Local Church Refuses To Accept Closing

[MissyP89]

My diocese of Camden (NJ) has been undergoing a complete consolidation process since 2008. These days a lot of parishes are finished merging, but some, including my own, are still in the process.

This story hit the front page of my local paper this morning. This church is only about 15 minutes from my home -- my former confessor is their parochial vicar.

[quote]FRANKLIN -- There were no clergy, Communion or altar boys, but it was the only place where the parishioners of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church wanted to be Sunday.

Despite objections from the Diocese of Camden, which last year ordered the 88-year-old building to close, dozens of local residents were ecstatic to finally be praying inside their community church on a Sunday for the first time in two months.

"This is our church," Malaga resident Jim Wilson, a member of St. Mary's for 37 years, said. "We have nothing against the other churches, but we want to be here and not at another church. This is where we feel at home."[/quote]

Read more here: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20110110/NEWS01/101100315/Protesters-at-Malaga-church-vow-not-to-give-up

~*~*~

I can understand their frustration -- they were closed rather suddenly from the sounds of things, and this has been a very emotional process for the entire diocese. But as my pastor said a long time ago, this is not about buildings.

And now it looks like they're not going to Mass anymore, because they'd rather be at "their" church. Oy.

Please pray for them, and for my whole diocese. I'm happy to say that despite initial anger, the merger going down at my own parish has been surprisingly positive.

[Vincent Vega]

Always a shame when people are more attached to material things than God.

[cmotherofpirl]

We are going thru this now, combining 3 parishes which were already the result of combining about 12 initial churches. Its not easy, and its hard not to be sad, my family had been matched and dispatched there almost 100 years. What has helped tremendously is our priest repeatedly emphasizing we are the Body Of Christ - not a building - and the new combination of many of each parishes most cherished posessions. The pulpit and cross are from one building, the stations from another, the windows from a third, plus all our statues in the back of the church. So no its not our old parish, but it is being more familiar each week, and it is an opportunity and a challenge as we mix irish croatian german hungarian polish traditions into one parish.

[Papist]

My hearts aches for such parishes and dioceses. I cannot relate. Our parishes are busting at the seams down here. And we are blessed with awesome young ORTHODOX priests coming out of seminary.

[BG45]

Will continue to pray for your diocese as it goes through the reorganization.

[CatherineM]

Our area is supposed to be consolidating. There are three churches on the same block because they were once Irish, Ukrainian, and Portuguese parishes. Now that the demographics have changed, all three churches are just hanging by a thread. If they consolidated, there would be one church that was fiscally sound. I have no idea why the Archbishop is putting off the inevitable.

[incarnatewordsister]

Wow! And our diocese is opening more churches. We're really tight down here, we need more priests and more parishes. I will pray for the churches up north.

[MissyP89]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1294696709' post='2198704']
Our area is supposed to be consolidating. There are three churches on the same block because they were once Irish, Ukrainian, and Portuguese parishes. Now that the demographics have changed, all three churches are just hanging by a thread. If they consolidated, there would be one church that was fiscally sound. I have no idea why the Archbishop is putting off the inevitable.
[/quote]

The situation in my town is actually kind of interesting. For nearly 100 years there was one parish for everyone, Sacred Heart, and it was huge -- so huge in fact that they had to split into two parishes. The second parish was founded out on the east side of town to serve the farmers and their families. Ironically, that parish, St. Isidore the Farmer, is now merging with Sacred Heart. There were 6 medium-sized parishes in town in 2006. By the time we're done, there will be 3.

The priest situation is similar. We have 3, but the merged parish will have one priest doing 6 Masses a weekend because the need elsewhere is so severe. Some parishes in the diocese have communion services on Sunday. It's going to be very hard to let them go, but knowing the good that will come from it is worth it.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='incarnatewordsister' timestamp='1294697284' post='2198707']
Wow! And our diocese is opening more churches. We're really tight down here, we need more priests and more parishes. I will pray for the churches up north.
[/quote]
Our diocese is opening churches and new schools in the suburbs, but I am in the inner city where the population is now dropped by more than half.

