This information comes from a parishioner opposed to church destruction. We asked him if all the churches in Clinton, Iowa were closed or destroyed. What follows is his response [a couple of details were removed for the protection of those involved]. After reading this, how could one argue that a church is "just a building?" Exactly whose purpose does this un-Catholic position serve?

As parishes, yes [they are all closed]. Sacred Heart was saved as a chapel for the school, which is near the downtown area.  The new church was built out in the middle of nowhere west of Clinton...similar to the "plan" for Streator, [Illinois]. The Clinton parishes were all merged in 1990 and, apparently, that's when all hell really broke loose.  Money started disappearing and renovation projects on the churches were canceled.  The Diocese of Davenport (probably deliberately) brought in particular priests who were determined to wreck what was left of the old parishes.

In 1992 The Wanderer Catholic newspaper ran a big article about the collapse of the Catholic Church in Clinton. Parishioners had no idea what was going on; Mass schedules changed constantly. Even then Catholics were leaving the Church in droves because of what was going on.

One Clinton priest told parishioners of St. Boniface that one day he "hoped he would be driving over the Mississippi at night and see a bright light and that it would be St. Boniface burning." This priest also wanted to trash the elaborate main altar at St.
Boniface [see interior photo right], calling it a "monstrosity."

[Edited out: Miscellaneous church parts were sold off to antique dealers.]

Upon learning that she would not contribute financially to the new church, one of the consolidation priests promptly removed one parishioner from the membership rolls of St. Irenaeus Church. In the end, despite the opposition of the laity, the beloved St. Irenaeus rectory was destroyed and its school demolished later on. After the closing of St. Irenaeus all the altars and statues disappeared.

St. Patrick's Church [top right and left, first two photos] was closed in 1997 and in 2005 the consolidated "Prince of Peace Parish" used $100,000 an elderly lady had left for the maintenance of St. Pat's to demolish that church and its rectory. The organ went right down with the church.
       
The consolidated parish in Clinton tried twice to brainwash Catholics in Clinton to build a new church.  It failed the first time in the late 1990s but succeeded ten years later and the new church was finished last year. It looks just like a barn and cost $7.1 million [see photo left].

For a time, the consolidated parish wanted to use St. Mary's [below right both top and bottom] as the sole church of the parish, but ended up demolishing it last year.  People say that lack of money was the only thing that stopped the consolidated parish from demolishing St. Irenaeus and St. Boniface as well.

You won't find any opposing articles in the local newspaper because the Catholic Church controlled the newspaper and kept out negative articles. Parishioners opposed to the destruction of their churches were forced to take out expensive advertisements in the paper to get their message across.

[Edited: A certain parishioner had questioned whether any of the money from the old parishes was being used to pay off the $37,000,000 abuse settlement that the Diocese of
Davenport was facing and was consequently threatened by a priest for doing so.]  The current pastor told this parishioner who was against church destruction that he "wanted to run him out of town."

I'm sure I've missed many other shady things the Diocese of Davenport did in Clinton (besides moving around prolific child-abusing priests).

Here's a pic of the barn...err I mean "church"  [see photo above or link below]. Actually, In my opinion an old barn not far from the new church is far more beautiful than whatever passes for Prince of Peace Church. http://www.jcpop.org/  

These are videos of Clinton, Iowa churches "before" and demolition videos of "after." What did they wind up with in the end when their churches were needlessly closed and destroyed and all the abuse settlement money paid? Yes, you guessed it: an ugly, generic McChurch that looks somewhat like St. Matthew's Baptist in Williamstown, and a little like the new Assumption in Galloway. The new church, "Prince of Peace," opened up within the past year.

So you think because your church is a "primary worship site" everything's A-ok? You think that the manner in which we worship--a new-fangled "church in the round" as opposed to, well, what we see below--is inconsequential? You think that a church's consecration is something with which we may easily and summarily dispense, despite Church teaching to the contrary? If that is the case you may feel right at home in the "New Church," or, what is called by our current bishop, "the Church of South Jersey." What you see below is nothing less than a tragedy. There is more to come on the Clinton, Iowa debaucle of the 1990s.

I admit that I've had the movie, Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, sitting around at home for months. I rented it from Netflix. It's a gorgeous movie with a star-studded cast, the acting superb, the cinematography wonderful, period clothing impeccable, script well-written, the events historically accurate. There's not a thing wrong with this movie. The problem? The subject matter.

