St. Joseph Parish Council
The
meeting started at 7:15 p.m. with our guest speaker, Paul Scully. (Context of
his presentation is attached) At 8 p.m. the regular meeting was called to order
by President, Jack Marinella, in Filippini Hall (Convent).
Attendance: Marti Badagliacco, Nimia Bermudez, Richard Blasberg, Pat
Campanella, Sal Capelli, Frank Carrelli, Ron Chance, Madge Codone, Mary
Kryvoruka, Hugh LaMonaca, Jack Marinella, Burwell Porter (Trustee), Elvera
Porter, Pat Rodio, Minerva Rodriguez (Trustee), Agustin Saldana, Sr. Dorothy
Toussaint
Excused:
Msgr. Dominic
Bottino, Anthony Capella, Joseph Olive, Anthony Padovani
Absent: David DiMeglio, Alex Tigro
Education
Committee: Anthony Padovani, chairperson,
Richard Blasberg
In
his absence, Anthony Padovani, wrote that the elementary school’s board meeting
will be November 16, 2005. The enrollment has substantially increased. With the
help of volunteers and President, Sal Capelli, bathrooms and lockers are being
refurbished. During the past year, 80% of the goals that were set during the
master plan three years ago have been reached. The main goal is to have two
classes for each grade and increase enrollment by 25% by the year 2007. A
second annual Charity Ball will be held on November 19, 2005. So far $13,000 in
profits to the school from the ball have been disbursed. Matching last year’s
donation of $25,000 is the goal for this year. Adult classes for religious
education are still being considered with a guest speaker once a month for a
start.
Richard
Blasberg added that the CCD program reactivated the Parent Youth Group, which
is a big help to Joann Chiappine, as she undertakes the humungous task as DRE.
Richard needs help with the spiritual part of the youth group activities.
Liturgical
Committee: Marti Badagliacco, chairperson,
Ron Chance
Marty
Badagliacco complimented the two new eucharistic ministers, Nick Domenico and
Scott Ballinger. Singing has resumed at the Masses and seems to be catching on.
Marty will inform the committee when the next Liturgical Committee will be held
to prepare for Advent.
Maintenance Committee: Sal
Capelli, chairperson, Anthony Capella, Ron Chance, Dave DiMeglio,
Agustin Saldana
Sal
Capella informed the council that the Sons of Italy will be donating a ramp to
be used at the Grace House. Sal needs help to transport the 4-part ramp this
coming week. Sal Capella also brought up the issue regarding the Parish Hall.
The council feels that it should make proposals regarding the future of the
building since not even 10% of the parishioners responded to the questionnaire.
Sal Capella will get a committee together. Issues will include: Should property
behind bingo hall be purchased and replaced with an auditorium for use by
parish, elementary, and high school? Should the bingo hall be leveled? Should
the Bingo Hall be fixed, etc.? Place for bingo, youth group, coffee hour, meetings,
etc., will be taken into consideration by the committee. For the refrigerator
that is needed, the council suggested using refrigerators that are used for the
Mt. Carmel Feast. All agreed.
Social Activities Committee: Elvera Porter, chairperson, Mary
Kryvoruka, Marti Badagliacco, Madge Codone, Pat Campanella, Minerva Rodriguez
Elvera Porter reminded everyone that the Radio Stations, 97.3 and 101.5, are asking for small, new, unwrapped toys for children in New Orleans. The toys can be brought to bins in church and will be delivered to Hamilton Mall on Saturday, November 19. The last date for collection will be Sunday, November 13, 2005. Any question, call Elvera or Gia Porter at 561-3125.
Youth
Ministry Committee: Rich
Blasberg, chairperson, Maryann Laslie
The
youth group meets every Friday from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall. People
interested in helping with the youth group should contact Richard Blasberg or
Cathy Pantalone.
Evangelical
Committee: Hugh LaMonaca, chairperson, Pat
Campanella
Hugh
LaMonaca informed everyone that the envelopes for St. Vincent DePaul are now
included in the packet of envelopes which will be one per month. The society
depends on the generosity of the parishioners. Many people are requesting food
now, which is becoming hard because of the transition to the Grace House. The
food that was distributed in the past during Thanksgiving and Christmas will
this year be distributed in January and February. Hugh also reminded the
counsel that the direct phone line needs to be in place as soon as possible.
By Laws Committee: Hugh LaMonaca, Alex Tigro, Ron Chance
Hugh LaMonaca prepared the revision of the Constitution. Regarding balloting, only 42 ballots were returned; 14 people had 3-4 votes. After phone calls, 8 accepted the nominations, 1 is undecided, and 1 refused. All candidates were asked to write up a short biography along with a picture to be put in the back of church for election time, which will take place in early December.
New Business
In his note, Anthony Padovani reported that some parishioners asked to have the kneelers in the front pews readjusted. The maintenance committee informed the Council that it would be fixed as soon as possible
The Spanish Parish Council is still in the making; Monsignor will have a separate five-week program for the Spanish people before they are able to organize.
Nimia
Bermudez sadly reported that only 4 people of the non-Spanish community
attended the 25th anniversary of Deacon Ismael last month. She
further stated that Deacon Ismael serves the entire parish and should have
received greater recognition. Namia also reported that, although there are
enough donuts at coffee hour, milk and juice are deficient. Hugh LaMonaca
reported that one of the Spanish representatives could purchase whatever is
needed. Since we no longer have bingo, we have to be careful of waste.
