• Why has Mass attendance declined by 38% in 10 years? Many, many young families have moved into Irondequoit in the last decade. St. Thomas the Apostle alone has 700 registered families. The average household size in Irondequoit in the year 2000 was 2.32. Assuming that number still holds true (it may have indeed grown in 9 years), that equates to 1624 Catholics who are registered at St. Thomas. Average weekly Mass attendance is about 466.
• Where are the other 1158 Catholics?
  
  
• Why is the diocese's nuclear option of closing churches such a readily accepted solution?
  
  
• Why, just over the Irondequoit border, is North Baptist Church putting on a huge addition?
  
  
• Why doesn't the diocese have an effective evangelization plan that would bring back lapsed Catholics? The diocese of Phoenix got serious about this issue last year, and has brought back about 98,000 lapsed Catholics so far.
  
  

Parishioners at St. Salome, 4282 Culver Road, have been particularly vocal about the proposal. The church sold the former rectory, convent, school and other property to a developer who built senior housing on the campus, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held last month. That sale netted between $500,000 and $600,000, said Rich Moll, former chairman of the church's pastoral council.

• Where is the $600,000 going to end up?
  
  
• Why can't it be used to keep St. Salome open?
  
  
• Why did the diocese approve a Providence housing project that would result in supposedly inadequate parking for the parish?
  
  
• What about the reported $300,000 Msgr. Burns fund at St. Thomas? Where is that money going to end up.
  
  
• Between St. Thomas and St. Salome, that's close to $1,000,000 that will be transferred somewhere.
  
  
• While we're at it, what about the money from the recent sale of St. Margaret Mary's school and former convent? That surely must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where is that money going to end up?
  
  

St. Thomas, 4536 St. Paul Blvd., has five buildings on the church campus, and necessary maintenance costs, including a new roof for the church, will cost about $800,000, Tanck said.

Thomas Simbari of Irondequoit, a member of St. Thomas' facilities committee, said it makes sense to close the church for purely financial reasons.

Who is Thomas Simbari and what qualifies him to make such a statement? Is he a certified financial expert? What are his credentials?

"No one is really angry, but there are a lot of sad faces," said Nichols, of Irondequoit. "Even though we're all part of the Diocese of Rochester and the Catholic faith, there's still an association with the building, and that's going to be difficult."