Fr. Damien, who I just discovered was canonized less than two weeks ago by our holy pontiff (YES!!!!), was a Belgian Sacred Heart priest who worked among the lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii during the mid to late 1800s. When considering the topic of leper colonies--something I never thought much about, to be honest--it simply never occurred to me that children found to have the disease would be forcibly separated from their parents, wives from husbands, and so forth, never to be seen again. To be shipped off to Molokai was itself like death.

They were treated more like criminals than innocent victims of disease. The infected were hunted out, often by police and officials, and put into forced segregation. Torn from family and friends and lost in the grim strokes of despair and death, the unwanted existed in their damp seclusion....most of the patients' ceilings were only the canopy of the sky.*

To witness this barbarism even in movie form was simply heart wrenching. That's why it took so long to finish the movie.

Another effect of exile I had never considered was that of vice. Apparently, faced with one's inevitable demise and death, and lacking the mores and expectations of a larger society, many felt they had nothing to lose in debauchery. Fr. Damien, who volunteered and was not sent to live among the lepers, had all these difficulties to face and more. The only priest on the island, and disallowed to leave, he was not permitted to go to confession for long periods of time. Refused permission to board a steamliner with a priest (Fr. Modeste) aboard, and the ship not allowed to dock on Molokai, Fr. Damien was forced to make his confession while screaming from a rowboat. (This true event is portrayed in the movie.)

Though he repeatedly requested and prayed for not only a priest to come hear his confession, but also material and human aid for the more than a thousand sick and dying people on Molokai, he was refused time and again by his bishop and superiors. Although there were nuns and others willing to come help, they were refused admittance to the leper colony by the bishop and Board of Health, and money and materials were withheld from the saint and needy lepers. He had no doctors, no nurses.

Additionally, the protestants on the Board of Health had a hand in forcing Fr. Damien to remain on the island, supposedly for fear of spreading the disease. They thought that "by forcing him to stay he would leave  the settlement altogether. Jealousy had prompted them to destroy a hope that they would not fulfill themselves."**

Because Fr. Damien had no doctors or nurses, grave diggers, construction workers, maintenance men, farmers, teachers, and children were without parents, he became all these things. "Everyone looks on me as a father. As for me I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ," the great saint said. His sermons began, "We lepers."

As if all this was not enough, he also established sodalities, a brass band, trained interested people in church music, evangelized voraciously the many non-Catholics (he baptized over a thousand people), administered the sacraments, established perpetual adoration, and built orphanages. Needless to say his favorite saint was the great missionary Francis Xavier.

Despite Fr. Damien's tireless efforts, his bishop said this, "I regret that the admiration for this work of charity is erroneous. I see with displeasure that the newspapers who admire you exaggerate by putting things in a false light."*** Both his provincial superior and his bishop were not only discouraging, they treated him horribly and undermined his efforts to do the Lord's work among people who needed so much help. Finally his superior, Fr. Leonor (depicted in the movie by Derek Jacobi) admitted that the bishop was "suffering from the disease of jealousy. Public esteem for anyone other than himself is his torment." The bishop did not wish donations to be given to Fr. Damien on Molokai but all to be lavished instead on him. Again we see how greed undermines God's will. But the provincial superior, Fr. Leonor, was no better. In fact as time went on the Board of Health relaxed somewhat in restricting Fr. Damien's movements, but Fr. Leonor continued to restrict him and severely limited his ability to go to confession.

Finally Fr. Damien contracted leprosy, a natural result of his coming into direct contact with the disease for so long. Adding insult to injury, he was accused of "impious activity," shall we say, in contracting the disease. This was completely without foundation, meant only to drag down his reputation.

It seems Fr. Leonor treated Fr. Damien with disdain until the great saint's death. As Fr. Damien lay dying (left), Leonor even refused to send him a crucifix for the leper's chapel. It is unfortunate that throughout Catholic history, despite physical and spiritual need, there have been too many bishops and prelates who care little for the salvation of souls. We need only read the lives of countless saints to see how many struggled with their superiors and bishops. We find ourselves living in another of these eras in which material and corporate logic trumps spiritual need, an era in which not only are we being deprived a crucifix but our entire churches are being stolen away. May the good Lord bless his very many faithful servants throughout our blessed Church's history. And may Fr. Damien, saint of the lepers, faithful despite all opposition, pray for all of us.

Thankfully by the time of his death he received some human assistance and increased supplies, and his reputation has of course been vindicated. The great saint was only 49 at the time of his death.