The
Christmas meeting will be held at a place to be determined by Frank Carrelli
and Jack Marinella. The date and time to be announced. Sr. Theresa will prepare
the opening and closing prayers.
At
9:30 p.m., the meeting was adjourned. Ron Chance led the closing prayer.
Respectfully
submitted,
Sr.
Dorothy Toussaint, Secretary
Guest, Paul Scully, from the New Jersey Regional Coalition
Ron Chance invited Paul Scully from the New Jersey
Regional Coalition to address the direction of the development of Hammonton.
He stated that a town that does everything right in the
state of New Jersey gets punished for it. When you talk about development and
tax space and because you are a Pine Lands town, you are mandated to preserve
the environment. It means that much of the development and job growth that
comes here gets steered some place else. That would be fine, except public
schools and town services are based on property taxes. That means that if
development is getting steered toward Egg Harbor Township, Hammonton does not
get a dime of that property value of growth and job development. This means
that Hammonton is going to be punished because it still has to pay for public
schools and public services.
Hammonton is one of the few large suburban towns that
actually took it upon themselves to increase their affordable housing --
approximately, 300 – 400 units of low to moderate housing. The point is that it
is good to have some low income housing, but it is bad to have much of it.
Camden and even some other surrounding suburbs of Camden have way too much of
low-income housing which is evidently a problem. New Jersey does not have any
way of saying that Hammonton is already quite diverse.
Hammonton has a good housing stock, a good mix
economically, and a good mix racially. New Jersey does not have a way of
helping a town like Hammonton stay that way. All the New Jersey policies
actually work against towns like Hammonton. For example, the wealthiest towns
(like Egg Harbor Township) can sell off their low income housing obligation to
poor towns that needs the money.
That is how the system in New Jersey works. If you are not
a wealthy town, and you try to do your fair share, like Hammonton does, you
don’t get rewarded for that. New Jersey does not give Hammonton more money, and
they don’t give more grants for schools. At the same time, they say all the job
development and tax space has to go to Egg Harbor Township because Hammonton is
pinned in by the Pine Lands.
Hammonton gets squeezed in by many different sides. If you
do your fair share of affordable housing, which Paul thinks we have done in
Hammonton, and if you do your share to observe the Pinelands, then your taxes are
going to go up. As a result issues, such as Town Hall, schools, and things like
that cause people to be at each other’s throats because they become big issues.
We have to deal with these things internally because the
state is not helping. Although the state should not give Hammonton handouts,
many state policies are working against a town like Hammonton which is trying
to maintain and keep its stability and its diversity.
What does all this have to do with the church? Paul mentioned that where leadership always emerged in the past
from the older generation to the newer generation, it does hold true today.
Today there is a crisis of not being able to get newer people involved in the
church.
The question presented to another group was: “What are the
pressures that are preventing more people from getting involved in the parish,
coming to meetings, and assuming leadership responsibilities in the church?”
Answers included: people live too far apart now, too busy, two jobs, parents
both work, they have to drive children all over, the area is sprawled more than
ever before, people are working 20 – 30 miles away from home, people are
driving one hour or more in heavy traffic to work, towns are changing, people
do not know each other any more, people cannot connect, there is alienation,
lack of stability, more and more people do not know each other -- even in
church on Sunday. These are all the things cited as the major forces keeping
people out of leadership in their church. Furthermore, things taking the place
of community include technology, television, pornography, to name a few.
How can a program be created to address what these forces
do? When people don’t know each other and when community breaks down, people
are more likely to be exploited. People become exploitable as voters, as
taxpayers, as workers, citizens and as a result people get taken advantage of.
Then we see issues, problems, high crime, taxes, bad schools. These don’t occur
in wealthy communities, congregations, marriages, but they do occur where
institutions, like churches, get weaker.
Paul stressed that instead of attacking the issues, start
with the need to build relationships; hence, the bishop’s reason for the
one-to-one conversations with people in the churches in the Diocese of Camden.
Paul noted that St. Joseph Parish is a very interesting
parish in the most positive sense. His purpose is to find out about the people,
individuals, and the parish. If you learn about the parish, you learn about
Hammonton because most parishes are associated with their town.
Paul’s concern is to help build, maintain, and sustain community in a place that has much of mobility and is changing rather rapidly, where people do not know each other like they used to. We need to work on intentional relationship building. In some ways it is the way it was done in the past, but now we need to do it more intentionally. We no longer have the ethnic bonds, the industry bonds, or the geographical bonds that we once had of everyone knowing each other. We are rarely working in the same place or rarely speaking the same language, so we have to find other ways of doing that. We have to find ways of addressing issues, such as, property taxes, public school issues, crime issues, health care issues and are there ways in which the church can be involved in some of these issues to make our community stronger, then we can do both at the same time. The church will be more relevant and more relational.
What can the Parish Council do? Paul suggested that 3 –5 highly qualified leaders be chosen from St. Joseph Parish to take a training course where they can get tools with which to work. These people will go back to the parish, and put together a larger team of secondary leaders who will in turn identify and recruit potential new leaders in the church. Three main purposes are to build the strength of the community, to identify the potential leadership in the church, and find out what the interests are in the parish, while at the same time building a stronger community.
The team will meet people on a one-to-one basis and come back and report on what was learned about our parish, what issues the people are concerned about, and the potential leaders are along with their gifts, interests, talents, concerns, and their real potential. Paul recommended reading “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam. Ron Chance will get the training materials along with the dates and times of the leadership training courses. St. Jude Parish, Blackwood, N. J., has already gone through this process and could be a source of reference to get our group started.