All PoconosB2B, News, Classified and all about life in Poconos
  

Read News

Pocono News Section

What Becomes Of A Church After Closing?

What Becomes Of A Church After Closing? - Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 11:00PM EST

? Reported by: Joe Holden
Tuesday, Apr 8, 2008 @11:00pm EST

ASHLEY, LUZERNE COUNTY- From the outside, Holy Rosary looks nearly the same as it did the day it closed.

Inside, it's a different story.

Father Thomas O'Malley, pastor of the combined Ashley parishes of Saint Leo and Holy Rosary, asked us to leave our camera outside. "It's kind of barren inside and it would be better to remember it for the beautiful, magnificent church that it was all through the years and maybe not to see it now," Fr. O'Malley said.

Holy Rosary folded in October after more than 100 years on the map. Parishioners now worship a few blocks away at Saint Leo Church. In the six months Holy Rosary's doors were locked, most of what made up the church is gone. The pews were sent to a church in State College. "The other artifacts are going to different churches around the country. Actually the nativity set went to a church up in Alaska," Fr. O'Malley said.

Two years ago, Mary Ellen Konetski and her husband bought what was the parish rectory. Konetski chooses to never step foot inside what "was" Holy Rosary. "It was magnificent in there and I just don't want to see it that way. It's better to remember it the way it was," Konetski said.

"When that church was built, it was built to preserve the faith of the people and that faith has been preserved," Msgr. John Bendik, pastor of four parish churches in Pittston. He's recently steered the Pittston faith community through significant change, including the closing of one of the parish churches there, Saint Casimir. That church served the Lithuanian community for 118 years. The altar and other sacred items will relocated down the street inside Saint John The Evangelist Church. Msgr. Bendik cautions statues and other church valuables won't simply be given away for use in parishioners' living rooms, or worse.

'I don't want to take these things and see them on E-Bay, you know what I'm saying and I don't do E-Bay. But I don't want to have that happen, out of respect for people from St. Casimir, St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph," Msgr. Bendik said.

Both Saint Joseph and Saint John The Baptist are slated to close in the coming months.
 


Discuss this news

Your Name (nickname):
Your Email: (will remain private)
Your Comments:
  


Home | News | Businesses | PA places | Classified | Cars for Sale | Account | Products | Home Recipes | Manuals | Stock Images | Earn Commissions | Advertise | Contact Us | Search
Raw Hack

© 2024 AllPoconos.Com All rights reserved.