We hope you all had a blessed Christmas season and we wish you a Happy 2016. Our group of dedicated parishioners have been working hard on our path to success. Below is an update of our progress so far.
-Sincerely,
SGCPS Meetings at the Pittsburgh Diocese St. John Vianney parishioners have had two meetings with Bishop Zubik and his advisers regarding our concerns for the future of the church building. December 21, 2015 We met with Bishop Zubik and discussed our efforts to protect and preserve the church. We outlined our proposal to use the St. George Church Preservation Society, with their large audience of supporters, to conduct fund-raising. These efforts would: Provide for the continued operation of the church as a worship site. Fund and oversee a prioritized and phased restoration of the church.
We cited the information from our on-site consultations with reputable and experienced contractors who expressed optimism and encouragement for the possibility of restoring the church. The Diocese provided an updated engineering study of the church that did not reveal any severe or critical structural issues that need immediate attention. This was very encouraging information. Bishop Zubik expressed his concerns about the decline of the Catholic population in the neighborhood and the limited number of priests that are available to cover masses. He asked us to consider the effect of our church remaining open as other churches have been closed. We were encouraged by Bishop Zubik and his thoughtfulness, sincerity, and willingness to work with us. He invited us to meet with him again after Christmas, giving us the time to prayerfully consider ways to to address his concerns about our plans. During the Christmas season We reflected as individuals on what the Bishop had asked of us. We also had discussions with our fellow parishioners and did research about how the Diocese is addressing the shortage of priests and reaching out to the changing demographics in areas across the Diocese. As we reviewed the details of the “On Mission for the Church Alive!” initiative, we were excited by the possibilities of this process benefiting Allentown with a focus on keeping the Catholic presence that our church provides in the heart of the Hilltop communities. We compared our mass attendance and the generosity of our parishioners to the surrounding Catholic churches that are not facing a deadline for closure. Our findings indicate that parishes have a variety of needs and different levels of resources available to them for their missions to keep the churches alive. January 6, 2016 We had our second meeting with Bishop Zubik. We shared with him our optimism about the published success stories of the “On Mission for the Church Alive!” initiative in other areas of the Diocese and how we were willing to embrace these proven tactics to successfully keep our church alive. Other items discussed were: Whether the closing of churches in other areas has slowed the decline of the Catholic population in those areas. We reviewed our findings regarding the positive comparison of our mass attendance and the generosity of our parishioners to similarly situated churches that are not being closed. We noted that even during this lengthy period of despair, our parishioners exceeded their pledges to the Church Alive campaign that also benefits other parishes. We noted that the Diocese provides different levels of talent and support to different parishes as their needs and resources require. We expressed our optimism that the solutions being proposed by the “On Mission for the Church Alive!” process could lessen the effect of the priest shortage to provide for weekly masses at our church.
Bishop Zubik indicated that there is only a short amount of time left for him to make a decision about the future of our church and we would not be able to meet again. We are thankful to Bishop Zubik and his advisers for their time. While we wait for his decision, we continue to pray that he will keep our church open and encourage us on our path to successfully keep and maintain our long standing Catholic presence in the heart of the Hilltop. | 
