ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCH Highland Park, New Jersey PROPOSAL TO RENEWING THE CHURCH SOUTH EDISON/HIGHLAND PARK PROCESS Submitted by: Rev. Robert V. Meyers, Pastor John Heldrich Joan Guetti Mary Anne Day Judith Clingerman
St. Paul the Apostle Church Highland Park, NJ Table of Contents I. Title Page 1 II. Proposal 2-3 III. Rationale 4 6 IV. Configuration 7
THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE Date: April 12, 2011 To: His Excellency, Most Rev. Paul G. Bootkoski Bishop of Metuchen Mr. Jeffry Korgen Executive Director, Department of Diocesan Planning Members of the Renewing the Church in South Edison and Highland Park Discernment Teams From: Re: The Discernment Team of St Paul the Apostle Church, Highland Park Proposal for Restructuring 1
PROPOSAL The discernment team from St. Paul the Apostle Church respectfully submits a proposal which we believe benefits all of the parishes that have been involved in Renewing the Church of South Edison/Highland Park process. The parishioners of St. Paul the Apostle are not strangers to the transformative effects of strategic planning and implementation. The parish formulated plans seven years ago for the creation of the Parish Pastoral Council under the direction of Rev. Robert V. Meyers, Pastor, and Mr. John Heldrich, Chairman, to review our challenges and resources in order to decide how to best position ourselves to renew our community of faith in Highland Park. We welcome the opportunity to present, with good will, this proposal to our fellow teams. The Borough of Highland Park is very small, yet the religious diversity within its borders is evident. On the Highland Park website there are listed four synagogues, a yeshiva and a rabbi s study group. There are three Protestant congregations (i.e., Reformed, Methodist and Baptist) all within a short walk of one another. St. Paul the Apostle Church has ministered to the spiritual needs of Roman Catholics in this community since 1913. In his opening remarks to this process, Bishop Bootkoski noted the ethnic diversity which exists within this locale. St. Paul the Apostle Church has not been blind to the issue of changing ethnic demographics. Our banner God is Love listed in five languages, which had been displayed on the front of the church and is now posted in the parking lot, antedated the multilingual Welcome signs posted around the borough of Highland Park. Emblematic of the parish outreach to other ethnic groups was last year s celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi which included an outdoor Eucharistic procession. This feast is beloved in the Hispanic/Latino community and the parish made bilingual efforts to broadly advertise this event. From the years 2002 to the present, the graph of the average mass attendance presented by diocesan data indicates that St. Paul the Apostle Church has the least fluctuation of any parish in the Renewing the Church South Edison/Highland Park process. In addition, we have noticed more Asian Americans (particularly Filipinos) worshipping at our liturgies. The territorial boundaries of St. Paul the Apostle Church encompass the Rutgers- Busch campus and St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus Quasi-parish, Edison (a mission of St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church, New Brunswick). Envisioning the long-term prospects for this area, it is our conviction that as new people settle within our parish boundaries, the need for the celebration of mass in Italian at St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus and hosting bingo games at its campus will be replaced by a different kind of socialization. In the past, St. Paul the Apostle has provided a home for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It is currently accommodating a parish book club and a Gregorian Chant group. As part of our outreach to the wider community, St. Paul the Apostle Church has hosted numerous cultural events such as Rutgers choral group, Vox Fidelis; it is hoped that our interaction with Rutgers students will increase due to the expansion of the Catholic Center on the nearby New Brunswick campus. 2
As part of a developing symbiosis with other Christian communities we recently cosponsored a Walk-a-Thon to aid Pakistani flood victims. We have made efforts to foster better relationships with other religious institutions in the borough, having established an annual baseball game and picnic with the Reformed Church (not to boast, but twice the St. Paul the Apostle team defeated the team fielded by the Reformed Church since this friendly outing was established two years ago). St. Paul the Apostle Church has taken steps to ensure the integrity of our physical facilities. The major upgrade to the campus was crafted by our current pastor, Fr. Meyers, under the able direction of parishioner and construction manager Mr. Albert Garlatti, Sr., with the assistance of our Finance Council. While it was a difficult decision, the parish realized the necessity of razing the school building which had fallen into hazardous disrepair. We looked at an aging and empty convent and it was determined that the space should be refitted as a state-of-the-art parish office center inclusive of a magnificent chapel where daily Mass is offered. As a consequence, we have no liabilities, either fiscal or tangible. St Paul the Apostle Church, through its Parish Pastoral and Finance Councils, has