Free Republic

Bishop Joseph Galante has announced parish reconfiguration plans for the Camden Diocese. Atlantic County In Atlantic City, Our Lady Star of Sea, St. Michael and St. Monica will remain open and operate under care of team of priests. St. Nicholas of Tolentine will stand alone for hospitality workers and visitors. On the rest of Absecon Island, Blessed Sacrament in Margate, St. James in Ventnor and Epiphany in Longport will merge and worship at Blessed Sacrament. Summer worship will continue in the Longport and Ventnor churches. St. Bernadette in Northfield and St. Peter in Pleasantville will merge with worship at St....

Even some of today’s harshest critics of the archdiocese in Boston admit that reconfiguration is necessary in a climate of declining attendance, financial hardship, deteriorating structures and limited priest availability. The archdiocese’s stated mission of merging and reconfiguring its parish network is based on the making the surviving parishes stronger, reducing the number of parishes requiring subsidies and avoiding expensive maintenance and renovation of underutilized, physically declining buildings. This is to be accomplished, according to the archdiocese, without sacrificing the true mission of the Catholic Church – providing sacraments to its parishioners, caring for and tending to the disadvantaged and...