Posted on 12/08/2006 6:22:38 AM PST by NYer
INDIAN ORCHARD, Mass. (CNS) -- It will still be a house of worship. That's something that was important to Lokman Yanbul and Catholic parishioners regarding the former St. Matthew Church in Indian Orchard. The 142-year-old colonial church and the rectory next door were sold for $150,000 in October to the Turkish-American Islamic Society Inc., which plans to convert the church into a mosque. Needed renovations are expected to be completed within a year.
"We did this for the children," said Yanbul, referring to why the local Turkish-American community felt the need to have its own mosque. "We want them to (be able to) continue their cultural and religious heritage."
Yanbul is married and has three children. He has lived in the United States for 29 years, immigrating to Brooklyn, N.Y., with his family as a teenager. He has been a resident of Ludlow, near Indian Orchard, for the last seven years.
Aside from worshipping in the Turkish language, Yanbul said their community's liturgy is culturally different from those offered in other area mosques. He said the Turkish-American society is currently made up of about 80 families.
"Basically, what the community is doing is (forming) what I like to compare to an ethnic parish in Catholicism, a Turkish-speaking mosque, and we're very pleased to welcome them here," said St. Jude's pastor, Father William Pomerleau.
St. Jude Parish was formed in 1998, when St. Matthew and St. Aloysius parishes were merged. Father Pomerleau is also a staff reporter for the Catholic Communications Corp., which publishes The Catholic Observer, newspaper of the Springfield Diocese.
"The parish leadership is very thrilled that it will continue to be a house of worship," said Father Pomerleau. Parishioners -- many of whom are former St. Matthew parishioners -- are also happy with the arrangement.
The property had been offered for sale for more than a year. The proceeds from the sale went to St. Jude Parish. According to Father Pomerleau, the funds were used to continue parish operations and to satisfy obligations to the diocese.
When asked if he was concerned about a negative community reaction to a mosque in the neighborhood, especially in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world, Yanbul said both St. Jude parishioners and the community at large have welcomed them. He said he has not personally seen any animosity toward Muslims and there has been a great response from both the Muslim and the Catholic communities.
Father Pomerleau said Catholic parishes and dioceses, when selling former worship spaces, need to be very careful about the future use of the facilities. "I think we would have had ... opposition had it been (sold to) a certain kind of business."
St. Matthew Church, built in 1864, has been dormant for more than five years and the rectory for more than eight. Irish immigrants, most of whom worked in the mills in Indian Orchard and Ludlow, established St. Matthew Parish in 1878.
The fact that Turkish immigrants will worship in a building where Irish immigrants did before them is not lost on Yanbul or Father Pomerleau. "What's happening here is not a new story; it's a story that's been going on for 100-150 years," said the priest.
At a time when the eyes of the world are upon Catholic-Muslim relations, with Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Turkey, developments in Indian Orchard could be seen as a microcosm of the global situation.
Yanbul said he feels "we definitely need better Christian-Muslim relations." He said the Turkish community is made up of moderate Muslims. "The Turkish don't know what hard-line is," Yanbul said.
Father Pomerleau said the mosque would likely not only serve a small but growing number of Turkish-Americans but also Meshkitian Turks, who number about 300. They are refugees from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and began settling in the area a year ago.
Father Pomerleau said he thinks having the Muslim community so close to St. Jude Parish will help parishioners.
"We at St. Jude's are going to take this opportunity to talk about the Islamic faith, to talk about Turkish culture and to use it as an example of our multicultural world," he said. "I think it's going to be very exciting."
I totally agree.
It is a blind ideology with a single mindedness that does not allow for the ability to see the truth.
>> (Clinton "tried", 3000 died)
Perot divided, Clinton "tried", 3000 died.
>> Talk about "My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!"
I think God is fully capable of attending to His real estate. That said, I'm surprised the lead up to the transaction went unnoticed.
**Former Massachusetts Catholic church sold, slated to become a mosque **
Really a sad commentary on the state of affairs in MA.
Excelelent answers and explanations.
Excellent answers and explanations.
So you use the term incorrectly.
Do some research and see what the volumes of feminist "scholarship" entail.
This statement is uncalled-for. Feminism is a pernicious ideology, but feminists are simply people misled by an error. "People misled by some error" is a category big enough to include pret'near everybody, at least at some point in our lives.
I was mercifully drawn away from feminism by people who had a much more inviting and constructive attitude than yours. People who shared a wider view, not people who wished me dead.
Feminism is a misnomer for its supposed adherents since they wanted to become men themselves instead of fighting for equality between men and women. If you define feminists in the context of equality instead of resentment towards others, then you're welcome.
Feminism is an amorphous, internally contradictory structure of ideas, some of them sensible and constructive, and some fatally misshapen. To the extent that the whole edifice is built over a sewer of babies' blood, even the fairer stairways and balconies of the "building" have to be decontaminated before they can be considered usable.
I don't want any feminists dead, though. I just want to get them out of that doomed building.
Don't forget, shootin's too good for 'em. (#19). ;)
Sometimes there's a spate of free-floating malice that shows up in FReep city. For my mental health, I have to assume that most people don't wholeheartedly mean the surly things they say.
I am not a catholic, but I'd kick in rather than see a venerable church defiled.
Oh, they mean it; they only have the guts to say what they mean anonymously, on the computer. :)
So, these local priests are happy that their church s going to be used to workship the moon-god?
>>they only have the guts to say what they mean anonymously, on the computer. :)
Oh Really? That's an interesting assumption.
How many Freepers have you actually met in person to verify this?
I wouldn't imagine they are shouting with joy but they really have no say in the matter. I tend to agree with Wagglebee. The parishioners should have collected the monies necessary to purchase the Church and then burned it to the ground.
A similar incident occured in Russia, in 2003.
From the Daily Telegraph
MOSCOW — The Russian Orthodox Church has demolished a chapel where a priest conducted a "marriage" ceremony between two men.
The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was torn down apparently after local churchmen decided it had been defiled.
The "marriage" of Denis Gogolyev and Mikhail Morozev in Nizhny Novgorod scandalized the Orthodox Church and created outrage among ordinary Russians.
The priest, the Rev. Vladimir Enert, was defrocked after the men said they paid him a $450 bribe to ignore a ban of same-sex "marriages."
A spokesman for the Orthodox Church said the chapel had to go, as it had been desecrated. Some local officials said it was due for demolition to make way for a new, larger church, though this would not open until 2005.
A spokesman for the Nizhny Novgorod Patriarchate told the Daily Telegraph, "The chapel was dismantled because it is no longer needed."
But he conceded that the homosexual "marriage" ceremony may have "sped up the process."
Just curious. How has the Orthodox Church dealt with Church closings?
"We at St. Jude's are going to take this opportunity to talk about the Islamic faith, to talk about Turkish culture and to use it as an example of our multicultural world," he said. "I think it's going to be very exciting.""
I am dumbfounded! I simply don't know what to say.
"Just curious. How has the Orthodox Church dealt with Church closings?"
We've had two closings of old churches in my state, both replaced by newer, larger temples. In the first instance, about 30 years ago, the building was sold to some sort of Baptists who still are there. In the second, about 8 years ago, the temple was sold to a large group of Serbian immigrants for a Serbian Orthodox church.
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