By Paula Carlton
NEWS Correspondent
(Editor’s note: This is part three in a series about the Diocese of Camden’s plan to reduce the number of parishes from 124 to 68.)
The Catholic Church worldwide is going through changes, and dioceses are feeling the pinch of paying for sexual abuse findings against priests.
The Wilmington Diocese recently filed bankruptcy as cases concerning the abuse were ready to be heard.
This, combined with major population shifts of Catholics out of the inner city over the past 30 years, has forced Church officials to close schools and parishes. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia recently announced plans to close both Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic high schools.
Some Catholics are very upset, and are taking steps to keep their churches open. One such group is Save Saint Mary’s Malaga (SSMM).
Locally, St. Mary School in Gloucester City was able to stay open, after opposing a diocesan plan to merge it with St. Theresa School, Runnemede, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, Barrington, into a renovated Annunciation School in Bellmawr – which lies vacant on Browning Road.
The diocese decided to keep St. Mary School, the oldest one in the diocese, open. Dawn Burkhardt has spearheaded major fund-raising projects, including the annual Fund Drive, to keep St. Mary School open and vibrant.
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