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Our Calling

We are a group of parishioners from the historic Saint Mary's Church in Jamesville, New York. Our church was built in 1899 through the generosity of local Catholic families. We have filed and are currently pursuing an appeal to keep our church open after it was closed by the Syracuse diocese on July 1, 2007. This website serves as a place to learn about St. Mary's and the appeal process, and receive the latest updates on our efforts.

St. Mary's Church
est. 1899

* Come Join Us *

Our parish meets for prayer every Sunday at 9:00 in front of St. Mary Church in Jamesville. All are Welcome!

Update - St. Mary's Saved!!

St. Mary’s, Jamesville – 5/24/11 Press Release:

The Vatican's supreme court equivalent, (the Apostolic Signatura), found in St. Mary’s favor on the issue most important to us: that on the merits of the issue under review, the CHURCH of St Mary cannot be deconsecrated, but must be maintained as a Catholic worship site.

While we have the official decision in black-and-white, we will have to wait several weeks for all the details, regarding the legal reasoning that has led the court to this historic decision.

And it is historic for Catholic America:

Our advocates have reviewed similar appeals from American parishioner groups, involving approximately 100 cases over the past 20 years.

During those two decades, only one other parishioner group secured this type of decision, but in that case the court ruled that the archbishop of Chicago (Cardinal Bernardin) had erred on PROCEDURAL grounds. The process was restarted and the church was closed down on the second try.

In St. Mary’s case, however, the court has ruled that the bishop of Syracuse has erred on THE MERITS of the case as a matter of canon law. This the diocese cannot fix.

We, the parishioners of St Mary, have sustained this effort for several years. And there were many who may have been skeptical about the outcome. Our faith remained strong. Today is a good day...it is not the end of our journey, but our destination is now in sight. We remain cautiously optimistic.

St. Mary parishioners' prayers answered: Vatican says Jamesville church must remain a worship site

Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY) - May 24, 2011
Author: Elizabeth Doran

What happens next in the fight to reopen St. Mary Church in Jamesville is up to the bishop

Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY) - May 28, 2011
Author: Elizabeth Doran

Background: The campaign to keep our church open began in September 2006, when Bishop James Moynihan announced that St. Mary's would become a mission of Holy Cross parish in DeWitt, New York. The decision to make St. Mary's a mission was due to the fact that the bishop announced that our PCA (pastoral care area) needed to have a plan that allowed it to function with half the priests that were currently serving our area. The plan included closing some parishes. We decided that we needed to make St. Mary's the most vibrant parish possible in order to prevent it from being closed by the diocese. We named our campaign "Mission Possible."

On Monday nights, we met to create committees, compile an up-to-date parishioner list, and to draft a submission to the bishop with a list of reasons why our parish should remain open. Many Monday nights later, we were told by our pastor, Msgr. Robert Yeazel, that St. Mary's would be closed. Acting fast, we voted that we would appeal to the Vatican to reverse the bishop's decision.

That said, WE ARE NOT RADICALS. The right of appeal is fully sanctioned by canon law. All we ask is that the Syracuse Diocese follow the Church's own rules. For the facts, please refer to the “Appeals” and related “Documents” sections above.

Contact: If you have comments, questions, words of encouragement, or any other relevant items that you would like to see added to this site, please contact our webmaster, John A. Davies, at: <garrison202@yahoo.com>.