By Jacqueline L. Urgo
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 5, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20080405_Shore_Catholics_are_mixed_on_parish_plan.html
The massive restructuring of the Camden Diocese, announced by Bishop Joseph A. Galante on Thursday, was being called a mixed blessing yesterday by Catholics at the Jersey Shore.
How it was perceived had a lot to do with whether one prays in a barrier-island parish or one on the mainland.
Members of inland parishes in Galloway and Egg Harbor Townships, which have experienced population growth spurts during the last decade, will barely have time to catch their breath before welcoming the faithful from congregations that are being folded into theirs.
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| St. James Church in Ventnor, with 3,076 congregants, will serve as a secondary worship site under the restructuring plan. Photo by Jonathan Wilson |
But in beach communities such as Atlantic City, Ocean City and Wildwood, where parishes are merging, church members say they are worried that their congregational traditions will go out with the tide.
The plan to retain some of the defunct churches as worship sites during the busy summer months may actually be a burden, they say.
Under Galante's plan, most of the diocese's newly created parishes will acquire the property of the closed parishes within their borders and may choose to sell some or all of it.
But the summer-only churches cannot be sold, and that leaves some of their longtime parishioners feeling torn.
"It kind of puts us in a holding pattern," said Kay Clowry, 68, a member of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Wildwood Crest, who has been the church's organist for 15 years.
"It makes us wonder about what happens to our members, our traditions, and things we held dear as a congregation, like our annual Christmas pageant," Clowry said.
Assumption is among 16 parishes in Atlantic and Cape May Counties that will close or become secondary worship sites.
Galante plans to cut the number of parishes in the diocese to 66 from 124 over two years in order to make the best use of a dwindling number of priests and to slash costs associated with operating so many buildings.
The plan also addresses "the realities of shifting populations," Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese, said yesterday. "Many people have moved out of the older population centers into areas of the diocese that are underserved by us."
Walton said that at the Shore, the year-round population has decreased as parishioners have moved from the barrier islands to the mainland for economic and other reasons.
"I'm just plain confused by the entire thing, and very sad," Clowry said. Assumption will "no longer exist as a parish, but our church building will remain and will continue to need upkeep and repair."
The parish, which has a registration of 2,015 members, has "always operated in the black," she said. Under the reorganization, it will merge with St. Ann's in Wildwood and its 3,598 members.
Clowry said members of her congregation hoped to appeal the diocese's decision to the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, an arm of the Roman Curia, the church's governing body, which is charged with ensuring an equitable distribution of priests throughout the world.
Some Shore church leaders fear that keeping their buildings open only in the summer may land the parishes in the red.
"We really haven't been given specific directives about how all of this will affect the buildings themselves," said Rev. Joseph Ganiel, pastor of Ventnor's St. James Church, which will serve as a secondary worship site.
The economics of keeping a building open only three or four months of the year while being required to maintain it year-round - especially in the Shore climate - has not been spelled out, he said.
St. James, with 3,076 congregants, and Longport's Epiphany, which has 620, will merge with the 2,464-member Blessed Sacrament in Margate. Blessed Sacrament's church will be the primary site for the congregation, while the others will be summer-only.
Ganiel said he was told that all the newly created parishes would be renamed and new pastors assigned.
Originally, Ganiel said, he had trepidation about the merger. But now he sees it as "an opportunity, a new beginning, a way that we can actually have a stronger church."
Some parishes, primarily in fast-developing mainland communities such as Galloway Township, are well prepared to receive new members.
The Rev. Michael J. Matveenko, pastor of the 10,000-member Church of the Assumption in Galloway, said that when the parish school recently moved six miles from its previous location, it opened in a building designed to accommodate projected growth. Assumption's new sanctuary, under construction, also will be larger than the current one.
Under the reorganization, in addition to taking students from the St. Nicholas parish school in Egg Harbor City - closed by the diocese last year because of shrinking enrollment - Assumption will welcome St. Nicholas' 2,651 church members when the church opens its doors next year.
In neighboring Egg Harbor Township - where the diocese created a parish, St. Katharine Drexel, in 2000 - parishioners said yesterday they were thrilled to have another church merge with theirs.
The 4,750 members of St. Vincent DePaul parish in Mays Landing and the 655-member St. Bernard Mission in Dorothy will merge with St. Katharine, which is operating out of a Parish Life Center while a church is constructed. St. Vincent and St. Bernard will retain their churches until St. Katharine's sanctuary is built.
"I see it as a windfall for us," said Kathy Turner, one of St. Katharine's 3,703 members.
"I feel bad for the members of the two churches that are closing, but I think this means we can all come together to worship and have a really wonderful parish together," she said. "It will be a new beginning for all of us.
Contact staff writer Jacqueline L. Urgo at 609-823-9629 or jurgo@phillynews.com.
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