The people of St. Thomas will be delivering a letter this week to Bishop Clark requesting that he revoke his decree where he calls for the dissolution of the five Irondequout Pastoral Planning Group parishes. The closure of St. Thomas and St. Salome were also insinuated in the letter, though never specifically mentioned.
The people are seeking the revocation of the decree per Canon 1734 in the Code of Canon Law.
Please continue to offer prayers as the effort to save St. Thomas enters the next phase.
Tags: Bishop Clark, Church Closings, IPPG, News and Media
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GO STA!…….may she long be remembered in the history of the DoR.
YEs!! You brave, determined, faithful people. I will be praying for your success.
It's about time someone challenges the closures in Rochester. I hope and pray this may be the beginning of turning these horrible decesions around.
I would like to have a conversation with Bishop Clark and ask him why he prefers to fight with his parishioners, rather than work with them.
Bishop Clark closed 50 Catholic schools and about 30 parishes. Every closing angered the parishioners beyond belief. You just didn't hear about it.
Bishop Clark caused tens of thousands of local Catholics to stop coming to Sunday Mass.
If you get a chance, read this article in the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100604/NEWS01/6040332/1003/Ryan-Community-Center-group-plans-funeral-to-bury-violence
The inner city neighborhoods of Rochester need the Catholic Church presence now, more than ever before. The Catholic parish ministry is a very large and important part of the neighborhood fabric.
Don't be fooled if you live in the suburbs that surround the City of Rochester. The crime wave of robbery, burglary and assault is spreading like a wild fire, as documented in the recent news reports.
Closing a Catholic parish in the suburbs will also have the same negative effect on the local neighborhood as we are now witnessing in the inner city areas of Rochester. It is just a matter of time.
From the reading for today from 2 Timothy:
"You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
This reading suggests the need for re-evangelization and re-catechesis of which our pope often speaks. We need this in the DOR and it could take a generation or more.
It may be time to start taking the long view. While things could be far worse, they may get worse before they get better.