Author: Pat Smiley

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Same results from This Round of the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Process – Confusion and Misunderstanding!

Today, there are new  announcements regarding the future of our Archdiocesan parishes and the pastoral care of our fellow Catholics in the city and suburbs! In the following article,  “Archdiocese Releases Full List of Church Closures”, we  can identify with the mystification felt by clergy and parishioners alike. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why one particular parish is closed while others remain open.

A recent article I read, “Archdiocese Without A Clear Strategy For Closing Churches”, bears out what many of us believe – closing or merging churches is a stopgap effort to stop the monetary leak in the dyke the Archdiocese is suffering from without regard to the pastoral care of those most in need – the poor and the elderly.

There is something you can do about this. Leave a comment, talk to your fellow parishioners and decide to join us in asking Archbishop Chaput to redo the Area Parish Pastoral Planning Process to include the full participation of the laity in each parish. God bless you!

 

 

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Philly Catholics

Thanks to All Who Attended Our First Organizing Meeting!

Philly Catholics imageThis afternoon, Saturday, April 5th, we held the first organizing meeting of Philly Catholics! Those who attended shared their faith and their deep belief in being called to authentic witness in the city for our Archdiocese.

As we met and shared introductions and why we were here, it became clear that while we mourned the loss of our Church, God had a much bigger plan for us. We believe that we are standing up not only for ourselves but even more importantly for those who can’t stand for themsevles. We have many elderly parishioners whose only outing might have been to weekly Mass. Now, because of distance or an inability to travel, they cannot go to Mass. We have many parishioners who simply don’t go to Mass anymore because of the pain of losing “family”. We have people who come to us looking for a Church and sadly, we tell them it was closed.

We believe that it is not only our right but our responsibility to work to reverse the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative because the process was flawed and lacked true, total involvement of the laity. To this day, no one will meet with us to hear our story of a flawed and unfair process. Not even to just listen!

While we miss our Church, it is not about the building. It is not about being unwilling to move on! It is about standing our ground to say that these are our parishes and our Churches and we should have a say in the matter! It is feeling and knowing that our ancestors struggled to build, pay for and maintain these Churches and we want to honor that legacy of faith! Not to mention the wonderful religious sisters and priests who never thought of themselves as they worked reflecting the love of God to each parishioner!

To those who believe that recent decisions of Archbishop Chaput and the hierarchy do not reflect an openness and involvement of the Philadelphia laity to reach mutually agreed upon resolutions to our problems, we say, “Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God, He comes with vindication; With divine recompense He comes to save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall see and the ears of the deaf be opened.” (Isaiah 35:5) Join us to bring that day ever closer!

Our next meeting is Saturday, May 3rd, 2 PM at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 4442 Frankford Avenue, 19124. See you there and bring a friend! All are most welcome!

photo credit: PMillera4 via photopin cc

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Philly Catholics

Use Your Voice Saturday, April 5th! Make A Difference In the Church We Love!

We are one Church and one body of Christ! We care about our faith and we try to live it each and every day! This is Lent and we know so well the sacrifices that Jesus made for us – using His voice to tell us there was a different way of living and loving.

We are believers and we know that are many different ways to solve the challenges we are facing in the Church. But our voices are not heard. The hierarchy is not listening. We want real discourse and the respect that is worthy of those who are the support of  the Church.

If you believe this, too, you will join us this Saturday, April 5th, 2 PM, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (yes, that’s where we meet since both Churches were closed in Frankford), 4442 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19124. For more information, please email patsmiley@keepthefaithinfrankford.org or call Pat at 215.520.5616

We need your voice!

Use this map to find your directions. For those traveling by SEPTA, use the 3 or 5 bus that passes right in front of the Church. St. Mark’s is between the Margaret-Orthodox and Church St. stops of the Market Frankford El or Blue Line.

photo credit: JosephGilbert.org via photopin cc
 

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Blog

Do You Have a Voice in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia?

quote-the-human-voice-can-never-reach-the-distance-that-is-covered-by-the-still-small-voice-of-conscience-mahatma-gandhi-68117We have a rich, blessed history of faith in our city, in our country! As the Church (and we are the Church) faces challenges and an ever-increasingly complex, global world that is at our doorstep, it’s vital that the voice of the laity is heard, respected and plays a role in guiding the direction of our Church!

Is that happening here? Are we truly invited to share in the ministry of the Church on a broad scale?

Do you care about this? Do you care that Churches are closing to solve financial problems? Do you care that nursing homes could be sold without regard to those seniors who built these Churches and made financial sacrifices of their own? Do you care that the Church is abandoning those very people Jesus has commanded us to serve – the poor, the unwanted, the least among us?

If you do, you will join us this Saturday, April 5th, 2 PM, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (yes, that’s where we meet since both Churches were closed in Frankford), 4442 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19124. For more information, please email patsmiley@keepthefaithinfrankford.org or call Pat at 215.520.5616

We need your voice!

Use this map to find your directions. For those traveling by SEPTA, use the 3 or 5 bus that passes right in front of the Church. St. Mark’s is between the Margaret-Orthodox and Church St. stops of the Market Frankford El or Blue Line.

