The Media Announces the Resumption of Regular Sunday Masses at St. Mikes

Below is media story from the Press of Atlantic City announcing the resumption of regular 10:00 am Sunday Masses at St. Michael’s Church beginning on Father’s Day June 19 and ending September 11. The St. Michaels Church Preservation Society (SMCPS) is very pleased and now wants all past, present, and future supporters of St. Mikes to attend Mass at St. Michael’s Church to prove that the Church and our history is worth saving and remembering. This is another special gift and opportunity for us! Also I would like each of you to contact Fr. Jon Thomas, the Pastor of St. Monica’s Parish, jthomas@accatholic.org: phone: 609.345.1878 to let him know how pleased you are with his decision and his cooperation with the SMCPS and the Ducktown Business leaders. I look forward to seeing you at Mass this Summer! Posted: Friday, June 3, 2016 1:13 pm St. Michael's Catholic Church reopens for summer Sunday services DONNA WEAVER, Staff Writer The Press of Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY — The doors at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church will open for Sunday service The Parish of St. Monica in Atlantic City announced the church will begin holding Sunday church services this month and throughout the summer, church officials said. The Rev. Jon Thomas, the pastor of the Parish of St. Monica, said the reopening of St. Michael’s for summer Sunday mass was a parish decision and the Diocese of Camden was not involved. “We met two weeks ago and we were planning the special events for next year and someone suggested we think about having summer masses at St. Michael’s. A lot of visitors will expect the church to be open and we still own and operate it,” Thomas said. After 113 years of worship at the church on Mississippi Avenue, the last Sunday service was held on Sept. 27, much to the dismay of parishioners and city residents. St. Michael’s and St. Monica’s church were ordered closed last June after the Diocese of Camden cited declining attendance and revenue difficulties. As part of a consolidation by the diocese, and the city's two remaining Catholic churches — Our Lady Star of the Sea and St. Nicholas of Tolentine – remained open. The city’s Italian immigrant community founded St. Michael's in 1904, in the Ducktown section of the city. The church's construction was completed in December 1912. The church and property are assessed at $3.7 million, according to public records. The summer mass season will start Father’s Day Sunday and end the weekend of the Miss America Pageant. Thomas said weddings, funerals and other special events have continued to take place at the church since last fall when regular Sunday masses stopped. “Former St. Michael’s parishioners have been very happy we are still using the church for funerals and weddings,” he said. “There have been a lot of funerals and about half a dozen weddings that have kept the church fairly active. We average one special mass day a month for Italian saints,” he said. For the upcoming summer mass schedule, St. Michael’s Church will have to use retired priests for the services, he said. Last spring, parishioners and city business owners mounted a fight to keep the church's doors open. The group called themselves ‘Save St. Mike’s’, and offered more than $200,000 to the Diocese of Camden to save the church and pull it out of debt, but to no avail. Dominic Alcaro, owner of Barbera Seafood on Arctic Avenue, around the corner from the church, will reopen his market on Sundays this summer after the announcement that Sunday masses will be held again. Since the church’s doors closed for Sunday masses last fall, Alcaro said the Ducktown business community has been impacted. Alcaro closed his fish market on Sundays after the church stopped Sunday services at St. Michael’s. “We fought for this. This is such good news because this church is really the anchor of this community. Sundays just haven’t been the same around here,” Alcaro said. Sunday masses will be held from at 10 a.m. June 19 to Sept. 11. For more information visit www.accatholic.org. Here is a link to the Media Story. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/st-michael-s-catholic-church-reopens-for-summer-sunday-services/article_744f56b2-29ae-11e6-ab96-f73007e8cc2d.html Contact: 609-513-6686 DWeaver@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressWeaver