in fact, different from the Catholic Church. The Anglican/Episcopal church(es) were begun by King Henry VIII in the 16th century and spurred, along with Martin Luther on the European continent, the Protestant rebellion/reformation. Henry wanted to divorce (and murder) his wife/wives and did not want to be beholden to the pope, so he made himself head of his own church. Many Englishmen and women died for their Faith rather than leave the One, True Church. Over the course of time, belief and practice has diverged from Catholic belief, and today the Episcopaleans/Anglicans disagree with one another over many things, not the least of which are the role of women and homosexuals in the priesthood/bishopric. So we are seeing schism among those who orginally schismed from Rome. But that's a subject for a different day.

The Perfect Storm?

My point is this. Right now, in our diocese and elsewhere throughout the country, we have the perfect storm. Perhaps I'm being too dramatic, but I don't think so. Think of it as a simple equation. We have:


We're starting to see it already. Church attendance is down most places. But it will be masked significantly with church merger since when a church is closed, those who still elect to go to Mass will appear to be taking up valuable parking places and pew space in the "new" church. Those who leave won't be noticed, particularly in churches where there's already a sense of anonymity.

In Closing

I use one woman's story only as an example. I don't mean to imply that massive amounts of Catholics are going to turn Episcopalean or Lutheran or Calvary Chapel or anything else, for that matter. On the contrary, I think what we're more likely to see is large numbers of formerly practicing Catholics lose what faith they have and stop going to any church, anywhere. It's just a matter of whether or not we're willing to pay attention to what's going on. Can American Catholics hang on through all this or will we lose our religion, too?

The beautiful and historic St. Pete's in P-ville (my dad's hometown) is now being made into "senior housing." Guess if they see money in it, the diocese'll do it. And you thought at St. Mary's we were PARANOID??? Just look at the barren wasteland our diocese is becoming. Have you driven past churches like St. Gregory's in Magnolia or St. Ann's in Elmer with their purple funereal curtains masking their locked front doors? It is a site that will bring tears to your eyes. It is Death. The worst kind. Spiritual Death.

As you can read in the snippet below, the mission-style St. Pete's has "merged" with the new-fangled church-in-the-round that is St. Bernadette's in Northfield. While St. Bernadette's is by no means the ugliest church I've ever been to, it is definitely a "new" style church. (I used to go there for our high school retreats.) Do I think it's an accident that smaller, more traditional churches and those sitting on more desirable estate are going bye-bye? Well, no. But hey, we at SSM have been saying that for years now.

We might also mention that while it seems like rural churches are being targeted (and they are), it is also worth noting that Pleasantville, being a stone's throw from Atlantic City, is a large town (historically made up of multiple smaller towns) that is currently comprised of a predominantly African-American population.

Economically, the situation isn't great there, and so the negatives that often accompany poverty, like drugs and crime and desperation, are not uncommon. My grandmother just sold her house and moved in with my uncle's family a few years ago, but up until then had been held up at knife point on her own street more than once. On some level, the atmosphere can be rightly called "urban" in feel, the school system "challenging," and most of the populace relatively poor.

Northfield, one of the next towns over, is very different. While according to Google Maps it takes only 3-6 minutes by car from St. Pete's in P-ville to St. Bernadette's in Northfield, it has been my experience over the years that because of the traffic in this area this is not always realistic. But more importantly, how do we know that everyone in P-ville has access to a car? Our guess is that many use the bus to get around (and walk), which means dependence on the bus schedule, a walk to a bus stop that may not be especially close to home, and all of that, making the trip from somewhere in Pleasantville to St. Bernadette's a lot closer to a half-hour or more.

The question remains; Does the current diocesan administration really want the poor and economically disadvantaged in our churches? Does it want the farmers who have to work Sundays before and after Mass? What about those who have to work crazy hours at the casinos? Does the Galante administration really want to make life easier for the senior citizens who need to be close to their churches? What about kids like me who used to actually walk to church sometimes? Does the diocese really want the single moms or families with bunches of kids, for whom taking a bus to church in the next town would be very difficult? Doesn't look that way to us. Who ever would've guessed that Catholicism was going to turn into the religion of the privileged? Let those who can't get to a Catholic church go somewhere else. After all, they have no money to give, anyway, and that's what it all seems to boil down to. For shame.

