PENNSYLVANIA
Delco News Network
By Patti Mengers
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — Notre Dame de Lourdes Church parishioners who had expected to submit an appeal to keep their parish open to Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput last Friday, finally sent him their letter, drafted by a canon lawyer, Monday along with petitions containing more than 3,000 signatures.
“Everybody we speak to says the momentum is growing. I hope we can sustain it,” said Thomas Donahue, spokesman for the parish’s Save Notre Dame de Lourdes campaign.
The 3,527 parishioners learned at masses on May 31 and June 1 that the archbishop, on the advice of the archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee, has determined that Notre Dame de Lourdes will close July 1 and merge with Our Lady of Peace Parish in Milmont Park.
The closures and mergers are part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Parish Planning Initiative conceived in 2010 by former Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali and implemented in 2011 by Chaput to determine parish sustainability. For now, the churches of the closed parishes will remain as worship sites for special occasions, but their assets, debts and properties will be transferred to the parishes with which they are merging.
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