N.Y. Archdiocese to
Shut 21 Parishes
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Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Cardinal
Edward M. Egan, left, and Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan during their
press conference on parish closings today. |
By MICHAEL LUO,
NYTimes on the Web, January 19, 2007
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New
York announced today that it is closing 21 parishes as part of a far-reaching
reorganization plan, bringing to an end a decision-making process that has
dragged on for more than five years and trapped many parishioners in
uncertainty.
Ten of the parishes will be closed completely and parishioners obliged to go
elsewhere. Of the other 11, some will establish new chapels to serve the
community, and others will become missions attached to other parishes. But
that would mean they would lose many services, like having a priest on site.
Mary Help of Christians in Manhattan and St. Mary in the Bronx are among those
that will be closed, according to the list issued today. Nine parishes and
six missions originally recommended to be closed or to be merged with other
parishes will retain their current status. These include St. Rita of
Cascia parish in the Bronx, Guardian Angel parish in Manhattan, Saint Benedict
the Moor mission in Manhattan and Blessed Sacrament mission in Orange County.
“The process was complicated,” Cardinal Edward M. Egan said at a news conference
to announce the changes. “It could have been simplified. We could
simply have gotten the numbers — how many people are in the parish, how many
come to Mass on Sunday, how many baptisms there are, how many weddings, how many
funerals and all of that — sat down and, studying the calculations, drawn
conclusions.
“But we didn’t do it that way,” he said. “We sought an in-depth
understanding of what our people needed and we achieved that understanding by
visits, by consultations with experts and above all by conversations with
everyone concerned.”
Bishop Dennis Sullivan, the co-vicar general of the archdiocese, said no church
properties would be sold off.
“There will be no massive closings, no abandoning nor selling of properties,” he
said. “Yes, there will be changes and these changes will be felt in the
parishes that are affected. But the new parishes that emerge will quickly
be organized so that our people will experience Christ in their new spiritual
home.”
One priest who spoke of the changes on Thursday characterized the final list as
much less draconian than had been feared by many across the archdiocese, which
stretches from Staten Island to the Catskills. He said that Cardinal Egan
appeared to have backed away from taking drastic steps to address the problems
that spurred the reorganization, including a shrinking corps of priests and
demographic changes that had left many parishes struggling to fill pews while
others overflowed.
The other parishes to be closed completely are Our Lady Queen of Angels in
Manhattan; St. John the Baptist de LaSalle in Staten Island; Our Lady of the
Rosary and St. Margaret of Hungary, both in Yonkers; St. Stanislaus in Hastings;
Holy Cross in Sleepy Hollow; Most Sacred Heart in Port Jervis; and St. John the
Baptist in Poughkeepsie.
The complete list of parishes to be closed or merged are on the archdiocese’s
website at
ny-archdiocese.org.
The news was disappointing to many parishioners throughout the archdiocese.
At Mary Help of Christians, some members vowed to fight the decision to close
their parish.
“There will be battles,” said Josephine Gaglio, who was been a parishioner for
20 years. “We will do whatever we have to do.
“They ripped our hearts out because it’s so unjust,” she said. “This is
not a failing church. It’s an active church.”
The pastors of the affected parishes were notified during a meeting on Wednesday
with Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, the archdiocese’s vicar general, who has been
overseeing the reorganization process since early 2005.
The pastors were asked to keep the decisions secret until the official
announcement today during a news conference at Cathedral Girls High School in
Manhattan.
Msgr. Gerald Murray, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, said on Thursday that he
was grateful the announcement was finally coming.
“We welcome the announcement because January marks five years since our parish
was first contacted about being subject to possible closure,” he said.
“It’s been five years that we’ve been waiting.”
Several parishioners appeared surprised on Thursday that the process was
actually coming to an end.
“I thought it was a long-drawn-out process that was never going to conclude,”
said Chuck Van Buren, a parishioner at Nativity Church in Manhattan, which was
on the preliminary list.
The reorganization, which will include the creation of several new parishes and
the construction of new church buildings in some areas, has long been a delicate
task for archdiocesan officials.
Churchgoers are fiercely protective of their parishes, often forming attachments
that endure for generations. Many of these churches have also been
stalwarts in their neighborhoods for decades. Similar overhauls in other
dioceses around the country have resulted in ugly public battles between
parishioners and church officials, something archdiocesan officials hope to
avoid in New York.
Cardinal Egan originally intended to plunge into the redrawing of parish lines
soon after he became archbishop in 2000, but the scandal over sexual abuse by
priests made him put it off.
Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell was initially put in charge of “realignment,” as it
came to be called by archdiocesan officials, but he left to become the bishop of
Springfield, Mass., in April 2004, leading to another long delay.
The process got started again in earnest in early 2005, when Bishop Sullivan
took over. Cardinal Egan indicated then that the reorganization would be
completed by September 2005. But a preliminary list of recommendations for
31 parishes and 14 schools to be closed was not released until March 2006.
After hearing appeals from school officials and parents, archdiocesan officials
reduced the list of school closings in April to nine, and then turned to the
parishes.
Many endangered parishes were vocal in fighting back, holding vigils and
enlisting the help of politicians and the surrounding community. The
parish appeal meetings, often emotional, were wrapped up by midsummer.
In August, Bishop Sullivan presented his recommendations to the archdiocese
priests’ council, and an announcement appeared imminent at that point. But
Cardinal Egan’s knee operation in the fall further delayed the process.
Meanwhile, parishioners did their best to divine their future. At St.
Augustine’s in the Bronx, parishioners were heartened in recent weeks when
scaffolding went up for repairs to the interior of their church, suggesting that
the archdiocese would not take the time to fix up their building if it was going
to be closed.
“Some people said, ‘Wow, that’s really good,’ “ said Claire Harris, a
parishioner.
Today’s announcement confirmed that St. Augustine’s will be spared, with no
change in its status.
Maria Newman contributed reporting.
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