Quote:

Local Catholics continued to speak out against diocesan plans to consolidate parishes by holding another demonstration at a local church Wednesday.... "We are going to be here until he reconsiders his illogical, inane decision," said Charlotte Ryan, council [Council of Parishes] co-chair and member of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Pitman.... "If we all stick together we can stop this process in its entirety," said Leah Vassallo, council co-chair and member of St. Mary's in Malaga.

Not a bad article at all, and very favorable to us, in my opinion. The media tide has turned dramatically away from the Diocese, it seems, and the Diocese is increasingly grasping at straws. It's a shame that those who oppose the movement to save God's true Church and churches in South Jersey don't realize that they are on the wrong side of the struggle.

Read the article here.

This article was written 2 years ago.

Quote:

While winning the hearts of the liberal faction, Bishop Wuerl ran roughshod over the faithful and the parishes they and their families had built. Bishop Wuerl had managed to cut a million dollars from the operating budget his first year and his concepts for the consolidation of school and parishes became the "model for bishops facing similar problems nationwide."

While the reporter, Ann Rodgers-Melnick, in the March 12, 1989 article enthused over the bishop's controversial closing of parishes and schools, Pittsburgh Catholics found themselves at the mercy of the diocesan machine as it moved full throttle over the heartfelt concerns of the laity who were stunned at the numerous closings and mergings of churches into "worship sites," including the financially and spiritually sound parishes.

The usual "blarney" about  consultation with the laity, who for the most part saw it as a "done deal," was published in the local Catholic paper, which ranted on and on, inferring that the suffering Catholics were disobedient and causing disunity when they felt their spiritual world crumbling. Uppermost in the minds of many were concerns about the losses of Mass availability, ethnicity, and the sense of community. The allowance, by the diocese, of "polka Masses," and the parading of Catholics in ethnic costumes in the Civic Arena was apparently an attempt to show "respect" for the many heritages represented in Pittsburgh's Catholic community.

The diocese attempted to give the appearance of cooperation and harmony toward the people, but the laity felt betrayed and disillusioned by the strong-arm tactics employed under Bishop Wuerl's rule. Many elderly Catholics were no longer able to continue their custom of attending daily Mass due to limitations set by the distance to the nearest church, since their "worship site" may or may not have a scheduled daily Mass.

Money from one parish, totaling three million dollars, donated by hard working parishioners, was confiscated by the diocese. This was only one instance of what is thought to be an enormous amount of money ending up in diocesan coffers from parish accounts and property sales. The diocese claims that the money will be returned to the merged parishes, but many of Pittsburgh's Catholics do not believe that and wonder about the total sum of money taken in, diocesan-side. Having nowhere else to turn, some displaed members of parishes are suing Bishop Wuerl in civil court for closing their parishes.

Other parishioners have watched helplessly as pastors spent large sums of money on unwelcome "renovations" such as the installation of "immersion pools" for baptisms, and the removal of tabernacles from places of prominence to hidden positions.

(all emphases mine)

SOUND FAMILIAR??? It should! It's happening all around the country. It happened in Pittsburgh. We're the next recipient of the insidious infestation. There will be no surprises--it's all been done before. They're just following a program that's been used again and again. It's no "process"--that is a lie. (Yeah, Ms. Volmer, you heard me right.) It's a program that's being implemented, corporate-style. (And at the moment, Galante's outsourcing, but that's another piece altogether.)

So, got your crucifix? Some holy water? Hope you're wearing your scapular, folks, because it's gonna be a rough ride. Ain't easy to be Catholic these days, especially when the powers-that-be are discouraging us from being precisely that. Of course, if being a faithful Catholic was easy, then everybody would be one. And of course, we are running the race for the prize, which is Christ Himself, so we must take up our crosses and follow Him.

