www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall church closure

Wow,
I thought that it was the other way around ,that
he wanted to extend his bishop status and the pope said no.Which way was it any more comments on this.?
Today , I called the bishops office foe the ukranian Byzantine , I was advise to write Archbishop Schlott and inform him of our Plite and hpw it was handeled by Bishop Pataki,
.Does any one know his policies on church closures? I was also ,I was advised you just can't change rites.
Whatr would it take to get a church excepted as a shrine?

Yes, there are men beating the door down to be ordained in the Byzantine Priesthood, and are single too. Its typical. The clergy aren't answering the door. Yes, I believe if I had won $1b in the lottery and told our Bishop I wanted to be a priest, I would be accepted right away.

i HEARD JUST THE OPPOSITE THAT tHE pOPE EXCEPTED HIS RETIREMENT AND THERE WOULD BE A NEW BISHOP IN SEPT, hAS ANY ONE ELSE HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT A NEW bISHOP? PLEASE COMMENT.

As for Bishop Andrew, I do not think a bishop formally submits his retirment until the time of his birthday.

I believe that Bishop Andrew's birth day is not until the end of August, beginning of September, so the Vatican has done nothing as of yet as they have not received the bishop's letter yet.

Lucy,

I'm sorry about the situation you are going through. Unfortunately, Bishop Pataki has every right to close a church - with or without prior notice. We don't have to like it, and certainly it could have been done with more regard for common courtesy, but he's the bishop, and he's in charge. (Believe me, I am not applauding the act or the manner in which you have been treated.)


As for changing rites - why? You can attend ANY Catholic church - for years & years & years if need be, without doing a canonical change of ritual church. If the Ukrainians or the Melkites in town are welcoming, GO! No need to "officially" switch, and it's not something that happens quickly anyway. Keep your soul fed, and pray while you wait for the dust to settle - or the other shoe to drop.

Best,

Sharon

Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

Well, I wanted to try to get another Bishop acquire our church from the Bishop. But it rent it of course with our finacial help.This little church has a lot of loving spirit in it. If you weent inside yiu feel it to.
I spoke to a freind Jackie . , who said to me that she can't handle it. Maybe the Bishop does havethe power to close or do what he wants with a church. That does't make it alright to crush so many people by doing it in this manner. Unfortunently we were disillussioned. A Bishop is supposed to represent Christ on earth. So that would make him a good and caring person. Wouldn't you think so?

Well, I wanted to try to get another Bishop acquire our church from the Bishop. Buy it rent it of course with our finacial help.This little church has a lot of loving spirit in it. If you weent inside yiu feel it to.
I spoke to a freind Jackie . , who said to me that she can't handle it. Maybe the Bishop does havethe power to close or do what he wants with a church. That does't make it alright to crush so many people by doing it in this manner. Unfortunently we were disillussioned. A Bishop is supposed to represent Christ on earth. So that would make him a good and caring person. Wouldn't you think so?

Lucy,
Your 'church' has a lot of spirit because it is made up of 30+ God-Loving Christians. It is difficult for all of you that your building has been taken for financial/personnel reasons, but a loss of a building does not mean a loss of that spirit that keeps you together.

You can still have vespers or pray in your homes together as a group. You can still socialize together and meet as you did before you acquired a building. You can still reach out to others and spread the Gospel message.

Continue to pray together as a group, and attend Liturgy or Mass at another church together. Who knows what will happen after August? "The family that prays together stays together." Don't give up hope.

I don't know why a priest would be "forbidden" to pray with you in your homes. Ask him to join you. Maybe he might just answer to a higher God. With everything going on these days in the Church, celebrating Liturgy should not be a punishable crime!

Bernedette, Thank you very much for your lovelly reply .I will try to get people tpo gather inn our homes of course. ASre you the person who sent me personnel message?
I just hope the bishop doesn"t sell our chuch before the end of Aug. Some of the treasures in that church are donated by people who have passed away, Harry Alex. They are irreplaceble. I'm affraid they mean Nothing special to the Bishop.

I empathize totally with the trauma of a parish closure. I had that happen to us within a small mission parish the OCA in the Bulgarian archdiocese. Our closure was not initiated by our bishop, but more from problems within. We were not able to support a priest or services sufficiently. We were a new mission parish and not well established, and about your size at the time of our closure. However, a number of us had put heart and soul into our mission for a few years, and had baptisms, chrismations, conversions and other memorable events. It took me quite a while to recover from it. However, I realized after a time that sometimes it is extremely difficult to sustain a small parish and God nay not will it (not to say that I really know God's will in your situation). I am in the OCA, but a major mentor(priest) of mine went back to the Byzantine Catholic Church of his youth recently from the OCA. I was just at a retreat at a Byzantine Catholic monastery. It is my conviction that you and your fellow parishioners' faith can be nourished in either an Orthodox OR Byzantine Catholic church, and often the most important element ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN is healthy parish life. I believe parish life transcends consideration of Orthodox/Catholic. As ordinary laypersons, we are not responsible for the difficulties of Catholic/Orthodox churches with each other. I see from Yahoo maps that Holy Cross in Medford (OCA)is twelve minutes away from you. From the OCA website, it looks like a good place (although I do not know it personally). My fourteen your old boy (who was seven at the time) suffered from our parish closure. It is really important for the sake of the "little ones" as you mention, to go forward and not look back at things you have no control over. Too bad there was not sufficient discussion before your parish closed and that it was not done in a better manner. Best wishes to you, and I hope all of you can stay together from your old parish.

Your right about how things effect children. I took my seven year old granddaughter somewhere else last sunday. On the whey home she said to me, "Mommom ,I 'm not going to church with you any more. Thats not my church.
As for me, I can't move on yet, because I don't have closure. This is not Gods will, he put that little church in the middle of the pines for a
special reason.
Until I exhaust my resources, i won't have closure.

Rose,

I am kind of in shock that a Catholic bishop has the right to close a church - with or without prior notice or consultation.

I think this one of the great faults of the Catholic Church (though not a theological issue). Alot of territory exists between this unilaterialism and absolute congregationalism.

I think this related to the sexual abuse scandal the Catholic bishops must share a great deal of responsibility. Why the fear of consultation on their part? I have to say, I have not posted anything on this so far because I believed that more likely than not, while the closing was unfortunate, it was likely needed. You have convince me that graves abuses exist in the Catholic means of addressing these matters.

Ypu have a very sad situation in the Catholic Church.

Thank you Lucy (and yes, that was me :-).
I just wanted to add that I hope wherever you and your fellow parishioners are attending right now, you will try to go to the same church to maintain some sense of community. I would personally look into that OCA church referenced in an earlier post.
As for exhausting resources, I can only think that Time is one of them, and Prayer is the most important. The objects have sentimental value, but they really can all be replaced.

How did your mission get its name "St. Jude"? Isn't he the patron saint of hopeless causes?

Keep praying,
Bernadette

Thank you again Bernadett about your encougement. I thank everone for ther advice, I have gotten a lot of ideas from you.I will certainly try to pull the group together. There has been a lot of churches closed , lately. I heard in we have a churchin Hilltown Pa. We have St Nicholas in Trenton, Nj was already sold , St Michaels in Mass. A Church in Brooklawn <NY was sold suddenly

Because the Paint factory down the steet offered
good money for the property. Another church was sold for over a million dollars be cause of the large amount of property it had.

It may very will be the same problen our brother and sisters the Roman Catholic people had, when preists molested their children.Perhaps the situation would not have going on for as many years as it did,if parishners spoke up for what was right

Bernette, half our parishners are two old to start over. Whats ma painting that cost $1000 to have painted in the eighty's cost today..