NORWICH – For over a year, parishioners of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Norwich have been praying their “little cathedral” might remain open – despite a landmark effort by the Diocese of Syracuse to consolidate its over 170 Catholic parishes.
“It’s not just a church – it’s a cathedral, a memorial. It’s something that was built with the blood and sweat of the people that came from Italy,” said life-long St. Bart’s parishioner and Norwich resident Tony Caezza. “If it were to close, it’s almost like you’d lose a part of yourself. Part of the people would be gone, never to return.”
Caezza, along with the parishioners in the seven other Catholic churches in Chenango County, will learn their churches’ future sometime between May 2 and May 11 as part of rolling announcements from the diocese, Bishop James Moynihan stated in an April 13 letter. It’s not expected that any changes in this area will be implemented until 2008.
The diocese has been deliberating over hundreds of consolidation plans from across Central New York and the Southern Tier since January. It was said earlier that announcements would be made in mid-April.
Citing a priest shortage and an economic downturn, Diocese Bishop announced by letter in March 2006 that one of the two Norwich churches – pointing to St. Bart’s – may have to close and be combined with St. Paul’s, the city’s elder church. Since then parishioners have fought to prove that St. Bart’s – built by Italian immigrants from the island of Lipari in the 1920’s – is a necessary and vibrant part of the community.
“I would hate to see it destroyed,” said George Zieno, a Norwich resident and life-long member of St. Bart’s. “It’s such a beautiful church.”
Zieno said he never expected in his lifetime to see the future of the “little cathedral” called into question.
“I didn’t think this could happen like this,” he said. “I thought I’d be buried in this church.”
Last summer, St. Paul’s and St. Bart’s pastor Father Douglas Cunningham and Committee to Save St. Bartholomew’s Attorney Tom Vitanza announced they were 99 percent sure both parishes would remain open, due to clauses in financial trusts left to the churches.
However, some won’t be certain until they hear the words from the Bishop’s mouth.
“I still feel like there is nothing more to do but sit back and see what Syracuse has to say,” said Priscilla DiStefano, of Norwich, a life-time parishioner at St. Bart’s. “What else can we do? I just hope it goes back to people not having that feeling of being separated.”
On Thanksgiving, all eight county parishes submitted a single plan – along with 31 other Pastoral Care Areas under Syracuse jurisdiction – to Bishop Moynihan that addresses how they will operate amidst a growing priest shortage. St. Bart’s and St. Paul’s submitted a second plan of their own, highlighting the necessity of both structures.
In the plan submitted by St. Paul’s, St. Bart’s, St. Joseph’s (Oxford), Immaculate Conception (Greene), St. Malachy’s (Sherburne), St. Theresa’s (New Berlin), St. Agnes (Afton) and St. John’s (Bainbridge), the pastors propose to run the churches with two fewer priests.