Nothing is ever easy in Camden, is it? Leave it to them to turn something simple into something, well....keep reading.
As you may remember, a few years back the Camden Diocese announced a sweeping plan to close or consolidate nearly half their parishes. Take that, North Philadelphia Swath of Destruction and Year of Hell! Ha!
One of those parishes, St. Mary, was closed early and without fanfare--sans farewell mass or anything--due to supposed boiler problems. But as luck--or more likely, Diocesan stupidity--would have it, the building was left unlocked. So in response to the closing, a small group of parishioners have taken up residence in the church to protest.
More detail below:
Philadelphia Inquirer: Parishioners hold out in shuttered church
NBC Philadelphia: NJ Parishioners Protest Church Closing
All jokes aside, you have to admire this kind of gumption. The parishioners have even started a campaign, Save St. Mary's Malaga, and the alleged malfunctioning boiler has been fixed. All good, right? Right?
As we all know by now, any (Arch)Diocese never changes its mind about such things. Whatever they decide, that's the rule, regardless of what the aftermath might be. I'm not entirely versed on the rationale behind closing St. Mary's in the first place (if there was any), but any logical organization would have to look at this and reconsider. I mean, hell, if parishioners are willing to camp out for an unlimited amount of time to keep the place around, then they certainly seem capable enough to keep the parish afloat.
Logic, sadly, doesn't apply to these matters. And while the Diocese currently hums that it has no plans to do anything about the squatters, we all know that's going to change quickly, especially as this becomes a bigger story.
For what it's worth, the Project salutes you, parishioners, and wishes you well. One word of warning, though: decide now just far you want to take this, because it will escalate faster and more dramatically than you may realize, and you'll have to make some tough choices.
Look no further than the story of St. Louis' St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Lengthy and ongoing battles with the Archdiocese of St. Louis and a succession of archbishops (including our own Cardinal Rigali!) over control and closing led parishioners to break away and essentially form their own church. They've all pretty much been excommunicated, and their new sect has developed some interesting progressive slants, but you know what?
They still have their building. In this day and age, that's saying something.
I went to the Save St. Mary's Malaga website and the it says that a lot of the people in the community have family connections to the church. The website argues that if a small number of families could build the church, the parish should still be able to stay open. Times change and operating a church is more expensive than it used to be. The town has less than 2,000 people which is a small population from which to draw. I commend these parishioners for caring enough about the church to fight for it. I hope that they can raise enough money to fix the boiler.
ReplyDeleteProtesting doesn't work. The powers that be do what they want to do. The guy in charge of the Camden Diocese made a mess out of his last job posting in Texas.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with the RC Church.....incompetence is rewarded by a most prestigious job and (sometimes) a cardinal's hat. We had the same thing happen in Philadelphia.....Bevilacqua almost bankrupted Pittsburgh so JP II brings him to Philadelphia and makes him a cardinal.....he was the one responsible for the 1993 Swath of Destruction and Year of Hell.
Gee, what a surprise about Rigali.....not.
ReplyDeleteAnd hooray for Father Bozek in Saint Louis!
Are we missing the point.
ReplyDeleteThe church is a business and it is not a democracy.
The diocese owns the buildings and the parishioners pay the bills.
It's just that simple.
There're the rules of the "club"
People need to stop putting their money into that "business."
ReplyDeleteBut, hey, some folks never learn!
Shouldn't the church be run as something other than a business, though? Shouldn't it be about more than money?
ReplyDeleteIt's disconcerting for them to preach one thing and then act in a manner totally opposite of that.
Mark 10:21-25
ReplyDeleteJesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me."
The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom."
They think that everyone should pray, pay, obey and just lie there and take it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe more and more people need to say "No way! It's our money and if you don't want to listen to us, we will go elsewhere."
These people didn't have sense to remove pedophiles away from kids, why are we still giving them money, time, respect or especially, any AUTHORITY over our morals or relationship to God?
ReplyDeleteLast I knew, a group of like minded people were free (in this country) to assemble in a rec hall, a home, even a nice green park or field. It might be a healthy trend to let the real estate (and "the hierarchy that be" go and bring your faith to a simpler level. I always would have preferred a nice park to a dark church on a sunny Sunday.