Snip:
(To read the entire article, click here: http://www.gsi-consulting.org/retirement-housing-news/st-peters-site-begins-transition-from-house-of-worship-to-senior-housing-in-pleasantville/)

St. Peter's site begins transition from house of worship to senior housing in Pleasantville

Posted on pressofatlanticcity.com:  August 12, 2010

By Christopher Ramirez, Staff Writer

The life of Anna Tosti is deeply intertwined with St. Peter Catholic Church.

It's where her parents married and where she was baptized, it and stands across from her childhood home along the Black Horse Pike near Main Street.

Tosti is now watching a rebirth of the land where a church parish was active for more a century until an official merger was completed in May with nearby St. Bernadette's in Northfield.

Construction is already a few weeks under way in the massive makeover to the property that will result in the Village at St. Peter's, a senior housing complex spearheaded by the Diocese of Camden for those ages 62 and older.

The approximately $17 million project is utilizing about 14,000 square feet along the road for a six-story building that will include 73 one-bedroom units and a two-bedroom unit for an onsite manager. The foundation of the new building is beginning to emerge on the site of the former convent, besides a bell tower and small grass courtyard that leads to the church and school that will remain standing.

The fireworks were exceptional and a surprise to all! No one expected them to be as good and as large and as long as they were. What a wonderful way to end a wonderful day; a way to first and foremost honor Our Lady, to celebrate the hard work of the Feast planners, and to just say, "Yea St. Mary's!" No video can capture fireworks, you have to be there, but here you go anyway! Click on HD button on lower right to watch in high definition. (This is just the beginning of the display.)

 

Malaga Fire Company the Pyrotechnico fireworks company

(You can click on the "HD" button on the lower right of the video to watch in high definition.)


In this second video (below), you can hear the church bell ringing in the background. This church bell, manually rung by our music director, has not been rung in at least 45 years. We're not entirely sure why...it had to be repaired recently only in that it needed new rope, but we suspect it was not because of the rope that the bell was not used. We do know that, around that time, the advent of electronically rung bells spelled the disuse of traditional, manually rung bells like ours. We have both now, which is also nice. This was the first Feast since at least 1965 that St. Mary's bell has rung.

Certainly not the first time we've made it into a major newspaper. God smiles on us.

Our Lady is removed from the altar and carefully placed on the handmade barque. See also our Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/savestmarys

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.

At this year's Feast of the Assumption, in addition to our regular Mass and a beautiful procession with our new barque lovingly made last year by a parishioner, we will also have:

• fun stuff for the kids, like inflatables
• trackless train  for the kids
  
• brand new games for adults and kids
  
• hay ride (see photo below)
  
• musical entertainment (great bands, right)
  
• seafood
  
• chicken bbq
• yummy baked goods
• water ice from Toni's Treats
  
• funnel cake
• beer & Plagido's wine
  
• Chinese auction
• 50-50 raffle
• some fireworks at the end of the night
• commemorative t-shirts, $12 (above right)
  

St. Mary's parishioners have been hard at work! But not only building booths...

• Joanne always puts together wonderful baskets for the Chinese Auction,
• Marlene sells our 50-50 tickets,
• Jeanie and Ramona, among others, work hard on the Rosary and other gardens.
• Steve and Jim prepare the grounds.
• Jim also helps build the new booths, organizes the talent show, plays the organ, rehearses the choir, and plays with his band.
  
• Bill and another Steve help organize the chicken barbecue.
• Steve gave the feast buildings a new coat of paint and cleaned them out.
  
• Tim and the Knights handle the seafood and beer.
• Diane covers the "snack" foods like funnel cake, cotton candy, and cheeze fries.
• Carmella organizes the cakes and baked goods.
• Leah does...well, everything...signs, permits, tents, donations, all level of organization, and on and on and on.
• Dan and Mike get the tractor and hay ride ready, among many other things.

We are blessed to have so many committed parishioners who do these things for love of their parish and the Blessed Mother! We couldn't begin to list them all. For our little church, this high level of participation is supposed to be exactly what the bishop wants. Problem is, we're volunteers, not paid staff they like to call "ministers." (And, of course, we're not a huge "McChurch.") We tend to do things for love, not for money. So many of the people we've mentioned have spent their own money, not to mention tons of time, to make this Feast a success. Now that is real community, not something artificially concocted. We don't need to "make community work," a phrase I've recently read in a nearby merging parish's bulletin, because ours already does, even with zero pastoral support.