In short (I know, too late!) you simply must read this article, written by Matt C. Abbott. Have no doubt that this is the very same liberal agenda--which is in no way Catholic--that is running rampant and attempting to destroy the Diocese of Camden, its faithful priests, and the parishes within it. Have no doubt that what is at stake here is our souls and the souls of countless people in our diocese and beyond. Have no doubt that money is a motive (remember when Christ said that you can't serve both God and mammon?) and that the intent is to steal it just as was done in Pittsburgh. Most of all, have no doubt that the ultimate goal is to make us less Catholic and therefore further from the Eternal Truth! If you have any doubt of what's really happening here or if you simply want to be better informed, read the piece.

And remember, we must resist the plans of the bishop and preserve Catholicism throughout South Jersey! We must pray for the bishop's conversion. Be sure and find a good and faithful priest who is unafraid of the Truth, even if it appears to be in opposition to the whims of our current bishop. It's about obedience to our Faith and our Church! We are never allowed to fall into sin, even when we are commanded to by a superior. Consider what dire fates the English martyrs faced. In our case we do not risk martyrdom, but we could be risking our souls. Truth is Truth, Right is Right, and wrong is wrong no matter where or when we live.

While it is true that even poor church leaders may come and go, they can cause a lot of destruction during their tenures and will drag down souls with them when they fail to do the Will of God. So when you find a good priest who is faithful to the ancient teachings of the Church--as we have found in our dear Fr. Romanowski--stay close to him! He is a gem! Most of all, stick with Christ, who will never lead you astray!

Click here to read the article.

PS: This article was printed and given to me. Thank you so much for all your contributions to the site and your positive feedback.

Have you been to the Council of Parishes' website yet? Those who support the movement are welcome to join. The website was created in May but content is still being put up, slowly but surely, as people contribute it. This site is meant for networking, announcing events, and supporting the preservation of South Jersey's many wonderful Catholic churches.

The Council of Parishes of Southern New Jersey was formed in May 2008 after Bishop Galante unveiled his plan to cut in half the number of parishes in the Diocese of Camden. Many of the churches Galante seeks to close are historic in nature and therefore small. Since Galante prefers megachurches and desires to rid the diocese of its rich Catholic history and culture, the Council naturally opposes the unnecessary and harmful merge of our parishes and closure of our churches. The Council currently represents 27 parishes throughout the Diocese of Camden.

The bishop is now admitting to wanting to change the culture of the Church. What we are facing as the faithful is an attempt to change the fundamental nature of the Church, the Church as we know it, and how it functions, particularly on a local level. We must fight this--moreover we are obligated to by virtue of our baptism. It is a matter of our eternal destiny and the loss of many souls.

Snippet:

Over the next year, South Jersey's Catholics will experience a wave of dramatic -- and sometimes traumatic -- change.

Those losses -- which some observers compare to a death in the family -- will be controversial casualties in an ongoing campaign by the Diocese of Camden.

The diocese -- faced with a worsening priest shortage, aging congregations and shifting demographics -- plans to slash its parishes from 124 to 66. And Camden Bishop Joseph Galante said surviving parishes will see a culture change, as they are revitalized with an influx of ministries and new members.

I have only skimmed the article, but the title looks promising. Please email me any commentary you may have. I've been getting plenty of great contributions of late, so keep them coming.

Read it here

Over here at Save St. Mary's we admit to getting a kick out of the continuing technical ineptitude over at the diocese. I admit I personally am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination, but you'd figure the Diocese of Camden could do a little better. I received this email last night:

The Diocese put very prominent links to the Pat Ciarrocchi interview all over their sites today: the Star Herald, the Diocese homepage and the Gathering God's Gifts page. But what's great is that every link to the video is broken! You should suggest they link to you instead.

Not the first time the diocese has had a "technical glitch." As I said, I know nothing about web development/design, but even I can put up a link correctly. Maybe they'll fix the links when they see this post.

Yesterday morning at 8:15 am Bishop Galante was on Newsmakers with Pat Ciarrocchi on CBS 3. Here are some of Bishop Galante's assertions, with comments and clarifications from savestmarys.net as well as some summaries of sentiments expressed by Leah Vassallo and Bob Walsh (COP) yesterday.

