As per an announcement in the weekly bulletin, by Msgr. Lisante, our parish is now down to ONE Music Director. Mr. Titone is
going to retire (no doubt, with a gun to his head).
Why would the parish keep Rapanaro, when we had a full voiced, professionally trained opera singer like Mr Titone. What is the difference in their salaries? I will guess
that Rapanaro's salary is much higher, and he probably has a contract with Msgr, which Mr Titone never needed with the former Pastor, Fr. Mason.
My take on this situation is that the Msgr. has burned through the surplus that was left by Fr. Mason. This “lack of funds” now paves the way for the Bishop to claim that there was not enough money in OLL to justify keeping it open.... particularly since there are several other parishes close by. The motives are blatantly obvious, like looking through a pane of clear glass... you can see right through it. What happened to Monsignor’s claim of receiving over $17,000 per week in collections? Could it be that the monies have been taken out of the surplus to inflate the weekly collections? When the true collection amounts are revealed, it will look like a drastic drop; therefore, providing them a two-fold accomplishment....use up what excess they had, and look like the parishioners are not contributing what is needed to warrant keeping the parish open.
I had predicted, back in 2008, that it was what would come to fruition: Step one - close down the school, Step two – show a drop in weekly collection, thus giving way to close the parish altogether! The church has one main job, that of saving as many souls as possible from going to Hell and leading them instead to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Pray for Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, good people being crushed by those to whom their well-being was entrusted.
To all those responsible for the demise of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, may GOD have mercy on your Souls!
Itzik
