Parish closings hit close to home this weekend. St. Joseph Parish in Salem had its final Mass on Sunday, even though it hasn’t even received its decree of suppression yet. The decision was made to close without delay so that the parish school could re-open with a clean slate at its new location across town. St. Joseph School is now in the formerly empty school at St. James Parish. It’s a larger building that was renovated in recent years when the city used it as a temporary school while a new public school building was built.
It’s also nice that the food pantry, baby program, Hispanic ministry are moving to my parish. The first two programs are run by VeAnn Campbell, my brother-in-law Peter’s mother. (Peter is the guy who runs the Proud2BCatholic festival I mentioned earlier today; this sort of thing runs in the family.) And despite the concerns of the one guy mentioned in the first article, Immaculate Conception is only a couple of blocks further away from the Point neighborhood. We’re talking about a couple of hundred yards here. It will be no hardship for anyone but the most disabled to get there, and if that’s the case, arrangements will be made for them.