recommended to our pastor over the past several years strategies to sustain our vibrancy. We have taken a critical look at our resources, and made difficult decisions which predate those being considered in this renewal process. As our bishop reminded us in the initial meeting, our parishioners have well understood that we cannot simply abide by the adage, This is the way it has always been done. In light of the foregoing: We would propose that merging St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus Quasiparish with St. Paul the Apostle Church would renew and enhance the original faith community that was envisioned when St. Paul was founded in 1913. We would advocate that the St. Theresa facility be closed post merger. We would advise clarification of the status of St. Matthew the Apostle School. The disposition of this entity plays a key role in any merger and has not been a part of the discussion. To possibly improve enrollment at the school, we advocate for the Hispanic/Latino ministry to be placed at St. Matthew the Apostle Church. We recommend the merger of St. Matthew the Apostle Church and Guardian Angels Church, with the Hispanic/Latino ministry established at St. Matthew the Apostle Church and the Korean ministry centered at Guardian Angels Church. 3
THE RATIONALE FOR OUR RESTRUCTURING PROPOSAL I. We propose that merging St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus Quasi-parish with St. Paul the Apostle Church would renew the original faith community that was envisioned when St. Paul was founded. We would advocate that the St. Theresa facility be closed post merger. Territorial Issues and Mission: The majority of parishes in the Diocese of Metuchen are configured along the territorial boundaries in conformity with the Code of Canon Law. At various meetings of the renewal process, the rights and obligations of ministering to the faithful both within and outside territorial parishes have been discussed. The questions have been asked as to whether or not the diocese can enforce the observation of boundaries (i.e., that Catholics who live within a given parish territorial boundary are members of that parish). In fact, while the diocese does not insist that anyone retain membership in his/her territorial parish, nonetheless there are valid, practical reasons to promote and sustain them. The territorial parishes allow parishioners and priests to build a community of faith within a given locale. A territorial parish is rooted in a particular community, not simply created by people with an allegiance to a particular pastor. If a priest or pastor is moved elsewhere, the parish does not fall apart. It is not a self-selecting group but must be respectful of the diversity of all Catholics living within its borders. St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus was a mission church established in 1942 within the territorial boundaries of St. Paul the Apostle Church, which was erected as a parish in 1913. At the time of the founding of St. Theresa, there was an influx of Italian immigrants into the area and a need for religious services in Italian. (One cannot help being struck by the similarity to members of Our Lady of Korea who wish to conduct liturgies in their native language. The major difference is that society is much more mobile in 2011, and the members of Our Lady of Korea parish may be required to travel a distance to attend liturgies in Korean.) If the situation in 1942 were examined by the restructuring guidelines in place today, especially those dealing with the creation of ethnic parishes, there would be resistance to building a mission church; instead we feel the Diocese of Trenton would have sought to establish a mission of St. Paul the Apostle Church specifically to assist the Italian community. Seventy years after the creation of St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus we may expect that many of their original parishioners are aging. The diocesan information shows that immigration is not from Italy or even Western Europe. It would seem hard to sustain the need for a continued mission to serve the Italian-speaking population in this area. To the point of merging St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus and St. Paul the Apostle Church, and then closing the facility at St. Theresa, we feel that several benefits would be obtained. New Catholics moving into the area would identify St. Paul the Apostle Church as their home parish and thus we hope our membership would increase. The merger of St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus with St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church, New Brunswick, may formalize a relationship that already exists, but does nothing to help increase membership at St. Paul the Apostle Church nor does it help decrease the number of priests needed to serve the people of this local area. 4
