12/16/2024
On Dec. 14, the vigil of Gaudete Sunday, Father Bergman announced in his homily that St. Alban’s was suppressed as a canonical community by Bishop Lopes and the governing council in October. Father Bergman said the Ordinariate does not have enough priests and there is not one envisioned to send us. Other communities grew faster. After Mass concluded, a 90 minute discussion ensued. It was revealed that the decision to suppress us came after a Catholic pastor had offered St. Alban’s a church campus he needed to sell. It was pointed out that this decision to suppress was taken without consultation with the people of St Alban’s as the magisterium of Pope Francis following the Synod on Synodality says it should. Had consultation with the People of God here at St Alban’s taken place as Pope Francis and the synod teach, we would be in a different place. We note this decision was taken without any diocesan pastoral council being established that Anglicanorum Coetibus mandates and which the synod declares with the pope should be mandatory. That institution could have been a voice for us to speak to and the bishop and governing council to listen to. It was asked this be rectified for the Ordinariate and that the bishop convoke a diocesan synod as the global synod strongly backed that mechanism. We asked that the bishop and governing council rescind this decision in light of the facts we relayed to Father Bergman about this community’s work to achieve the goals set for us, and the papal magisterium expressed in the Synod Final Document, and allow us to achieve the goal set for us to have a permanent property (church and rectory) so we could acquire a full time priest. That decision is in their hands. A full account of this meeting and its contents is expected to follow. This decision ends a chapter for St. Alban’s, which is effectively a fellowship once again. We are grateful for all Jesus Christ has accomplished through us and for the gift of our community, and for all those who have cared for us, including Father Bergman who had to relay a painful message. We are forever grateful to Father Evan Simington who was a model of the kind of loving pastor with a synodal style Pope Francis aspires for the church and achieved remarkable growth with us, working collaboratively for the sake of making Jesus Christ known and lived, when he was with us. We are grateful to each other and everyone’s sacrifices. We will determine next steps by prayerful consultation and consensus in order to carry out the Gospel in our Rochester region as a community using our gifts and charisms and traditions as Jesus Christ calls us by virtue of our common baptism while members attend Catholic Mass at other Roman Rite parishes. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
