To the Editor:
The decision to close Our Lady of the Assumption Church is ill conceived and the reason is Archbishop Myers himself. He obviously knows nothing about humility, fails to follow the example set out by Pope Francis, and thumbs his nose at the teachings of the Catholic Church. At a time of rising poverty among his flock and the financial difficulties of the churches in the Diocese and as he approaches the age of retirement he thinks it’s alright to spend more than half a million for a 3,000-square-feet addition to his retirement home that will add a second swimming pool, a hot tub, another elevator, three fireplaces, a large study with attached library, and an enormous gallery with sweeping views of the property. All of this extravagance could only be justified if he was an executive of a private company but not as a bishop of the Catholic Church.
There can be no justification to close OLA other than perhaps the Archbishop is too busy preparing for retirement and had no time to consider the little details that make this church unique and necessary and why it should stay open.
With an ever increasing Latin Catholic population in the U.S.A. and in Bayonne this church has been for decades the only one with a Spanish Mass and with a fully functional Spanish ministry that includes among many things the preparation of children for all Sacraments. I can testify to the fact that the 12:30 p.m. Spanish Mass is always packed with oftentimes standing parishioners for lack of seats. The past Lent season, I also witnessed a church packed and the Sacred Eucharist celebrated by Father Mark De Stephano simultaneously in perfect English, Italian, and Spanish; that’s one Sacred Eucharist perfectly celebrated by one priest in three languages.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is well aware of the changes that point to the fact that 40 percent of all Catholics in the nation as Latin-Hispanic. “The Roman Catholic Church has known for years that its future in the United States depends heavily on Hispanics. The Church which is the largest religious denomination in the country is already 40 percent Hispanic, and the demographic change is inexorable: within the next few decades, Hispanics are expected to make up a majority of American Catholics” (The New York Times, May 5, 2014).
Any reasonable person, considering the changes in demographics of the church, would expect the Catholic Church to do the opposite of what Archbishop Myers is doing and that is to keep OLA in the midtown area open, and to promote Saint Vincent uptown and Saint Andrews downtown to serve the needs of the Bayonne Spanish Catholics in those areas.
FELIX R. RIVERA