No description on my part could ever do St. Damien of Molokai or the movie justice. I highly recommend renting or buying the movie. Also, supplement your viewing by obtaining for $2 the From the Housetops periodical (link below) with a succinct but ample biography of this great new saint of the Church. He is yet another saint who, in the face of persecution from both his immediate superior and bishop, was able to build chapels, spread the Faith, and act as a true father as shepherd of all to a people without hope.    


*From the Housetops, Volume XVIII, No. 2, Serial No. 39, page 2. Note: I noticed that this particular issue is not linked on the website of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I bet if you give them a call they may send it to you or copy it for you. It is excellent. Here is the wikipedia entry on Fr. Damien: click here.
**Ibid, page 8
***All quotes are taken from historical account or from From the Housetops, not from the movie. 

Sent to savestmary's from J:

In sad news, the Diocese goes to settlement on St. Bridget's School in Glassboro on Thursday. (That happened awfully quickly, didn't it?!)

From Kate, submitted today:
We, the parents at St. Bridget's, have for a long time wanted to expand to have a multipurpose room where students could gather for gym, lunch, and other activities. We explored several options and due to the very limited space on our property, could not expand.
 
Although a painful experience, the decision to recommend merging with St. Catherine's presented the opportunity to have a larger school campus in a neighborhood where police are not conducting drug raids two doors down from the school on Lake St and netting an AK47 and ammunition for their troubles. (See Glassboro crime log from Summer 2007)
 
The school is right smack in the middle of the Rowan Blvd/ Glassboro Redevelopment project. (Google Rowan Blvd) Not only is the construction itself an ugly, unsafe mess, but having a hotel or strip of stores and college apartments next to our school probably wasn't the best thing for our kids either.
 
Fr. Mazz made us a promise that if we moved to another location he would use the profits from the sale of the school building for two things: to pay off St Bridget's parish debt (which he had worked to lower since coming to St B's) and to give the balance of the money to the 'new' school (now called St Michael the Archangel) for classroom space and improvements to the property. Hopefully we didn't "miss the boat" on the sale of the property. If we had sold last summer before the housing bust, we would have gotten a cool $2.5 million easily due to the greedy developers who want in on the Glassboro redevelopment.
 
Again, although painful to leave St Bridget's, the school merger has been good for both school communities. St Catherine's got enough students to keep their school open. St Bridget's got a gymnasium and hot lunch program. Through the excellent leadership of Ms Jan Bruni and Sr Janice Novak a strong St Michael's family is developing, we now have a middle school electives program we didn't have before. And being double-graded brings other social and psycholohical benefits to students who otherwise would have spents 9 years of their education with only the same 15 - 30 people, thereby limiting their experiences during the bulk of their waking hours each school year.
 
I still hum our school song- St Bridget watch and guide us, bring your wisdom here. St Michael protect and defend us. (He already is- we will keep our church, our convener is already the pastor.)


Response:
Indeed the area nearby Rowan is a complete mess. We certainly hope that the new school is everything it should be, and that the money indeed goes where it is supposed to. We've requested that any follow-up information be sent to us, along with photos and updates. We welcome information from throughout the diocese on any school or parish changes, closures, "reconfigurations," etc.


A Total Aside...
In somewhat related news, I was listening to an NPR piece today about Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. who have given up altogether and decided to "go public" as "charter schools." It was sad to hear how, in the piece, they were taking down crucifixes, images of saints, and an altar at St. Cyprian's School. I will see if I can find that piece for you online, perhaps tomorrow, since it's very late right now. It was on All Things Considered this afternoon, if you'd like to look for yourself and listen online.

The diocesan argument was, of course, a financial one for all the schools making the switch, but being in the midst of a similar situation that involves nothing but one lie after the next, it's hard to know what's really going on down there in D.C. and what was really in their books. Sadly, you just can't take anything at face value. If it really was that financially dire, how'd it get that way?

Anyway, the archdiocese reported that it costs them something like $7500 per student and that the diocese can only realistically charge parents, on average, around $4500, therefore subsidizing $3000 per pupil. However, I personally find it appalling that other alternatives were not explored before closing these schools altogether. I find it really difficult to believe that parents in one of the most financially strained states in the country, Michigan, can successfully open and maintain their own Catholic Catholic school that is reasonably priced and cooperatively run, and yet diocese with all the bureaucratic advantages--bequests, staff, consultants, grants, etc.--cannot figure it out.

