Posted on 11/05/2005 3:05:58 PM PST by solitas
(highlighting mine)
[subtitle:] Worshipers 'floored' by armed escort from building.
BRIDGEPORT — For months, parishioners of Holy Trinity Church prayed they were beating the odds. They held potluck suppers. They hosted bazaars and tag sales.
In short, they raised lots of money — enough, they hoped, to keep their struggling Black Rock parish alive.
But worshipers at what is believed to be the oldest Hungarian Byzantine parish on the East Coast said they were devastated by the announcement last Sunday that the church was closing. But what happened next, they said, was unconscionable.
Moments after the announcement was made, armed guards emerged from the sacristies to escort worshipers from their spiritual home.
When she saw the guards, "I felt like I was in a Communist country," said JoAnn Manzo, one of the startled parishioners.
The church closing was revealed when the Rev. George Malitz, the pastor at Holy Trinity and St. John the Baptist in Trumbull, said at the end of the weekly liturgy that he had two announcements.
The first was routine; the second was a letter from the head of their diocese — Eparchy of Passaic Bishop Andrew Pataki — advising the congregation of the immediate shutdown.
"There was a lot of chaos," said Matthew Boucher, a lifelong parishioner, who immediately got up to retrieve his offering and return those of others. "Two armed guards appeared and escorted us out of the church."
Despite their fund-raising efforts, the few parishioners — some three dozen families were registered with the parish — said they were not surprised about the closing. But they were stunned and horrified by the way the news was broken.
"The 'now' of it just floored us," Boucher said.
Boucher estimated the average age of recent worshipers at the church at between 55 and 60 — many who own houses near the Scofield Avenue building, including many who don't drive.
A woman who answered the phone at the eparchy's office and declined to give her name Thursday said that neither the bishop nor a representative would be available.
"The matter has already been addressed and there's no comment," she said. She then hung up the phone.
Malitz did not return messages left at St. John.
Although they are under the authority of the pope, Byzantine Catholics are among several distinct ethnic divisions in the church, and have their own ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Byzantine Catholics have roots in Eastern European nations, and their liturgy is much like that of Orthodox churches, which don't recognize Rome's authority.
Though the existing sanctuary was erected in 1955, Holy Trinity dates to 1896, when Hungarian immigrants were pouring into the city.
Despite its Hungarian liturgy, however, Holy Trinity attracted some parishioners from other backgrounds who took advantage of its proximity to their homes or enjoyed its unusual character.
"Roman Catholic churches are very big," said Manzo, who worshipped at Holy Trinity for 45 years. "This was more of a family."
Parishioners said they had heard of financial troubles for two years or more. But they said fund-raising went into high gear last March, when Malitz announced there were thousands of dollars worth of bills and insufficient funds to meet them.
Boucher said one congregant promptly wrote out a $5,000 check to cover the bills, but the parishioners were not allowed to see those or any subsequent ones.
Parishioners said their wishes to rein in costs, such as by keeping the heat at 55 degrees, were ignored, and that the eparchy and Malitz rebuffed their efforts to review the financial situation.
"This didn't have to happen," Christopher Gombos of Fairfield, another lifelong parishioner, said of the closing. "It happened because they wanted it to occur, like a show of power."
Parishioners now have to figure out where — or if — they will regularly attend church. Though St. John follows the Eastern liturgy, its background is Slavic, and the worshipers there don't sing the familiar hymns in Hungarian that were a special feature at Holy Trinity.
Manzo has registered at St. Ann's, a traditional Roman Catholic Church in Black Rock, but others may not find new spiritual homes so easily.
Gombos, for one, said his disillusionment with the way the Holy Trinity closing was handled, coupled with the latest reports of priestly sexual misconduct in the Archdiocese of Hartford, has soured him on Rome, and he suggested he may opt to worship with the Orthodox Christian Church.
"I'll never belong to a parish where we don't have any control," he vowed.
Susan Silvers, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6426.
http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_3185955
Get a life people! There are too many churches in decaying urban areas who's members for the most part fled to suburbia. Close the Churches where there are not many parishioners, and open ones where the population is growing.
I know the area. It is NOT a 'decaying urban area' - it is residential with a lot of local people WALKING to their neighborhood church. Read the article: they've even been trying to pay their own bills until the gangsters stopped them from doing so.
Coming from New York, where you have Catholic Churches practically every other block, most (though not all) of which are nearly empty on Sunday, these Parishes are remnents of late 19th/early 20th century European immigration, and have no relevence for what is now a largely suburban Church.
ping
The whole thing sounds so .... so ...Byzantine.
OK, back to my corner.
Awright, now I know you're an ass. No more discussion with you.
The only places in the NE worse than Bridgeport are Camden and Paterson in New Jersey.
Sorry, solitas... I meant to ping the CT list here when you pinged me. (Got lost in the shuffle) Thanks for the heads up, I'll do it now...
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.