This letter was sent to savestmarys recently from parishioner Barbara Byrnes, St. Joseph's, Woodstown, NJ. Her words certainly echo the concerns of so many others. Her husband's family helped found St. Joe's Woodstown.


Dear Father DiBardino:

 

OVER-DEVELOPMENT, GREED AND CORRUPTION.... is why our country and the world are facing an economic disaster.  Same with our Catholic Church.  The lies, the corruption and the cover-up of sin which many of you knew about and chose not to address. And the church closings are part of all of it. 

 

Certain priests in this Diocese are living like kings in Hollywood.  Partying with movie stars and a con man who bought and sold church real estate cheap. The stock market crashes.... People are struggling to keep one home in New Jersey with the high cost of living and property taxes and fuel, etc. while many of you are living it up at the posh Mansion in Voorhees, NJ. or have fancy homes down the sea shore.      

 

The decision to close and merge St.Joseph's in Woodstown, SALEM COUNTY and St. Ann's in Elmer, SALEM COUNTY to your parish Holy Name in Mullica Hill, GLOUCESTER COUNTY is surely the work of the devil!  It wasn't fair for your parish to receive permission  prior to any deanery formations or meetings to build another new church because of your parish's poor planning decisions. And now your parish wants Salem County Catholics to bail you out of financial woes for 6.5 million dollars! Also, if you already have two thousand families in the Mullica Hill area...it seems you will need an even bigger church. And you don't need Salem County to bail you out either. The Camden diocese is notorious for making poor real estate decisions. It is so easy to blow money when it is not your own...like the stock market and 401K plans... With the way our economy is going along, combined with Bishop Galante's poor business dealings with Mr. Follieri, that should be enough to convince us that the Camden Diocese should not do any building or buying or selling at all.        

  

There has been no sympathy or compassion for the sick, poor, and elderly within 338 squares miles of Salem county who will be facing further hardships along with the cost of fuel and high taxes in this state. And now they will be without churches. The select professionals from our parishes are making decisions for our parishes for their own personal gain while many of us are left in the dark until they padlock our church for good. It's a sin. 

    

Father, you were stationed at Carney's Point...so you know that only 6 churches serving Salem county is pretty sad.  There has been no outreach.  The protestants are great for outreach. You should all be ashamed of yourselves, when Father Ed Friel made a statement about the closing of our parishes in Salem county, right next to it was a huge paid advertisement from the Presbyterian Church in Salem inviting everyone to their church. Everyone should be made to feel welcome in the Catholic Church, in Salem County and elsewhere--the undiluted and uncompromising faith of our fathers.  It's a sin to God that evangelism has not been a top priority instead the exact opposite--closing churches--has.

Maybe if Bishop Galante and the rest of you put your trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Blessed Mother we wouldn't need to close down our churches.

It is a shame that we don't have many real priests in our Diocese who even know, care about, or are willing to stand up and defend the Catholic faith from this onslaught.  It is because of CHANGE AND WORLDLY GREED AND SIN that the Church is in trouble to begin with and now we are further changing into something that isn't even close to being Catholic or Christian. But I choose God and our Blessed Mother instead of the devil's plan to close down our churches. When Jesus was in the desert, He was tempted by the devil with bigger and better things. WWJD??? May God have mercy on your souls.

 

 

We all have choices in life.  I choose life and life of a parish. I respect the dead who built these churches even while be persecuted  for being Catholic and living in poverty. Our ancestors truly sacrificed to build them, something many of us today know very little about, since many of them were poor already.  I represent All Souls and All Saints of the Camden Diocese who truly loved God and Our Blessed Mother, who were real Catholics...not lukewarm fakes and phonies.