Today Bishop Galante announced the priest conveners for the churches he wishes to merge. Check the diocesan website for more information on your own parish's situation.
Much to our amusement, in the bishop's letter, he says, "Many of our parish communities have been eager to move forward with the intended configurations. Some wanted to do so as soon as announcements were made last April. However, I have urged patience in order to allow time for affected parish communities to deal with the reality of the change ahead..." Well at least the bishop has not lost his sense of humor! Several of us who read this today laughed out loud. Of our neighbors, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, co-parishioners, and others, we certainly have not seen a single instance of this phenomenon. "Out-of-touch" is an understatement here. Intentionally misleading would be more accurate. Perhaps the PR team at the chancery thinks that if they make the statement that there is a groundswell of support for the mass closure of parishes, then people will believe that it is true because, after all, a bishop wouldn't lie or mislead his sheep...
Of course in the letter Bishop Galante continues to spew the same misinformation and propaganda that has been issued over the past several months regarding the supposed motivations for the closures, so nothing new there. However, he also says, "it is my intention to modify certain parish configurations." Basically what we're looking at here is what appears to be a number of churches he, McGrath, and Vollmer have backpedaled on, which of course appears to be good news. It appears the campaign and feedback of all unhappy Catholics in these matters have been effective, but we have much work yet to do. In the end, it is important to remember that a "worship site" is just that, a canonically insecure entity that may be closed at any time. At present, changed status or not, no church in the diocese may consider itself "safe" until it is recognized as having the right to exist into the future, and the campaign must continue.
(Check the Diocese of Camden website for more information on specific changes, since there are a number of them.Special congratulations goes out to St. Bart's Camden who, in the course of a few months of fighting the Lord's good fight, have gone from the status of "closed" (April), to being a "worship site" (late June), to being a "primary worship site" (late August). Praise God and good work!)
Much to our amusement, in the bishop's letter, he says, "Many of our parish communities have been eager to move forward with the intended configurations. Some wanted to do so as soon as announcements were made last April. However, I have urged patience in order to allow time for affected parish communities to deal with the reality of the change ahead..." Well at least the bishop has not lost his sense of humor! Several of us who read this today laughed out loud. Of our neighbors, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, co-parishioners, and others, we certainly have not seen a single instance of this phenomenon. "Out-of-touch" is an understatement here. Intentionally misleading would be more accurate. Perhaps the PR team at the chancery thinks that if they make the statement that there is a groundswell of support for the mass closure of parishes, then people will believe that it is true because, after all, a bishop wouldn't lie or mislead his sheep...
Of course in the letter Bishop Galante continues to spew the same misinformation and propaganda that has been issued over the past several months regarding the supposed motivations for the closures, so nothing new there. However, he also says, "it is my intention to modify certain parish configurations." Basically what we're looking at here is what appears to be a number of churches he, McGrath, and Vollmer have backpedaled on, which of course appears to be good news. It appears the campaign and feedback of all unhappy Catholics in these matters have been effective, but we have much work yet to do. In the end, it is important to remember that a "worship site" is just that, a canonically insecure entity that may be closed at any time. At present, changed status or not, no church in the diocese may consider itself "safe" until it is recognized as having the right to exist into the future, and the campaign must continue.
(Check the Diocese of Camden website for more information on specific changes, since there are a number of them.Special congratulations goes out to St. Bart's Camden who, in the course of a few months of fighting the Lord's good fight, have gone from the status of "closed" (April), to being a "worship site" (late June), to being a "primary worship site" (late August). Praise God and good work!)