This meeting is being sponsored by Keep the Faith in Frankford and La Milagrosa!

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Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative

We Are Hard “Pressed” to Understand Why Archbishop Chaput Does Not Hear Us!

One week ago, we rallied in front of the Archdiocese to ask Archbishop Chaput to hear us – his families seeking to understand the closure of our churches without a full explanation from those who decided this was best for the “salvation of souls” and would enable the Archdiocese to provide even better “pastoral care” to the faithful of Philadelphia. Before we are able to host the World Meeting of Families in 2015, we need to get our own house in order.

You have heard us and the press has heard us. We believe. We continue to work to get answers to our questions regarding the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative and the resulting abandonment of the lifeblood of the Church here in Philadelphia.

Al Dia pubished another article on our story this week. You can read it here. If you need to translate it to English, copy the url, visit Google Translate and simple paste in the url and hit “translate”.

We thank Channel 6 news, The Metro, Al Dia and you for caring about this most important issue.

Our thanks to Gilberto Gonzalez who shared this on Facebook.

Archbishop Chaput, please hear us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blog

Missed Our Rally…Highlights Here!

Photo by Charles Mostoller of The Metro
Photo by Charles Mostoller of The Metro

Thank you to everyone who braved the first day of Spring to attend a rally to urge Archbishop Chaput to redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiaitve. We scheduled this rally for now because in several days, Archbishop Chaput, Mayor Nutter and Governor Corbett are traveling to Rome to ask the Pope to attend the World Meeting of Families help in Philadelphia in September, 2015. We wanted Archbishop Chaput to know that there are Philadelphia families who want to meet with him regarding the way this planning process was implemented.

Churches closed or merged based on this process. We maintain it is a severely and systemically flawed process that needs to be redone. You can read more about the reasons why here.

Our rally drew members of St. Joachim, La Milagrosa and St. Leo parishes.

Channel 6 news came but footage of our event did not make it onto TV as it was a very busy news day.

On Tuesday, March 19, we were featured in the Northeast Times. Tom Waring, editor, wrote “Parishioners of Closed Frankford Church Plan Rally”.

I think it’s interesting to see how reporter’s stories can be changed for one reason or another.  Sam Waterhouse, reporter for The Metro, wrote a story, initially, “Catholics from Closed Churches Seek Audience with Archbishop Ahead of World Congress of Families”. When the story appeared on Page 2 of today’s Metro (Friday, March 21), it was titled “Catholics Rally To Give Church a Second Chance”. Either way, I am happy that Sam was there and showed an interest in our situation.

 

 

 

 

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Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative

Why Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative?

Pope Francis in a homily on March 18, 2014 reiterated what Isaiah told the people of Sodom and Gomorrah: “Redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea and defend the widow!” This assures us that we are on the “good path”!

That’s what we want for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, too!Rally Handout 1

 

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Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative

Are You Under Study Now?

Now is the time to act if your parish has been one of the 46 being studied and probably recommendations have already been made. It is much easier to keep a church open than to have to re-open it. Make your voice heard if you believe that the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative is as flawed as what some of us have already experience. Working together, we can come up with a fairer, more inclusive process that doesn’t destroy parishes that for generations has served the Catholic families of this Archdiocese. The people who have sacrificed to keep these churches going need us to continue the legacy of the Church in our communities.

Look at this list. If you know people, contact them and bring them tomorrow! Join us at 12 Noon on Thursday, March 20, in front of the Archdiocese Office Building at 222 N. 17th Street.

See you there! Stand up to make your voice heard! God bless you!
photo credit: PMillera4 via photopin cc

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Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative

Are We Traveling the “Good Path”?

Pope Francis recently gave a homily where he talked about how you know you’re traveling on the good path? We are all familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Pope reminds us of what Isaiah also told the citizens of those cities, “Redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea and defend the widow.” Are we doing that?

That’s why we can seriously ask the Archbishop to “redress the wronged”: we whose churches were closed without involving those parishioners of those churches.

Read more of the Pope’s homily here.

photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC via photopin cc

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Redo the Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative

We Wanted This To Go Viral But…

joachims closed copy

We made this last summer, the week after we learned we were closing. Since then, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, opened their doors to us to meet weekly, which we have since 6/1/13, on Wednesday nights to work to reopen St. Joachim, to network with our other sisters and brothers in Christ who have lost their churches, and to continue the work of St. Joachim in Frankford. We help feed the hungry on Saturdays and the Catholic Daughters relocated their food cupboard, Matthew 25, there. We are still Catholic and feel that we must be the Catholic presence in Frankford since both of our churches, St. Joachim and Mater Dolorosa closed. We have filed a Vatican appeal of the Archbishop’s decree that merged us with Holy Innocents. It is not that we don’t want to go to Holy Innocents; it is that we cannot abandon all that our ancestors did so that the faith would be handed down to us. We must do the same. Our appeal is waiting to be heard by the Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican Supreme Court).