The Booths:
Joe puts together the adbook, which is a ton of work in and of itself, but he also built our beautiful barque for the Blessed Mother last year. This year he's built new booths for food and games, and boy is he a perfectionist. In one of the pictures you'll see Jim, wearer of many hats, finishing up with some of the last things on the booths. Take a look at our little slideshow.
 

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

St. Mary's 2010 Feast T-Shirts will be available for sale this Sunday for only $12 a piece. We have Child Large on up to 2XL. Very limited quantities in each size are available, so reserve yours today! T-shirts will be available after Masses, at the Feast on Aug. 8, or by pre-order by contacting Julie (609) 561-4992 (you can just bring the money after Mass). They are a true blue with white printing, lightweight 50-50 blend.

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. 

That old, worn out cudgel that has been used against St. Mary's before has once again reared its ugly head. You know the one. The fallacious argument that if we don't go along with the plan to destroy our own parish and community, we are causing disunity.

• All unity is good. No disunity is good. Therefore all promoters of disunity must be doing something bad.

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).
  

Just a quick note to let you all know that several hard working parishioners (volunteers, of course) were able to fix St. Mary's church bell so that it may be rung on Sundays and other occasions. We hope to begin this very soon. No, we're not talking about a carillon recording. We're talking about the actual, real church bell, at least 88 years old, that has not been rung for about 45 years. It was a beautiful sound to hear! We hope to have a recording of the church bells ringing to share with you very soon. We're all very excited.

St. Mary's parishioners have made some interesting observations recently. Here are a couple more of them:

Two parishioners (of many) believe that lack of belief in and reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on the part of priests is to blame for the merger/closure crisis. In our own parish, we have seen lack of regard for the Blessed Sacrament not only in the desire to unnecessarily "reduce" Masses and Eucharistic Adoration, but in attitude on the altar. For example, once, when the pastor accidentally dropped a host on the floor, the proper dignity and procedure was not followed. When this was later pointed out by an elderly parishioner, the parishioner claims our pastor continued in a flippant attitude of defiance, insisting he had never heard of such things and had done nothing wrong. It is a sad day when the laity have to point out the importance of revering Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to a priest. But the bottom line is, if you don't respect Jesus' Eucharistic Presence, it's all downhill from there!

• One parishioner pointed out how frequently he sees priests without priestly attire. He believes that this reflects a lack of respect for their own vocation. We can attest to our own experience at a diocese-sponsored event at which multiple priests were in attendance. To our recollection, only one of them was wearing clerical attire. One was at our table and we did not learn that he was a priest until about an hour or more into the workshop. At a nearby table in a plaid, flannel shirt and jeans sat the pastor of the parish! Not only was he not dressed like a priest, he was not even dressed particularly neatly.

The parishioner who pointed out this problem believes that this is one of the reasons why Catholic identity as well as respect for and understanding of the role of the priest are so confused. We wonder, if there are a significant number of priests who misunderstand their own true role as shepherds--and fail to take that responsibility seriously--how are the laity to understand or follow? Certainly this has been the case at St. Mary's since the departure of our last pastor, and it has been very sadly true at the diocesan level as well.

Is it a matter of being willing to stand out and be different? Is it a matter of fear that the general public may no longer view priests favorably due to the child abuse and church closure scandals? Or is it merely an unwillingness to stand up for the Faith and what is right and true, even though it may be unpopular, unpopular even with one's superiors? Who knows.

• Along these lines, many parishioners have also expressed their observation of a certain worldliness that is prevalent, while on Sundays being told that the priesthood is about sacrifice. To most this smacks of hypocrisy at worst, a double standard at best, since so many ordinary Catholics struggle from day to day to make ends meet. It also seems ironic to them because we are being expected to give up those things that are most precious to us--our church and our religious devotions, particularly to Jesus in the exposed Eucharist--but we are continually told that as a priest, our pastor is "entitled" to X, Y, or Z. Needless to say, this does not go over too well with anyone at St. Mary's. The bottom line is that people can tell a true shepherd from, well, an impostor. So do pray for your priests, but be careful to know your Faith, for the devil is the Father of Lies.