The wave of closures in the Diocese of Rochester has entered phase two as suburban parishes are now being slated to shut down. The first round of church closings appear to be coming within the towns of Greece and Irondequoit, two lake-bordering communities which for years have been heavily populated by Roman Catholics.
Mike over at DoR Catholic reports that within the town of Greece, Our Lady of Mercy, located at 36 Armstrong Rd., has received the recommendation of the Eastern Greece/Charlotte Steering Committee for closure. Holy Name of Jesus, located on Bonesteel St., is recommended to remain open for at least one more year. According to the committee, neither parish has long term financial viability. Both parishes are under the leadership of Fr. John Gagnier, though they are not considered to be officially clustered.
R News has put up an article stating that the closure of two Irondequoit parishes will be recommended to Bishop Matthew Clark. The parishes are St. Salome, located at 4282 Culver Rd. and St. Thomas the Apostle, situated at 4486 St. Paul Blvd. These two parishes are presently clustered with Christ the King, and are under the leadership of Fr. Norman Tanck. The recommendation is for these parishes to be closed by the end of the year. For the record, St. Thomas the Apostle is the one and only parish within the Diocese of Rochester which uses the Communion rail during the distribution of Communion in a Novus Ordo liturgy.
Once more, clustering has led to the closing of churches. Wasn’t this process supposed to make these parishes stronger and more viable?
Update 7.12.09: Eugene over at Rochester Catholic has put up a piece on this story with many great insights that most of us are probably unaware of viewing this situation from the outside. It is worth your time to check out this article.
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At least the parishes that close will not have had to suffer under the yoke of lay administration and leadership.
How sad for the members of these parishes. There's always a home for them downtown at Our Lady of Victory, especially for the people of St. Thomas.
With the upcoming loss of St. Thomas, and the continuing destruction of St. Anne by liberals, the DoR is now left with only two traditional parishes: Our Lady of Victory and St. Stanislaus.
Mission accomplished, Bishop Clark?
If the diocese closes St. Thomas they will have to disinter the remains of Monsignor Burns who is buried on the grounds, facing St. Paul Boulevard. That is if they can stop his body from "spinning in his grave".
I believe Fr. Antinarelli once served at St. Thomas the Apostles. I can't imagine that he will be thrilled with this news.
~Dr. K
*Apostle
One minor point of correction: Holy Name of Jesus and Our Lady of Mercy parishes are not officially clustered.
True, they share the services of the same pastor, DRE, maintenance man and, I believe, one other staffer, but they each have their own PAs and office staff and are considered separate parishes by DOR.
I guess one could say they are as close to being clustered as two parishes can get without actually being in that relationship.
Thanks, I made the fix.
~Dr. K
Bishop Clark should show his face for once at a church closing.
Holy Name may be open for three years dependent upon their financial viability during that time. I don't believe they'll make it any longer than 1 year into this trial period, even if they are doing fine.
St. Anne has far less than the 500 parishioners that St. Thomas averages per week. St. Anne the past two weeks has had 447 and 392. That's not a good sign.