On the other hand, I am well aware that many Catholic schools are Catholic in name only. My own high school I did not find to be overly "Catholic" even at the time, and I was coming right out of nine years of public school so you'd think there would've been some amount of culture shock. The only real culture shock I recall was lack of resources. That was 18 years ago, too. I wonder, though, if diocese shouldn't be looking to different types of radical change, like how to get back to the roots of the true essentials in Catholic education, and perhaps shifting to a cooperative model, if possible? I'm sure that there are all kinds of options out there if one prays enough and thinks creatively. But who knows.

In any case, I took the long way around to say that the closing of any Catholic school for any reason is pretty sad news since we know that the alternative for most kids is public school, which is not to say there isn't something to be said about that. I happened to love public school when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago and things have changed over the past 20+ years, and not all for the better. Ideally, as Catholics, we ought to want our kids' educations to be utterly penetrated with the things of God and the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Sometimes we homeschoolers are able to do this, but it costs quite a lot for a parent to forsake career in order to school her children in an age when two incomes is practically a necessity. At one time in America's not-so-distant past, Catholic schools did this and were affordable for normal families. How sad that our Catholic school standards have shifted to such a degree that even Catholic school education is all too often, well, far from it, and ridiculously priced too.

Our thanks is due to all the good teachers who ever taught at St. Bridget's Glassboro and at all schools everywhere. We owe them a lot, don't we? Lord knows, they don't do it for the money or the fame. (Now my sis and I are both teachers. So was our mom and our mom's mom, both of whom went to Glassboro State College/Glassboro Normal School.)


Another Total Aside, But That Never Stopped Me Before...
A long overdue thanks to some of my teachers, the people responsible for feeding my love of learning and perhaps partly responsible for my insanity (just kidding). I encourage you to look up your former teachers and thank them, if possible.

• Fr. Lyons, who I saw last week, English, Journalism, Mythology, 10th & 11th
  
• Mr. Galliger, English, 9th
  
• Mr. Day, History, 7th
  
• Mr. Phillips, 3rd Grade
• Mr. Rogers, Gym, Cross Country, Track, Gymnastics, & How to be a Good & Decent Human, 4th-8th and beyond
  
• Mrs. Benevento, Sprint, 4th-8th & summer
  
• Mr. Harrison, 5th Grade
• Mrs. Foster, Sprint, 3rd Grade
  
• Mrs. McGarrity, 2nd Grade
• Miss Hansen, 4th Grade, may she rest in peace
• Wacky Mr. Finnerty, Science (and of course, county politics...), the only person I've ever known to drink Drano regularly and also don an ugly green tux just to keep us interested, 6th & 8th
  
• Mrs. Schaffer, Home Ec, simply the best, 6th-8th
  
• Sr. Regina, Religion, "Stay close to Jesus," may she rest in peace, 10th
  
• Mrs. West & Mrs. Gilchrist, Art (K-3, 4-8 & summer)
  
• Miss Berrell/Mrs. Stein, Music (K-3 & 4-8)
  
• Mr. Lewis, my gymnastics coach
• Sr. Rita Francis, CCD & Bible School (VBS), K-8
  
• Mr. Leek, Shop, 6th-8th
  
• The famous "Deborah J," English, who definitely kept me entertained, 12th
• Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Kingsley, & Mrs. Bingham, Nursery School
• My grandmother, Laura P. DeMarchi, and grandfather, Jacob DeMarchi, may they rest in peace
  
• And of course my mommy, Doris, my #1 teacher, may she rest in peace. I owe you everything.
  

We have been meaning to share some quotes with you from the wonderful and well-researched book, Goodbye, Good Men by Michael S. Rose. The book focuses largely on the true reasons for the supposed "priest shortage." Admittedly, the book is shocking even to those familiar with the darker sides of church politics, but it is very convincing and well-documented. Intermittently we will share quotes with you from this book since it is so relevant to the situation at hand in so many diocese around the country including, presumably, our own.

The fact is that many qualified candidates for the priesthood have been turned away for political reasons over the past three decades. Systematic, ideological discrimination has been practiced against seminarians who uphold Catholic teaching on sexuality and other issues; dissenters from Catholic teaching--including teaching on homosexuality--have been rewarded.

