VATICAN RESPONDS TO SAVE ST. MIKES: LENT BEGINS AT ST. MIKES

Begin Lent at St. Mikes! Lent begins tomorrow Feb. 10 at St. Michael’s Church. Join us to celebrate Mass at 7:00 pm with the Pastor Fr. Jon Thomas. Ashes will be distributed during Mass. ______________________________________________T The Vatican has rejected the formal appeal that Save St. Mikes filed against the merger and closure of St. Michael's Church. But on the positive side encouraged supporters to work with the pastor to keep St. Michael's Church viable. A copy of the five page response is available on our Facebook page at this address https://www.facebook.com/SavesStMikes. Here is our evaluation of the Vatican's response and some perspective on our immediate and long term thinking to preserve St. Michael's Church. The merger decree issued last June called for the closure of St. Michael’s and St. Monica’s Churches and merging all the parishes in Atlantic City into the one large Parish of St. Monica. Shortly after the decree was announced, Save St. Mikes was established and sent numerous appeals to the Bishop of the Camden Diocese asking to withdraw the decree and/or negotiate an alternative plan to keep St. Michael's Church open. All requests were denied. On July 15, 2015, about 40 days after the decree was issued, Save St. Mikes filed a formal appeal with the Vatican. A Little History The appeal to the Diocese, Pastor, and the Vatican was to assure that St. Michael’s Church will not be sold or de-sanctified and will continue to remain open for weekly Mass. Save St. Mikes did not have any objection to the merger of the parishes. The original decree required that St. Michael’s and St. Monica’s Churches be closed on July 1, 2015; this date was later extended to August, 9 and then finally extended to September 27, 2015. In early September the Save St. Mikes effort evolved into the St. Michael’s Church Preservation Society (SMCPS), a nonprofit organization authorized to collect and disperse funds to maintain St. Michael’s Church as a social, historical, cultural, and spiritual presence in Atlantic City for the next 100 years. Vatican rulings have unequivocally supported the work of similar Church preservation societies across the United States. SMCPS representatives met with Fr. Jon Thomas, the pastor of the new parish of St. Monica’s, to notify him of the SMCPS mission and to seek his cooperation to help revitalize St. Michael’s Church and the neighborhood, as part of the Parish of St. Monica’s. SMCPS then began efforts to increase Mass attendance, collect pledges, and attract old and new Catholics to use the Church and campus more extensively. After the September 27 deadline Fr. Jon announced that the Bishop did not intend to sell St. Michael’s Church in the immediate future and agreed not to close the Church doors but did not allow the weekly celebration of Mass. Since then we have worked very cooperatively with the pastor to host monthly Feast Day Masses, sponsor tours, open the Church for private prayer and the rosary, sponsor special events like the December 13, 2015 Lecture on St. Michael’s Art and the recent St. John Bosco Feast Day Mass and Social. Our relationship with Fr. Jon continues to improve and we have hopes for more cooperation in making St. Michael’s Church and the campus an integral part of the parish and the Catholic Church’s mission in Atlantic City. Back to the Future While we recognize that there are clear inaccuracies in the Vatican’s response, we do not believe arguing these issues at this time will change the Vatican’s conclusion. We believe the best path is to continue to work slowly, surely, and cooperatively with the pastor to revitalize St. Mikes by reengaging the present, past, and future Catholics in the community. We also want parishioners who have left the area or the state to consider St. Michael’s Church their home or national heritage church. We know that in the future we may not be able to rely on the good will of any individual or policy in the parish or within the diocesan bureaucracy and must be prepared to prevent any adverse action that will affect St. Michaels’s Church and its campus. When and if this occurs we will be ready to file any appeals necessary and assume responsibility for the total maintenance of St. Michael’s Church. We estimate it will cost approximately $250,000 for at least five years of upkeep. This is only an estimate because the exact amount has not been given to the SMCPS. We currently have approximately $30,000 in pledges. To complement the pledges the SMCPS will need donations to sponsor Church events, services, activities, programs, and fundraising projects. We are again calling on all supporters to make pledges and/or donations. SMCPS is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization ID #47-5161704 and donations are deductible. They can be sent to SAVE ST. MIKE’S P.O. BOX 1375, ATLANTIC CITY, NJ. 08404. Regular financial and activity reports for the organization and each fund raising project will be released to all supporters via email, on Facebook at Savestmikes, and at http://savestmikes.webs.com/ . Please send any questions about the work of the SMCPS to stmichaelschurchpreservesoc@gmail.com, bvenafro@gmail.com, or to Rich Negro at maririch1@gmail.com You can also call me at 703.802.0150. Robert Venafro Coordinator SMCPS