1. The bishop says that families, young families, are moving off barrier islands and therefore there isn't the need for parishes and schools that there once was.

• Where does he get this information from? If families are moving off the islands, then why are so many schools growing and building?
  

2. He said twice that he's responded to letters written to him.

• No he hasn't. He certainly hasn't responded to mine. I know people who have written him countless times and have to date received no response, not even a form letter. For those lucky enough to get a letter, it is only a form letter and usually does not address their concerns.

3. He said that people are moving from "urban centers" in South Jersey.

• What "urban centers"? Camden and Atlantic City? South Jersey doesn't really have "urban centers" in the way other areas do. The truth is that Galante wants to close churches throughout the diocese in places that are urban, suburban, and rural. Closures ("mergers") are widespread across the diocese, despite the environment. The bishop is using national trends to justify actions that are local, even if the general national trends do not apply to our particular region. In fact, Bishop Galante wishes to close churches in areas whose populations are growing. This is opportunism, pure and simple, and the diocese uses whatever rationale seems expedient at the time.
  

4. He said "the Eucharist is the center of our faith and without priests we cannot have the Eucharist."

• This is an interesting statement considering that Bishop Galante (1) discourages priestly vocations (see below) and (2) holds up as models for future Catholic churches in South Jersey a protestant church (Gloucester County Community Church) and a radically liberal Catholic megachurch in Naples, FL that has publicly espoused heretical views about the Eucharist and other matters of faith. LINK
  

5. The bishop said we need a "new springtime" in the Church of South Jersey (as he calls it), "a renewal of our faith and our practice." We need outreach, love, and service of God and neighbor. Bishop Galante says that as a shepherd he is to animate, call, and lead people to that understanding of faith. He is to help people to know Jesus more intimately and love Jesus more ardently.

• I have only two things to say about this: (1) We do not intend to have this be a "silent spring." We do not trust in the type of "renewal" Galante wishes to impose. We will fight the destruction of our Church, our churches, and our Faith and will not do so quietly. (2) As our "shepherd," I would truly like to know how the bishop is leading us toward a love and knowledge of Jesus. I certainly don't see it. By closing our beloved houses of God, how is this helping us?

6. Bishop Galante said that young people hunger for deeper meaning in their lives.

• Of course this is true! But then why would he want to close houses of God that young people are attached to and that in many cases their ancestors built? In a society that increasingly destroys places of significance in favor of generic strip malls, developments, and chain stores, why would a bishop want to impose more of the same? South Jersey has been colonized by forces that seek to destroy its character for long enough. Why would young people or any people support the destruction of the place where they have come to know and love Our Lord? Why should he want to destroy churches that radiate traditional Catholic culture and values and erect nondescript McChurches like we see elsewhere in the country (and sadly, even within our own diocese)? Does Bishop Galante have any idea how devastating something like that can be to any person? Some are so disgusted by what's going on they are considering leaving the church altogether. I know young adults who have left the church and what Bishop Galante is doing in closing churches just seals the deal, so to speak. Places are important, the places we worship in are important, and they are not so easily replaced.
  
• If Bishop Galante will look to numbers with complete objectivity, he will clearly see that diocese, orders, and fraternities that are attracting young adults are disproportionately ones that are traditional, which is the very thing Galante wishes to undercut. Here are several links to just a handful of such groups. There are certainly lots of others:
  
• Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter stats page (Their regular page)--They send priests throughout the country when the bishop allows them in. This is what they were set up to do. The FSSP priests are not just in one particular place.
  
• Nashville Dominicans
• Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist

7. Bishop Galante always likes to say that he spent so much time "listening to the people" during the "speak out sessions" and deanery meetings, claiming the process (as well as the closures he thinks were a natural emination of that process) has lay support.

• No one I know is in support of the mergers and closures. Not a single person. People think that the loss of their houses of God is inevitable and that there is nothing they can do about it. This assumption of inevitability must NOT be construed as support!
• We all know that we must be careful when evaluating "studies" done by organizations that have an agenda. The diocese is no exception. As Leah and Bob pointed out in the video response, this is a fake "process" and the studies and polls that are cited are almost always fake as well. We can make numbers say whatever we want and make studies prove whatever we want by structuring them in certain ways. No diocesan study ought to be trusted. Interestingly, as Leah Vassallo pointed out, there has been no poll on parish mergers because no one supports them.
• Bishop Galante is taking advantage of the Catholic faithful's trust of their bishop--trust that he cares for them, listens to them,and is leading them along the right and godly path. Instead, he is abusing their trust by taking away from them something that is most precious because he has an particular agenda. This is an abuse of his power. The closing of half the churches in our diocese is absolutely wrong and must be resisted.
  

8. Bishop Galante claims that he supports and desires priestly vocations.

• In reality, the bishop is actively discouraging priestly vocations. He has (1) lowered the mandatory retirement age, (2) refused priests from outside the diocese (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Indian Carmelites, African priests, and others, only to import one of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in order to bolster his own liberal agenda), (3) spread seminarians among three seminaries, and (4) reassigned, forced out, or forced into retirement more than a dozen priests to date.
• Why is he discouraging vocations to the priesthood? Two interconnected reasons. While it is bizarre to think any "shepherd" would do this, it is simply fact that with the diminishing availability of priests comes the scarcity of the sacraments. Without the sacraments to strengthen us in the spiritual life, we are in trouble! Instead of encouraging and inviting priests who make available the sacraments, Galante has a lay-led initiative ready to implement, which will begin with lay staff at each parish. The hiring of all the lay staff will likely cost each parish, according to the diocese' own salary scale, somewhere in the vicinity of $200,000 each year in addition to their normal operating costs. The bottom line is that Galante wishes to change the character of the Church altogether.

9. Bishop Galante has repeatedly stressed the importance of offering social services to people in the hopes that they'll come to church. (The "build it and they will come" mentality.) Services like day care for seniors and children, to start with.

• Church isn't about convenience, it's about fatih. While services are nice, do we really want to encourage a view of the Church in which people assume a relationship of convenience and comfort? The bishop is coming about this whole thing backwards. We need to build up the spirituality of the churches first and foremost, and if services are needed or wanted, they must be connected to that spirituality. Without Christ at our center, all services, as good as they may be, will be superficial and will not draw people to Him.
  

On the Newsmakers coverage:
In my opinion, CBS 3 has certainly given the movement excellent coverage in the past and I know they will in the future. The most recent news piece was extremely good. However I must admit I personaly did not think Pat Ciarrocchi challenged the bishop, nor would I consider the bishop's stint on Newsmakers an example of balanced journalism. It was obviously pretty one-sided. In fact, I was disappointed to see she even fed Bishop Galante answers at various points. It was really great, though, when she pointed out the "tremendous resistence" to his plan, and the bishop took issue with the word "tremendous." In any case, I know that CBS normally has wonderfully balanced coverage of this issue and I certainly anticipate more critical analysis of the diocesan crisis going into the future.

Pre-Recorded live 6/23:

Pre-Announcement:

This Sunday June 22 at 8:15 am, Bishop Galante will be interviewed on Newsmakers with Pat Ciarrocchi on Channel 3 (KYW-CBS). Several from the COP will respond!

Tune in here at savestmarys.net at 8:00 am Sunday (tomorrow) to watch live.

More:
Diocesan spokesperson Andrew Walton says, "Bishop will appear on Sunday's CBS3 Newsmaker's program between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM.  He will discuss parish planning and other topics in a 10 minute segment."

Since the bishop will be afforded this opportunity to express his views without contest, leaders of the Council of Parishes of Southern NJ (COP) will respond in real time, online, by webcam/blog. Those interested will be able to see and hear the response of the COP as well as read commentary.