Goodbye, Good Men exposes this corruption: the deliberate infiltration of Catholic seminaries by what Andrew Greeley has dubbed the "Lavender Mafia," a clique of homosexual dilettantes with an underground of liberal faculty members determined to change the doctrines, disciplines, and mission of the Catholic Church from within. Through the seminaries, liberals have brought a moral meltdown into the Catholic priesthood. If the sex scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church are to end, the individuals responsible for this moral meltdown must be rooted out. (page xi)

To use the words of a friend's father with regard to the last sentence above, "If there's a rat in the corn crib, you get rid of the rat, you don't quit farming." He lamented the fact that instead of rooting out the rats, corrupt bishops elected instead to keep child abusing priests around to destroy the Church and the souls entrusted to Her. As a result of all the financial settlements, some church leaders have decided to deal with the likes of con-man Rafaello Follieri to sell off diocesan properties as quickly as possible and access cash for the settlements. So with the closure of churches and schools, they've effectively decided to "quit farming," so to speak: to get out of the business of saving souls and into the business of saving skin.

To drastically understate the case, some seriously poor decisions were made, but instead of repenting of these and making a serious attempt to turn things around and restore the trust of the laity and the Bride of Christ generally, another series of poor decisions was made--to close our churches and schools. Perhaps worst of all, the rationale for doing so has been covered with misinformation and false rationales (there's a priest shortage, there are demographic shifts, etc.) because the truth is simply too horrible to admit to. And now look where we are?! We, the faithful in the pews, are paying the price for one bad decision after the next. And now we must pay for these sins by sacrificing our very houses of God, our schools, and even our Faith? We must expose and reject the pretenses for closing our churches, which we know to be untrue. One such pretense is the availability of priests (or lack thereof). While particulars vary from diocese to diocese, on a broader national scale the decline has been traced to far-reaching and disturbing trends.

According to Michael Rose, the priest shortage, where it does in fact exist, is "artificial and contrived." He quotes Archbishop of Omaha Nebraska, Elden F. Curtiss, who says

It seems to me that the vocation "crisis" is precipitated by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these ministries. I personally am aware of certain vocations directors, vocations teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the rosary.

Rose goes on to mention unapologetically orthodox bishops whose diocese have experienced dramatic increases in vocations to the priesthood. Of course, most of us are familiar with religious orders that are experiencing vocations booms as well. After all, if one is going to sacrifice his or her life for the cause of Christ, whether one's vocation be lay or religious in nature, it must be worth it!

We will explore more of Goodbye, Good Men in the future. More to come...

Quote:

Three years later [after sex abuse scandal fallout], Bishop Cullen is closing almost a third of the parishes of the Allentown Diocese, including nearly all of the ethnic parishes. This will destroy the communities centered on the ethnic parishes. Again, Bishop Cullen places the interests of the hierarchy, in this case financial, over the good of the people. In response, the Coalition of Churches was founded by members of closed parishes to appeal the closings to the Vatican.

In a videocast on the Allentown Diocese Web site, Bishop Cullen calls on the faithful to ''bear the cross'' of the closings. He says that the closings are the necessary result of an aging clergy and a lack of vocations to replenish the ranks. He says that missionary priests from abroad should not and cannot be brought to bolster the ranks of priests. The Father, Bishop Cullen tells us, will provide. Click here to read entire piece.

We in the Camden Diocese are far from alone in our struggles. Remember, con man Follieri used the sex abuse scandal and resulting settlements as an opportunity to attempt to butter up various bishops and buy up church properties dirt cheap. So if you thought the sex abuse scandal was over, think again. We, the Catholics in the pews throughout America, are now paying the price for the sins of the abusive priests and the bishops who cared so little for the smallest lambs in the fold that they moved abusive priests around for decades, giving them opportunity after opportunity to abuse more children. As if this wasn't bad enough, now our parishes are being stolen from us and from our ancestors who sacrificed for and built them, and we're not even being told about the true motivations. Perhaps worst of all, we are patronizingly told that we have to "bear the cross" of the loss of our churches and there has been no noticeable repentance for the inaction and irresponsibility that has been shown on the part of too many of our church leaders. Yes we must forgive even the worst of offenses because Christ has called us to, but this does not mean the offenses are acceptable. The word "unjust" does not even begin to scratch the surface. What is occurring and has occurred in many diocese in the United States is simply unconscionable.

The article we link to happens to be about the Allentown, PA Diocese, but they are only one of many diocese facing the same problem. By the way, this article was also forwarded to me by an empathetic Texan.