News from New Haven

From the Parish Update of St Mary’s, New Haven:

A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OUR PASTOR

Dear parishioners,

As you all know, the Archdiocese of Hartford has been in a comprehensive process of pastoral planning going back for more than five years. As part of the first phase of that pastoral planning process, in June of 2017 St. Joseph Church was merged with St. Mary Church to create the present St. Mary Parish. The archdiocese is presently engaging in phase two of the pastoral planning process, which will merge multiple parishes in New Haven into a single municipal parish, centered on St. Mary Church. After discussions over the summer, the archdiocese has recently informed our Dominican Province that when this second phase is implemented, the pastoral care of this municipal parish will be entrusted entirely to the care of priests of the Archdiocese of Hartford—and thus a continuing presence of the Dominican friars in the pastoral ministry of St. Mary Parish or in residence at St. Mary Priory will no longer be possible. It is thus with great sadness I share with you that in January 2022, the pastoral care of St. Mary Parish will be turned over to the priest(s) named by the archbishop, and the Dominican friars will depart from St. Mary Priory. The Archdiocese has asked the Dominican Province to consider three new ministries in the Archdiocese as an alternative to St. Mary’s. As each of these would entail a radically new configuration of the Dominican life and mission in the Archdiocese, the Dominican Province has decided to evaluate these new offers at our next provincial chapter, which will take place in June of 2022. In the light of the above, our Dominican provincial, the Very Rev. Kenneth Letoile, O.P., will be preaching at all Masses this coming weekend. He will also be present at two parish meetings the following week (dates & times TBA) when there will be an opportunity for listening, questions and drawing on our faith to find a way forward in this difficult time. It has been a profound joy and a blessing for us to serve the people of St. Mary’s for 135 years. During the time between now and the transfer of pastoral leadership, we will work with the incoming priest(s) to effect as smooth a transition as possible. Please know that the prayers of the friars are with all of you as we face this upcoming transition together.

God bless,
Fr. John Paul Walker, O.P.
Pastor

And we have this from the 10/3/2021 parish bulletin of St Stanislas -New Haven, administered by Polish Vincentians:

Dear Parishioners, I must share sad news with you. As part of the ongoing process of reconfiguration in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Archbishop Blair has changed the status of our Parish as a free-standing Parish in New Haven as well as the status of the other parishes in New Haven as of January 1, 2022. There will be only one Parish in New Haven which will consist of the nine parishes which currently exist. At this time, we do not know any details concerning this process. When I find out more details concerning this process I will inform you.

(Rumor has it that the Vincentians now have been asked to leave, too.)

These are tragic events. St. Mary’s could in no way be described as “traditionalist” ( although a traditional Mass was celebrated there in 2008) Yet I have spoken to credible witnesses who have told me that the presence of the Dominicans and the musical life of this parish was of a great spiritual benefit to them. This is partcularly so for students, since the Catholic chaplaincy at Yale University has remained committed to a progressive agenda. As to St. Stanislas, it has been the home for years of the St Gregory Society, one of the pioneers of the recovery of Catholic liturgical Tradition and sacred music. What will their relationship with the new “landlord” be?

Really, it seems that this year the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have become explicitly suicidal. How does Archbishop Blair think this sudden, disruptive, top-down reorganization of all the parishes of New Haven will be received by the faithful? What is the benefit, in an Archdiocese with virtually no new vocations( 2 ordinations this year), of excluding the priests of an established religious order? If we look at the website of the Archdiocese of Hartford, we see endless lists of offices and committees, along with news of one parish closing after another. With, of course, the Neocathecumenal Way as the white knight. What is totally missing, of course, is any accountabilty for the lack of vocations and the radical drop in religious practice among Catholics – which create the crisis in the first place. For the “Council” (= the current constitution of the Church) and the management of Archbishop Blair and his predecessors are exempt from any honest analysis. As a consequence, in the near future New Haven will be repeated in many more places throughout the country.

The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny has reported on these two churches and liturgies celebrated there. For more photos of St. Stanislas see HERE. For more photos of St. Mary’s, see HERE.