After all, we feel that Bishop Galante is a "catalyst who will bring the laity in to share responsibility," and that is precisely what we are trying to do--share responsibility. In a "community of equals" it is necessary to "provide a sense of openness and ownership for everyone." (I am, of course, quoting Bishop Galante.)

Link here if you want to waste your time. More of the same. What a shame some people might actually believe this stuff.

For example:

Of the 124 parishes in the diocese currently, only one has a full-time, paid youth minister. Many parishes, as presently configured, lack the means to add the full-complement of paid, professional ministry positions that would be necessary to address the needs that the people themselves have identified as most pressing.

Paid staff="better ministry." I fail to see the logic. In addition, the diocese tries to disown the term "megachurch" by designating it a protestant term. Then why in the world is he closing all the small churches? Why does he hold up for example large churches? The bottom line is, for Bishop Galante, bigger is better and money=quality. How sad. Bishop, where does God fit into your plans? Does Our Lord play a role in all this?

(Article by "a Star Herald writer." All these uncredited articles remind me of what the Jehovah's Witnesses do in the Watchtower publication: watchtower.)

This article has little to do, directly, with the campaign, but it definitely reveals the mindset of those Galante and McGrath surround themselves with. Like Ms. Volmer, formerly of LA and then Dallas, of "it's a process, not a program" fame. Liberals love "process," let me tell you. It makes things appear to be in flux rather than a set plan. But I digress.

Funny thing, I wasn't aware that the "social Gospel" was the "one and only Gospel." I just thought the Gospel was the Truth, the message of salvation, the Word of God, the Good News...the Gospel. Bizarre.

Funnier thing, I do consider myself a "liberal" when it comes to social programs and things, yet I don't at all relate to this rhetoric. Making political (ie something secular, worldly, and generally icky) the Sacred Heart of Our Lord is just not my thing. The implication here, to my mind, is that Jesus and St. Benedict were sort of proto-Marxists. They did Marxism better. Ummm...ok? I guess I just don't get it. I think of Our Lord as my Savior, the One who leads us unto all Truth, not a political figure.

Reminds me of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Naples, FL that Bishop Galante wants to model the new "Church of South Jersey" after. They'd love this stuff. (More on St.John the Evangelist parish here.)

Snippet from Fr. Gregorio's article (emphasis mine):

Priests and deacons preaching the social Gospel (i.e., the one and only Gospel) often are accused of siding with one party or one economic school, even failed ones like Marxism. They should reply that Jesus came before Marx, and that Marx inadvertently borrowed from the rule of Benedict and how Benedictine monasteries run: classless society, ownership of the means of production by the proletariat, no private property, etc. However a monk is always free to leave the community while one may not leave communist China.

Beware of the old rubbish being resurrected about the evils of liberalism. Many damn this leftward slant because of its squishy tolerance of sexual hedonism but ignore its thrust to use government to raise the minimal standard of living of the nation's disadvantaged, most of whom by serious analysis are where they are because of an economic system flawed so badly it would break a bleeding heart.

Unite to oppose Galante's plan

Bishop Joseph Galante of the Diocese of Camden had a dream that went something like this:

Let's build a new regional elementary school and put it out in the woods. Then we can get parishes like Saint Nicholas in Egg Harbor City to help pay for the cost of construction and maintenance. Let's assess Saint Nicholas parish $1,100 per week for upkeep and $400,000 as its share of construction. We'll let the current Saint Nicholas pastor return to being a military chaplain so a new pastor can be appointed who will cooperate with the plan to close the current parochial school and merge Saint Nicholas with a new Church of the Assumption parish. After a while, people won't mind making the 20-mile round trip to another church.

Is this a dream or a nightmare?

Does Bishop Galante think we parishioners are dumb? Stand up and oppose this "dream" before it becomes a reality. Whether you are a parishioner of Saint Nicholas or one of the other parishes in the Diocese of Camden, don't rest until Bishop Galante's dream has been foiled. Your parish could be next.

THOMAS McGEARY SR.

Egg Harbor City

Click here to read online.