Here are a few questions that should be asked before anything happens with the Irondequoit parishes dissolving to become a single unified parish:
1. If STA ceases to exist as a parish, what will happen to the Msgr. Burns trust fund of $500,000 and the $150,000+ recently left to St. Thomas the Apostle by a deceased parishioner? Does this money become property of the new IPPG parish? If so, how will these funds be allocated?
2. Does this have any adverse effect on St. Thomas’ ability to defend their right to exist, since STA as a parish will no longer exist?
3. Might this be a backdoor tactic to close St. Thomas and St. Salome? The decree in the previous post did not mention any closure. Could closure be accomplished easier if the various parishes lose their individual identities?
4. What will happen to the Basilian presence at Christ the King? CTK will cease to exist as a parish as a result of this decree. Does this mean the Basilians will no longer be staffing the church building?
5. Will collections be pooled for the new parish? How will collection money be allocated to each parish? How will it be decided how much each church is expected to contribute to the total parish collection?
6. If collections are pooled, what happens when one church operates in the red (i.e- St. Cecilia, which currently is in massive debt). Are other parishes (i.e- St. Salome and St. Thomas) going to be shut down because the unified parish can’t afford to keep all the church buildings open? Basically, who is going to have to pay when a church building is not bringing in enough money to meet their own expenses?
Tags: Church Closings, IPPG
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All of these questions are answered easily if we recognize that all five parishes have been "closed" and one new parish has been "opened". That new parish will be led by one pastor, have one finance committee which is required by canon law and one parish council which I think is required by diocesan law. All of the financial holdings from the five former parishes will be pooled and the new administration will have to decide how to dole out the funds to take care of the buildings, whether one, two or even three or four of the sites are shut down and sold. He may even recommend that all of the sites are shut and a new one built. Whether the CSB's stay and staff the new parish or not is up to the order and Bishop Clark.
We found out this morning about the fate of STA and SS. It will be posted soon by Gen.
~Dr. K
My understanding from Tanck's statement this morning before Mass is that he will be the pastor of the new parish with Fr. Leone and Fr. Horan assisting.
That is correct.
The Courier just posted on this here:
http://www.catholiccourier.com/cc/index.cfm/news/local-news/bishop-approves-consolidation-plan-for-irondequoit/
It appears to agree with everything we have posted so far.
~Dr. K
How deceptive! Parishioners of SMM, SC, and CTK will have their same church, same staff, and same priests and pastor. On the surface, nothing will change for them. However, in reality they are being stripped of their most valuable asset, their canonical rights as a parish and their right to exist as such. They are fools to think they won't be next. They look with pity on STA and SS but do nothing. What fools thou art!