[CatherineM]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' timestamp='1294703496' post='2198731']
Our diocese is opening churches and new schools in the suburbs, but I am in the inner city where the population is now dropped by more than half.
[/quote]
Ditto, in the suburbs, the churches are overflowing, and we have a severe priest shortage.

[Micah]

So what do they do there now? I don't get it.. If there's no priest what are they doing.. A Church is empty without a priest and the eucharist. There's no Mass or anything.

[Tony]

[quote name='MissyP89' timestamp='1294687251' post='2198658']

And now it looks like they're not going to Mass anymore, because they'd rather be at "their" church. Oy.


[/quote]

when one of the Cleveland, Ohio churches closed.. a group within the parish (priest inlcuded) leased out a commercial bulding and held masses there. basically starting a new church.. without the Bishop's approval.

[reminiscere]

Do any of you actually know the pain of having your parish closed? The church that your great-grandparents helped built and where generations of your family received the sacraments and went every week? BECAUSE I DO! And until it happens to YOU, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE.

I go to a different parish now, yes, but to see the beautiful house of God sold off for a secular, profane purpose? Do you know what that feels like? I HOPE YOU NEVER DO.

[BG45]

[quote name='reminiscere' timestamp='1294878698' post='2199475']
Do any of you actually know the pain of having your parish closed? The church that your great-grandparents helped built and where generations of your family received the sacraments and went every week? BECAUSE I DO! And until it happens to YOU, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE.

I go to a different parish now, yes, but to see the beautiful house of God sold off for a secular, profane purpose? Do you know what that feels like? I HOPE YOU NEVER DO.
[/quote]

I am a convert. That said, no I don't know how that would feel. That also said, I do know the feeling to an extent.

I watched my aunt's Disciples of Christ church wither and die because they never had any new blood, only the old people dying off one by one until it wasn't affordable any more to keep it open. Every Advent when I grew up, we went there for the beginning of Advent Hanging of the Greens service.

As for the church that I left? I was the fourth generation of my family to be baptised in it. We were members there as a family for more than a century, and during my discerning process to convert I watched it tear itself apart and send people who had attended it for generations go into exile over petty internal politics and fighting over the "church constitution". I can remember how shocked I felt some people wanted to change a 150 year old document and forsake it as tradition and authority on how we did things, just to elevate someone it said wasn't qualified to pastor.

So no, I don't know exactly what it's like, but I do know close enough what it's like to no longer be welcome in a place that you considered to be a second home, a place where you worshiped every week with your family that your grandparents and great grandparents helped build. And yes, it's a horrible feeling that I also hope no one ever experiences. At least you still go to another parish now, and still receive the Sacraments; I found my way to Catholicism, others from my home church found mega churches or small churches, but a lot of them simply stopped looking to worship God with others at all. Something that Missy's article seems to show can happen when we get so attached to the building and to the community that we once held so dear. It may not be about the building or the people we worshiped with in it, but I think all of us know that we're emotional by nature and that love of friends and place is something none of us would rush to lose.

[MissyP89]

[quote name='reminiscere' timestamp='1294878698' post='2199475']
Do any of you actually know the pain of having your parish closed? The church that your great-grandparents helped built and where generations of your family received the sacraments and went every week? BECAUSE I DO! And until it happens to YOU, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE.

I go to a different parish now, yes, but to see the beautiful house of God sold off for a secular, profane purpose? Do you know what that feels like? I HOPE YOU NEVER DO.
[/quote]

I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I hope you don't feel that we're being flippant about the feelings of the people involved -- it's very much like a death, with all the feelings that accompany it. But that doesn't mean that disobeying the Church is okay. Yes, they want to hold on to the building, and they want to do what they can to stop the closure. That's fine, and there are steps they can take to do that. But refusing to let go while denying oneself the graces of the Mass is a bad call.