The parishioners of St. Paul the Apostle Church well understand the emotional stress that can occur when buildings are closed. There was great fear when our school was razed because many parishioners attended grammar school at St. Paul the Apostle Church, and it is possible that some parishioners left for other churches. Efforts were made to preserve the statue of the Madonna and the Child Jesus that topped the school entrance on Raritan Avenue. It is now the centerpiece of our prayer garden. However in the final analysis, when confronted with the choice to repair a hazardous old building at enormous expense or to demolish it, strategic use of financial resources had to be a significant factor in decision-making. The campus at St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus is in need of much repair. Would it be a prudent use of resources to repair the facilities at St. Theresa of Infant Jesus, make it handicapped accessible, and repave the parking lot when there is a well-maintained facility five blocks away? We realize that it takes time to form new relationships and it can be hard to let go of past communal activities. St. Paul the Apostle Church is willing to accommodate the parishioners of St. Theresa with a Mass in the Italian language that could be scheduled in the lovely Our Lady of the Eucharist Chapel. II. We would advise clarification of the status of St. Matthew the Apostle School. The disposition of this entity plays a key role in a merger but has not been a major part of the discussion. To possibly improve enrollment at the school, we advocate for the Hispanic/Latino ministry to be placed at St. Matthew the Apostle Church. A suggestion promoted by St. Matthew s team at the last meeting was to merge all of the churches and close St. Theresa and Guardian Angels in a timeline of 3 to 5 years. In creating a super parish of this nature, we must wonder about how one pastor is to oversee these sites in the interim - as well as a grammar school. While St. Matthew s team points out that the school can accommodate 600 students, the current enrollment is 197 and seems to be in decline. We are concerned that if the school does not already draw students from this locale, no mergers will improve the yield. (A merger with St. Paul the Apostle Church will not increase the number of students from this area who would attend St. Matthew the Apostle School, nor would it benefit the financial health of either St. Paul or St. Matthew.) The Our Lady of Korea parish representatives indicate that the Korean community is not likely to send children to this school. Therefore, the hope to increase school enrollment is likely to come from closer ties to the Hispanic/Latino community. As noted in the St. Matthew s analysis, Financial pressures arising from the parish s commitment to provide a viable and competitive school have materially increased due to shrinking congregational donor base. A look at the map provided by the diocese shows that a great proportion of Hispanic/Latinos live within St. Matthew s boundary (see October notes). In addition, we wonder whether creating the Hispanic/Latino ministry at St. Paul would be as effective since we are the parish closest to New Brunswick, where such ministries already exist and might draw people away from those already flourishing parishes. 5
III. We recommend the merger of St. Matthew the Apostle and Guardian Angels Church, with the Hispanic/Latino ministry established at St. Matthew the Apostle and the Korean ministry centered at Guardian Angels Church. We understand the personnel requirement of the diocese that three pastors need to be reduced to two. However, we believe that to effect this stipulation of the diocese that the proposed three-way merger into one parish as envisioned by St. Matthew the Apostle Church is unwieldy and impractical, and would not enhance the pastoral service to the Catholics in the South Edison/Highland Park area. Will parishioners cross Route 1? The St. Matthew s team notes that: A significant number of Catholics living within Guardian Angels territorial boundaries already attend St. Matthew. Perhaps Guardian Angels Parish will also note that St. Matthew the Apostle parishioners attend Guardian Angels? St. Matthew s team recommends that the priests could move to the well-maintained rectory at Guardian Angels. This is a very positive recommendation and reflects the type of strategic thinking and implementation already accomplished at St. Paul the Apostle Church. It is also suggested that establishing the Korean ministry in that general location might help improve their congregational base. (N. B. - In order to integrate the Korean ministry in any area parish, Our Lady of Korea Church would have to be suppressed in accordance with the norms of Canon Law.) There are advantages to putting the Korean ministry along the Route 1 corridor since it appears that the community must travel by car to get together and they need a big parking lot according to their representatives. We feel that Guardian Angels would be ideal and we believe this reflects the wishes of the representatives of Our Lady of Korea Church. Placing the Korean ministry along the Rt. 27 corridor could be problematic since Raritan Avenue is essentially a one-lane highway in each direction through much of Highland Park. The parking lot at St. Paul is too small to accommodate the anticipated number of cars and street parking is restricted. In summary, we appreciate the difficulty of these decisions, and we pray along with our fellow teams for outcomes that will see our local parishes thrive in the future. We believe that our proposal provides for the continued financial health of our parishes and charts a course for outreach that will serve the diverse Catholic community in the South Edison/Highland Park area. 6
Korean St. Matthew the Apostle Guardian Angels Saint Paul the Apostle Church Parish Merger Proposal APRIL 12, 2011 Hispanic/ Latino + x + St. Mary Mount Virgin St. Theresa St. Paul the Apostle