By Jim Walsh
Courier-Post
March 28, 2008
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/NEWS01/803280395/1006
CAMDEN — Members of a city church took to the streets with prayers and hymns Thursday, making a procession to Diocese of Camden headquarters in an effort to save their parish.
The plea for Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima came just one week before the planned announcement of a restructuring for the diocese, including mergers of some parishes.
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| Jesus Figueroa leads a contingent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima members. Photo by Jose F. Moreno |
Bishop Joseph Galante is to announce the changes in an online video Thursday afternoon, the diocese said.
Church members fear Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima, founded more than a century ago in South Camden, may be absorbed into a parish based at the downtown Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
"Bishop, please hear us," Yolanda Aguilar de Neely, a trustee at the South Camden church, said in an emotional speech to more than 100 parishioners outside the diocese office. "This church is our soul."
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| Antonio Torres and other members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima march to diocesan headquarters in Camden on Thursday to demonstrate their desire to keep their church. Photo by Jose F. Moreno |
A long line of parishioners -- some in choir robes and others wearing the fringed capes of the Holy Name Society -- walked about a half-mile from the South 4th Street church to the bishop's Federal Street office.
Carmen Ramos, 30, pushed a stroller that held her 3-year-old son, Nathaniel.
"All of my children were baptized in that church," said the mother of three. "It's the only church I've been to."
"It gives the young people a place where they can be safe," said Alfred Moton, 15, a youth choir member from Pennsauken.
No diocese representative attended the 6 p.m. event. Aguilar de Neely said the bishop called her Thursday morning to say he had a prior commitment.
"The bishop called to acknowledge he's heard her concerns and to assure her of his well-known commitment to Camden," said diocese spokesman Andrew Walton. "He is collaborating closely with the people in Camden and every part of the diocese."
No decisions have yet been made, Walton said.
Church officials say the restructuring, which has been in the planning process since January 2007, is needed in part to cope with a growing shortage of priests.
The diocese, which currently has 124 parishes in six counties, expects to have only about 85 priests by 2015.
The restructuring also is intended to address population shifts, financial concerns and other factors, Galante has said.
But parishioners said Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Fatima plays a key role in its poor, predominately Hispanic community.
"The bishop wants a lively church, a full church, with a lot of activity day and nights," said Aguilar de Neely. "That's our church. That's what we're about."
"The only thing we don't have is money," said Angie Feliciano, a church member from Woodlynne. "I just don't want to think the bishop is punishing us because we're poor."
The marchers carried brightly colored balloons and flowers that were placed by the headquarters' main entrance at the end of the event.
"When the bishop comes and parks his car in the morning," said Aguilar de Neely, "he's going to know we were here."
Reach Jim Walsh at (856) 486-2646 or jwalsh@courierpostonline.com
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