The elusive object in my life is St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, the church in Yonkers where I attend Mass every Sunday.
When I started going there it was a parish with 5 Masses every weekend, a Pastor, Father Anthony Columba Ekanem, and a parish council. Then, on May 24, 2024, Cardinal Dolan issued a decree ending its life as a parish and making it a secondary church in the Parish of St. Peter/St. Denis. Masses were reduced to one Sunday Mass in English.
Devoted to their spiritual home, parishioners appealed to the Cardinal to reverse his decision. When his reply was a denial they sent an appeal to the Dicastery for the Clergy, a department of the Holy See, on July 23, 2024. The Dicastery for Clergy ruled in favor of the parishioners and St. Mary's/Immaculate Conception became a parish again on March 31, 2025.
Nothing changed! St. Mary's was not assigned its own pastor, no parish council was assembled and the Mass schedule was not restored. Parishioners were baffled and began drafting a letter to the Dicastery for Clergy informing them that the Archdiocese was ignoring their decree.
On December 17, 2025, the day before his official retirement, Cardinal Dolan issued a new decree making St. Mary's again a secondary church in the Parish of St. Peter/St. Denis. Parishioners hand delivered an appeal to Cardinal Dolan's office on December 23, 2025. Because no reply was received, the parishioners again sent an appeal to the Vatican's Dicastery for the Clergy on February 4, 2026.
Right now St. Mary's is a church, not a parish. I hope at some point I will be singing a new song unto the Lord. Until then its Donovan.
No comments:
Post a Comment