VIGIL PROTESTS CHURCH CLOSING - SOME PARISHIONERS MAINTAIN 24-HOUR PRESENCE IN HOPES ST. MARY CHURCH WILL REOPEN.
Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY) - July 6, 2007
Author: Renee K. Gadoua Staff writer

Nearly a week after the final Mass at St. Mary Church in Jamesville, a small group of longtime parishioners continues a 24-hour-a-day vigil to protest the church's closure.

Thursday, Dorothy Fairbanks dusted and vacuumed the sanctuary of the church, which dates to 1899.

"I'm going to keep cleaning it until it reopens," Fairbanks said.

Monsignor Robert Yeazel, pastor of St. Mary and Holy Cross Church, DeWitt, said the closure will not be reversed.

"The decision has been made and we are moving on," Yeazel said.

The Jamesville church at 6437 E. Seneca Turnpike is the first of more than 40 churches that will close in the next few years as part of the reorganization of the seven-county Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. Closures and mergers are in response to a declining number of clergy and population shifts from urban and rural areas to the suburbs.

A small group from St. Mary is appealing to the Vatican, claiming local church officials did not follow church law in making the decisions. Groups at St. Andrew the Apostle and St.Stephen in Syracuse also are appealing to the Vatican to reverse decisions to merge or close their churches.

Experts say such appeals are almost never successful.

Ciarrai Eaton and her 4-month-old daughter, Moira, have spent five nights at the church since June 28. Other family members and church members are taking turns to maintain a full-time presence at the church.

Eaton, who started the vigil, said six generations of her family have attended St. Mary, including ancestors who helped build the church.

She and her mother, Margaret DiCosimo, said Yeazel and Bishop James Moynihan did not include them in the decision-making process.

"They had already made up their mind," DiCosimo said.

Yeazel said representatives from St. Mary and Holy Family agreed last summer to stop celebrating Mass at St. Mary this year.

Yeazel doesn't intend to force the protesters out.

"They're not going to harm the church," he said. "They're good people."

Renee K. Gadoua can be reached at rgadoua@syracuse.com or 470-2203.