Prayers have been answered. “This is like our miracle. You can’t close St. CamillUs,” a jubilant parishioner, Barbara Buffolino, said after Father James Rodriguez announced near the end of Mass on Sunday, March 15, a welcomed message of “St. Camillus is to remain open.”
A crowded St. Camillus erupted into cheers and applause at the announcement, after just 10 months earlier on May 25, Fr. Rodriguez had announced “We have to close St. Camillus by the end of the year.” The announcement of the need to close and Sunday’s happier update came as a relayed decision from Diocese of Brooklyn’s Bishop Robert Brennan.
Among the reasons for the initial decision to close were mainly poor attendance and financial hardships. “The church averages 175 people at their Sunday Mass. Despite the generosity of the parishioners, the parish debt currently amounts to over $3 million, which can only be addressed by selling or leasing the expansive property,” the Diocese of Brooklyn said at the time…