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	Catholics Begin 50-Mile Journey By Stephanie Lasota Republican & Herald May 4, 2008 http://www.republicanherald.com/articles/2008/05/04/news/local_news/doc481d7f67ee6c2477226482.txt MIDDLEPORT — Local Catholics said Saturday the impending closure of several county parishes is due to corruption in the church, including the sexual abuse scandal and a passive attitude toward abortions. About 14 Catholics met at 7 a.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church on Washington Street at the start of a 50-mile walk to the Diocese of Allentown office. With the walk, they said, they hope to persuade the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, diocese bishop, to keep churches open in Schuylkill County. In April 2007, the diocese released a timeline for planning consolidations, restructuring Catholic parishes and recommending to Cullen which parishes to close. The restructuring must be completed by June 2009, but some churches may know their fate as early as this summer, according to some protesters. They said they would take turns walking different sections of the journey and arrive in Allentown in front of Cullen's office about 10 a.m. Monday. The 14 Catholics gathered Saturday said the shutdowns could destroy faith in the coal region. "What's going to happen is some of the older people who don't have a church near their home won't go. Or they'll go to other churches," Steve Babinchak, a member of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Mahanoy City, said. Theresa Fenedick of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, Diener's Hill, said the closures threaten the faith of the young and old. "I heard one young person walking behind me once say, 'If this Church closes, I am finished,' " she said. "I believe the Blessed Mother will help us because we have a devotion to her," Gloria Ann Heiser of Annunciation BVM Roman Catholic Church, Frackville, said. Babinchak and Joseph Kubick, a member of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church, Frackville, said church leadership should be doing more to prevent the shutdowns. Kubick carried a sign reading, "Bishop Cullen 'close' abortion clinics, not churches." "They'll come out once a month and picket for one hour," he said. "They should be there 100 hours ... The Christian must defend life." His son, Nathaniel Kubick, 20, of St. Ann church, draped a canvas of Our Lady of Good Success over his body Saturday and began the pilgrimage over Hawk Mountain with his father following behind. Other protestors said their health was too poor to take the trek, or they had to work. Babinchak said Our Lady of Good Success appeared to a nun in Quito, Ecuador, in the 16th century, who later prophesied a crisis would unfold in the church in the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the protestors Saturday, Lee Gordon-Asch, Seltzer City, is not a Catholic but felt moved to help. "I feel this is wrong. There are people who have been going to churches all their life. It will hurt people," she said. "People need places to worship." Babinchak said Cullen indicated that 30 to 34 churches in the diocese could close. He said only one McAdoo church may remain open, four Minersville parishes may consolidate and Mary Queen of Peace Church, Pottsville, will also close. Protesters said the potential consolidations will cause parking and overcrowding trouble. Protesters also said the closures were due to a lack of priests. The diocese has one priest for every 2,400 parishioners, and the ratio is smaller in Schuylkill County. Some protesters held signs reading "Bishop Cullen, Be Obedient to the Pope." "The Pope told us there are plenty of missionary priests available in Poland and Africa and all the church has to do is ask for them," Babinchak said. The protest comes soon after Pope Benedict XVI's April visit to the United States, during which he addressed the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the church. Some protestors expressed the belief that money saved from closing churches is going toward legal fees the church needs to fight or settle abuse lawsuits not only in the United States, but in several other countries as well. The Allentown Diocese was formed in 1961 when Pope John XXIII signed a document separating the counties of Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, according to its Web site, www.allentowndiocese.org. There are 153 parishes in the diocese, with almost 269,000 practicing Catholics, according to the Web site. Contact: slasota@republicanherald.com
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