At a time when the Catholic Church is in crisis, we look for something positive and look to see what works.  We, at Sacred Heart Church in Monroe, NY, have found a faithful and close knit community led by a wonderful pastor, Father Thomas Byrnes (Father Tom).  He has been a part of our community for the past 12 years.  Many of us joined this congregation because of him.  He has been a significant part of the children’s lives at Sacred Heart School and at a time when people are looking to leave the Church, children, teens, and young adults look to join our church mostly because of Father Tom.  He is always there willing to lend an ear, offer support, and sometimes be brutally honest when we need it.  He does so in a loving and non-judgmental way.  Now, his term is up and though many of us, including our school children, have written letters and plead for Cardinal Timothy Dolan to let Father Tom continue to lead our congregation for one more term, our requests have fallen on deaf ears.  We recently lost another significant leader in our parish, Sr. Rose O’Rourke.   Her loss was difficult enough and now Cardinal Dolan wants to take away another significant member of our church community.  Father Tom has restored our faith at a time when many of us have had our faith challenged.  In short, why would Cardinal Dolan want to interfere with something in the Catholic Church that is actually working?  We don’t want to lose parishioners and break apart our close knit community.  Cardinal Dolan has the ability to extend Father Tom’s term one more time but has provided us no reason for not doing so.  We have done good work as a parish for the community as a whole and that’s because we function well as a family with Father Tom at the head.  

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.