Gloucester County Times
Church seeks merger details
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By John Barna
http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-2/1179807936320020.xml&coll=8
James Straub left church Sunday morning with a letter indicating that his parish might merge with two others in the Diocese of Camden.
Straub read the letter a second time on Monday, seeking an answer to the future of St. Matthew's Parish in National Park.
He found none.
"They have not given us any clear indication," said Straub, referring to the strength of the merger recommendation.
A proposal to merge St. Matthew's with St. Patrick's of Woodbury and Most Holy Redeemer of Deptford Township is one of several such plans the diocese is reviewing, acknowledged Andrew Walton, director of communications for the 124-parish diocese.
Broken into 30 planning groups, representatives from the parishes have met to discuss the potential for reconfiguration taking into account a population shift toward lower Gloucester County and outside Atlantic City, a projected 50 percent reduction by 2015 in the 171 priests currently serving the diocese, and a "life-long faith formation" plan that Walton suggested some parishes would "struggle" to be able to fulfill financially.
Preliminary recommendations from the planning groups were disclosed at masses last weekend.
Walton said the diocese was not able to disclose Monday a parish-by-parish overview of those recommendations.
"We need an opportunity to go through these," he said, noting that several proposals arrived at the diocese's Camden offices as late as Friday.
Locally, two merger plans were confirmed.
In addition to the merger of St. Patrick's, St. Matthew's and Most Holy Redeemer, St. Catherine of Siena in Clayton and Church of the Nativity in Franklin Township would combine and form a new parish, church officials confirmed.
Under a merger, there would be one pastor and the combined assets and liabilities would be merged. Beyond that, the new parish could build a new church or utilize the buildings from the merged entities.
Walton said that 40 percent of the recommendations before the diocese call for a merger. About 25 percent of the proposals call for maintaining one pastor per parish something the diocese has indicated is practical only in large parishes. Clustering having one pastor serve as administrator for several parishes, assigning a team of priests to several parishes, or having a parish administrator who is not a priest were recommended by the committees.
Closing a small church such as St. Matthew's "would be a blow," Straub said in a community such as National Park.
"This is a close-knit community. Everybody knows each other. They like the idea of having their own little niche, their own place to go."
Straub acknowledged that the "diocese has been looking to consolidate. There is no secret to that."
"I am hoping we can figure a way to keep the parish open."
Earlier this year, the diocese announced plans to merge elementary schools operated by St. Matthew's, St. Patrick's and Holy Redeemer. The existing Most Holy Redeemer school would be renamed Holy Trinity by the fall.
Walton said the recommendations announced during the weekend were to be reviewed and, in many cases, returned to the committees that arrived at the conclusions for additional data and possible changes.
Bishop Joseph Galante is expected to announce a plan in February for the diocese.