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 OUR PURPOSE

    The mission of the St. Michael's Church Preservation Society is to preserve and maintain the St. Michael's church building, located in Atlantic City, NJ, as a sacred space, available for the celebration of  masses, and other sacred activities such as private prayer. In order to accomplish this undertaking the preservation society will raise all of the funds necessary to pay the expenses associated with the upkeep of the St. Michael's Church building, in order that the resources of St. Monica's parish of Atlantic City, and the Diocese of Camden are not expended for this purpose.

 

Organization of the Society

    The St. Michael's Church Preservation Society will be organized as a non-profit corporation in the State of New Jersey. The group is a recognized non-profit under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code, allowing all of the donations which the group receives to be counted as tax-deductible. The group will be led by such officers as the State of New Jersey requires to be chosen by the group to compose a properly constituted corporate board. 

 

Collection of Funds

    In order for St. Michael's Church to be successfully preserved long into the future, funds will be required to cover the small and large expenditures associated with this undertaking. Such costs as the preservation society would envision being responsible for would include but not be limited to the insurance carried on the St. Michael's church building, utilities including heat, electricity and water, and expenses associated with the routine maintenance of the church. Longer term projects the preservation society would assume financial responsibility for would include any capital expenditures required to keep St. Michael's Church in a state of good preservation. In order to collect the funds required for these projects, the St. Michael's Church Preservation Society will begin informing those within the St. Michael's and wider Atlantic City community of our intentions, and asking them for their financial support. We will also enlist the support of "national" parishioners who were once in the Atlantic City area or are descendants of relatives or friends of St. Michael's Church who wish to see the church preserved. In addition to requesting funds from those who have an association with the church, the preservation society envisions holding occasional social, cultural, and historic events which would serve as fund raisers for the preservation of the church. We also may come up with additional strategies for collecting the funds we will need to make this project a success.

 

Precedents We Are Following

    As parishes continue to merge across the United States, it is becoming more common to find Catholic Church Preservation groups covering all the expenses associated with caring for Catholic churches which are used for mass with the cooperation of the Pastor and Bishop. The origins of such arrangements seem to date back several decades. We are aware that the St. Patrick’s Church Preservation Society of Catawissa MO cares for St. Patrick’s church in that community, located within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and has been doing so for some time. St. Patrick’s parish was merged into a neighboring parish in 1925, but the church has continued to host masses, along with weddings and funerals. Each summer, a picnic is held on the church grounds to raise money for the continued preservation of the church, drawing people from many surrounding states. St. Patrick’s church has been completely restored by the preservation society over the past few decades, and the dedication of this group has meant it remains a beacon of the Catholic faith in that part of Missouri, and a tangible testament to the faith of those Catholics who built it. St. Anne’s church in Columbia CA, located within the boundaries of the Diocese of Stockton, has been maintained by the St. Anne’s preservation Society since 1977. The preservation society pays all of the expenses associated with maintaining the church and mass is still celebrated there. The efforts of this committee saved the church from being stripped and demolished, and allowed a church built by those Catholics who came to California during the Gold Rush to survive into the twenty-first century. More recently, The St. Mary of the Rock Preservation Society began caring for St. Mary of the Rock Church in Batesville IN, after the parish closed at the end of November 2013. Those who wanted St. Mary’s to remain a church available for masses stepped forward and took on the responsibility of caring for the church and its grounds, at their own expense. In all three of these cases, agreements worked out between pastors, diocesan bishops, and those committed to keeping Catholic churches preserved and available for mass have led to the preservation of churches at no expense to the parishes and dioceses in which they are located. The examples cited above are but three of nearly seventy Catholic churches being maintained across the United States and Canada today by Catholic Church preservation groups. These agreements have avoided the permanent loss of churches which people are quite attached to, as they have served as the focal point of their spiritual lives, and they have also averted much of the anger which is often directed toward church officials for the permanent closure of a church.

 

What We Are Not

    The St. Michael's Church Preservation Society is only concerned with maintaining and preserving St. Michael's Church as a Roman Catholic Church, available for worship and for masses granted by the good will of the Pastor and the Bishop. The group will never attempt to hold its own services, or undertake any activities which in any way deviate from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Any religious services which would be held at St. Michael's Church would only be conducted following the receipt of permission to hold them from the Pastor or the Diocese of Camden or their designee. 

 

Basis in Canon Law and Recent Vatican Juris Prudence for Our Plan

    In April of 2013, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy released an instruction to the bishops of the World regarding the closure of parishes and churches. This document highlighted the differences between the closure of a parish and a church, and made clear the fact that there are differences between when a parish can be merged into another parish, and when a church can be permanently closed. In its instruction, the congregation made clear that a church should remain consecrated as a sacred space, whenever possible, and that private funds can be used to maintain a church. We base the formation of the St. Michael's Church Preservation Society of Atlantic City upon these points. The Vatican has also ordered, in 34 separate cases, that church buildings in 7 different dioceses be reopened as places worship, following the submission of appeals by parishioners aggrieved at the closure of these churches. All of these decisions have been made since January 2011. The Vatican found that “grave reasons” were not present in these cases that justified the permanent closure of the church buildings in question. 

 

Conclusion

    We are happy to form now the St. Michael's Church Preservation Society of Atlantic City, NJ and step forward to care for St. Michael's Church, a church which meant a great deal to those who came before us, and which means so much to us. By preserving St. Michael's Church at our own expense, we will insure that it means just as much to those who come after us, and that it continues to serve as yet another piece of the Catholic patrimony of this part of New Jersey. We look forward to working with the Pastor of St. Monica's Parish and the Diocese of Camden to make this a truly successful venture for all of us.

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