You go, St. Teresa's!!! When will Bishop Galante learn that our small, feisty, tight-knit church communities help people grow stronger in the Faith? But maybe that's part of the problem. He would like to move us toward a "new" catholicism. In any case, people aren't always necessarily drawn to large and faceless churches, but to places that are smaller and more personal.

Local Catholics nearly filled the pews of St. Teresa of Avila Church, on Central Avenue, Thursday night to voice their concerns to Bishop Joseph A. Galante in this, a time of ecumenical and financial troubles.

....Dedicated parishioners here, however, are angered by what they deem an unfair and unnecessary act.

Several grilled Galante intensely.

"If we're retaining the church (building), why do we merger with other parishes?" asked one churchgoer.

....Another frustrated parishioner said she felt smaller parishes engender greater strength. Members of a tight-knit community "draw in people they know."

Read entire article here

It is interesting that even churches designated secondary and primary "worship sites" such as St. Teresa's are seeing through the lies. Why, indeed, "merge" with other churches if all will ultimately remain open? There is no point...unless most are planned for closure in the future.

If he truly means what he says when he insists

that under New Jersey civil law, the diocese doesn't own the properties and, therefore, cannot sell them. They are owned only by the parishes.

then if a church community says it does not want to merge, he should back off and leave them alone. But we all know that it's not as simple as that or his program of massive church closure would not ever have been proposed. In fact, it is just another of his many lies.

Further, if Bishop Galante is as infatuated with trends in Protestant circles as he appears to be, then he ought to recognize the movement away from megachurches and toward small church communities. Even in the Catholic world the importance of small faith communities has been recognized for quite some time now, not to mention that there has been a strong tradition of small churches and sodalities, orders, groups, societies, etc. down the centuries.

See, for example, Small Christian Communities: A Vision of Hope for the 21st Century by Thomas A. Kleissler, Margo A. LeBert and Mary McGuinness published by Paulist Press 1997, Nihil Obstat Msgr. Robert E. Harahan, STD. We quote,

Small communities have enabled believers to search for the face of God and to develop a more profound union with God and one another. They have also been a means for renewing and expanding the church. They offer greater hope than ever that Christians will deepen their love for God, for one another, and for all of creation, and in so doing they will renew the face of the earth.

In this book on page 9, they quote someone from Ontario who says,
 

When disaster strikes, people usually respond well. But if they have been sharing their faith in community, the response is total and immediate.

Well we think it's safe to say that this is why some of the strongest responses to the "disaster" we have now in the form of "Hurricane Galante" has been from small, close parish communities. And yet these are the very communities Bishop Galante seems most intent on destroying. Why? We're not sure. Maybe they're a threat to bureaucratic control? Maybe they represent a traditionalism (faithfulness) he dislikes? Maybe it's just the money they're after? There's one thing that we can thank Bishop Galante for, though. He's helped solidify and unite Catholics both within their churches and across the diocese in a way that we've never been before. May God bless him for that!

May God richly bless and strengthen St. Teresa's in the Struggle to keep their beloved church and their Faith.