Saving St. Mary’s

The Catholic Watchdog has been keeping an eye on recent developments in the Diocese of Camden. Via a comment left on the blog, we’ve discovered a fantastic website devoted to St. Mary’s Church in Malaga, New Jersey. Parishioners there are working hard to save their beloved church from closure. There are a lot of “St. Mary’s” in the Diocese of Scranton, both literally and figuratively. We need to offer our prayers and support to the people of Camden who are undergoing the same struggles we are about to face.

Renewal of Catholic Education?

The Diocese of Scranton announced today that Holy Cross High School, with campuses in Dunmore and Scranton, will consolidate into one location for the 2008-2009 school year. The Scranton campus will be closed and all classes will be moved to the Dunmore campus. “Consolidation at one campus is a necessary step to develop a cohesive, unified educational environment for our students,” said Joseph Casciano, diocesan Superintendent of Schools. Holy Cross High School is completing its inaugural year as a merger of the former Bishop Hannan and Bishop O’Hara High Schools. With the closure of the Scranton campus, the seat of the diocese will be without a diocesan Catholic high school. The press release also noted that while the current enrollment at Holy Cross is 560, only 400 students are expected to enroll for the 2008-2009 school.

SDACT: Efforts underway to amend state labor law [UPDATED]

Today’s announcement from the SDACT is is a welcome development in the SDACT’s struggle for justice and dignity. State Representative Eddie Day Pashinski announced today that he is sponsoring legislation that would give Catholic teachers the legal right to choose labor union representation. “We’re trying to make 2008 a year who’s time has come,” Pashinski said. A co-sponsorship petition is currently being circulated in the state House of Representatives. Several others have already promised to sign, including Representative Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, who currently serves as chairman of the House Labor Committee.

Read more at the Times-Leader.

UPDATE – Official response from the Diocese of Scranton: The Diocese will undertake a review of this proposed legislation. The Diocese will have no comment at this time.

“Good news” to be announced today by the SDACT

The Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers will host a press conference today, Friday, May 23, at 3:15 PM outside Holy Redeemer High School in Wilkes-Barre. While the announcement has not yet been made public, the press release notes that a “major development” has taken place. According to SDACT president Michael Milz, “It’s a major development. There’s no question,” he said. “Good news? Absolutely.”

The Downsizing of Catholic America

More signs of profound renewal:

Whatever the explanation may be, as the parish closing process intensifies, it is fair to wonder how far it will go. Authoritative estimates from Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate indicate that from a current level of 19,000 parishes, eventually as many as 7,000 American parishes could be shut down by the diocesan bishops. This would amount to a 37% downsizing in the U.S., a country which today is second, after Brazil, in the ranking of the most numerous Catholic populations world-wide.

Read the entire article.

The “New Springtime” Myth

From the Courier Post:

Larger parishes will do a better job serving South Jersey’s half-million Catholics by attracting lay people to minister to the young, the elderly and families, Bishop Joseph Galante said Thursday.

The 69-year-old bishop said he hopes his plan to prune nearly half the parishes in the Camden Diocese will result in a “new springtime for our diocese.”

A new springtime? The mass closure of parishes, or in this case, half the Camden diocese, will certainly not result in renewal of any kind. These policies fail to address any of the root problems. They will not increase vocations, nor will they improve the quality of parish liturgies, educate priests, or inspire young people to become more active in the Church. Instead, they bring about hopelessness, anger and despair.

A Ray of Hope in Jersey City

From the New York Times:

JERSEY CITY — The Rev. Kevin Hanbury stood under the basket in the school gymnasium and uttered 10 words that would have seemed highly unlikely just weeks ago:

“Hudson Catholic Regional High School will be open in September,” Father Hanbury, the superintendent of schools for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, told an anxious crowd of about 300 students, parents and alumni on Wednesday night.

With enrollment decreasing and financial troubles, the Newark archdiocese announced last month that the 400 boys enrolled at Hudson Catholic would have to find a new school in the fall. The reaction was not unlike what happened this past year in the Diocese of Scranton. “First there was anger, then came the donations,” said Steve Dnistrian, a member of the alumni association. “I’ve not seen anything like it.” In 14 days, supporters raised $250,000 for the school with a promise to raise $1.5 million over the next three years.

The difference between the fate of Hudson Catholic and the four shuttered high schools in the Scranton Diocese is simply leadership. The archbishop and his superintendent of schools made a decision. The students, parents, and alumni came together with a workable plan and sizable amount of donations. The decision was changed. Archbishop Myers was not afraid to do the right thing. Being “the bishop who concedes” is not always a bad thing.

The Archdiocese of Newark certainly is not a model for school administration. According to the article, it has closed or merged forty schools in the last nine years. But this single example gives one just a little bit of hope for the future. Things can change for the better. Let’s just pray that they do.

Tell your church choir director!

Not only is it the music prescribed by the Second Vatican Council, but now it’s been found that Gregorian chant can reduce stress and blood pressure.