News Flash- Business Owners Reaction to Last Mass at St. Mike's

The Press of Atlantic City released the story below today Saturday Sept. 26, 2015 . The Business Owners around St. Michael's Church talk about their petition to the Bishop and how discontinuing Sunday Mass at St. Michael's Church will affect their livelihood. For the web edition with video interviews of business owners go to the Press web site address below. St. Michael's in Atlantic City will celebrate its last Mass on Sunday DONNA WEAVER Staff Writer | Posted: Friday, September 25, 2015 4:52 pm Businesses in the Ducktown section of Atlantic City speak out against the closing of St. Michael's Catholic Church fearing the near-by church closing will hurt their business. The businesses are calling on the Diocese of Camden to rethink the closure and keep the doors open. St. Mike's will celebrate its final mass on Sunday. (The Press of Atlantic City / Ben Fogletto) ATLANTIC CITY — Ducktown merchants who for decades have done business with St. Michael’s Catholic Church and its parishioners after Mass are bracing for economic loss, which they say will begin Sunday afternoon when the historic, 113-year-old church on North Mississippi Avenue closes its doors. “That church was always an anchor for neighborhood businesses here. St. Mike’s makes this neighborhood. When people come out of church Sunday, they walk down and patronize the businesses,” said Dominic Alcaro, owner of Barbera Seafood on Arctic Avenue, around the corner from the church. The Diocese of Camden earlier this year announced its plan to close St. Michael’s, despite parishioners’ pleas and petitions. “Closing St. Mike’s is almost like the last nail in the coffin for the Italian community, and there are still a lot of Italian businesses here. If parishioners aren’t coming to church, then they’re not coming to White House to get subs,” said Brian Conley, who owns the nearby White House Subs with his wife, Mary. Mary Conley’s family, who are Italian, opened White House Subs in October 1946. Business owners led by Alcaro called on the Diocese of Camden to consider how the church’s closing could affect local businesses. About 70 percent of the neighborhood’s businesses signed on in support of keeping the church open, but the diocese refused to reconsider its decision. Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan wrote in the letter: “While I understand the concerns of various individuals, business owners included, when a local church closes (or more properly said in this context: will not be regularly used), I nevertheless cannot reverse my decision to merge the parishes of Atlantic City into a new parish entity.” The diocese announced in June that St. Michael’s and St. Monica’s Catholic churches will close under a parish consolidation. The closings come after the results of a two-year study by the diocese that considered factors such as church attendance and increasing debt. “That church was always an anchor for neighborhood businesses here. St. Mike’s makes this neighborhood. When people come out of church Sunday, they walk down and patronize the businesses,” Alcaro said. The city’s new single parish will include the two remaining Catholic churches — Our Lady Star of the Sea on Atlantic Avenue and St. Nicholas of Tolentine on Pacific Avenue. “I will think twice about donating to the diocese now if they’re going to close this church,” said Alcaro. “I come to work every day, look at that church and bless myself. It will be an empty building now in the neighborhood,” Janet Markowitz, owner of Chester’s Plants and Flowers on Arctic Avenue, signed the letter to the diocese. She said she was hopeful they would keep St. Michael’s open. “I have done generations of families’ funerals, weddings and baptisms at St. Mike’s. It’s about tradition,” said Markowitz who has owned Chester’s for 30 years. Atlantic City can’t afford to have anything else close, or any more business leave the city, Markowitz said. Chester’s averaged about one or two funerals each week at St. Michael’s, and without that business, she will lose hundreds of dollars each week, Markowitz said. “And a lot of weddings have already pulled out of St. Mike’s, and went to other churches because of the uncertainty. If people do weddings and funerals offshore, then the business also for those events leaves the city,” she said. Markowitz and Frank Formica, owner of Formica Bros. Bakery on Arctic Avenue, said closing St. Michael’s won’t shut down their businesses, but it will deliver a significant blow. The decrease in foot traffic after Sunday church services at St. Michael’s will be a substantial loss to all businesses in the neighborhood, said Formica, whose bakery has been in Ducktown since 1919. “The business we do in the four hours after Sunday Mass at St. Mike’s is equivalent to a whole day of business at the bakery. This is going to hurt,” he said. The last Mass at St. Michael’s Catholic Church will be celebrated the same day Pope Francis celebrates public Mass for an estimated 1 million people on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Contact: 609-513-6686 DWeaver@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressWeaver