BishopAccountability.org
	They Want Church Back By Lynn Olanoff The Express-Times August 11, 2008 http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1218427579243370.xml&coll=3 BETHLEHEM | St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church has been closed for almost a month, but some parishioners of the former South Side parish haven't given up on it. They've appealed the church's closing to the Vatican and have raised questions about the closing process to Diocese of Allentown officials. St. Joseph's should have been the South Side church to remain open -- not one of the four closed -- considering the diocese's parish merger criteria, the parishioners say. The criteria give weight to a church's size, physical condition, handicapped accessibility and parking. According to St. Joseph's parishioners, their parish is superior in all four of those areas to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the South Side church chosen to be the shared parish for the four closed churches. Our Lady of Pompeii, St. John Capistrano, and St. Stanislaus also celebrated their final Masses on July 13. St. Joseph's has two large parking lots, an entry ramp and is larger and in better condition than Sts. Cyril and Methodius, said Stephen Antalics, a leader among the St. Joseph's parishioners trying to keep the church open. Sts. Cyril and Methodius is not handicapped accessible and has limited parking, Antalics said. "The building criteria was completely ignored. St. Cyril failed four of the seven that were the most important," Antalics said. "It defies the logic of an intelligent person." The church closings were recommended by a group of priests and parishioners from the five affected churches along with three other South Side parishes, diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said. "To locate the new parish at Sts. Cyril and Methodius was a local decision," he said. One of the pluses for keeping Sts. Cyril and Methodius is the Pierce Street parish has a convent, rectory and school in addition to the church, Kerr said. There are plans in the works to make Sts. Cyril and Methodius handicapped accessible and to provide more parking, diocese officials said. Since the five parishes combined, Sts. Cyril and Methodius is now known as Incarnation of Our Lord. Some non-parishioners also said St. Joseph's should have been kept open over Sts. Cyril and Methodius. "St. Joe's has parking and handicapped accessibility, both of which Sts. Cyril and Methodius doesn't have," city Councilwoman Jean Belinski said. "St. Cyril's is not the best location. (St. Joseph's) is the best, the most ideal one." Belinski is working to create a city ordinance to preserve the four closed churches as historic structures. She and city officials have a meeting about it today. Joan Campion, founder of the South Bethlehem Historical Society, said she also agreed St. Joseph's should have been kept open. "If you were traveling in Europe and you saw this church, you would stop and want to get pictures of it," she said. "I'm just horrified. I guess there was no way to avoid something like this sometime. It's like (Bethlehem) Steel, you knew something was going to happen but not in our lifetime." Campion and others said they fear for the closed churches' futures considering their close proximity to Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem. Joseph Fuisz, another St. Joseph's parishioner fighting for its reopening, said he and other parishioners have been disappointed with the diocese's referral to the closed churches as financial assets. "The idea they could be sold for money doesn't go down well," he said. "The parishioners are the children and increasingly the grandchildren (of those) who built these churches. For these people, these churches are as sacred as St. Peter himself." Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 610-867-5000 or by e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.