By GISELLE SOTELO
Staff Writer; gsotelo@thedailyjournal.com
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Camden Diocese led the Mass and bestowed his blessing on the newly created St. Padre Pio Parish, which encompasses Our Lady of Pompeii and St. Mary churches in Vineland, as well as St. Joseph Mission in Richland.
The churches merged Jan.15. They'll retain their names in part. For example, one is called St. Padre Pio Parish, Our Lady of Pompeii Campus.
Each will remain open for daily and weekend Mass. But the parish councils have been combined.
"We can grow stronger, we can grow deeper in our faith by the joining of these two parishes and the mission," DiMarzio said. "The sum of the parts here will be greater than the whole."
The merger constitutes both a resurrection of a glorious past and the promise of a reinvigorated future, DiMarzio said.
Our Lady of Pompeii and St. Mary's, about 1.8 miles apart, previously had combined their senior and youth clubs. They also both send students to St. Mary's Regional School.
"(The merger is) an ideal situation because it brings the families back together," said the Rev. Peter Saporito, pastor of St. Padre Pio Parish.
For others, emotions were mixed.
Eleanor Coia, a lifelong parishioner of St. Mary's Church, attended 11 a.m. Mass there. She now attends Sunday morning Mass at the parish's Our Lady of Pompeii Campus.
"It was hard to leave (St. Mary's)," said Coia, 72, of East Vineland. "I've been going there since I was a little girl. But I think now it's sinking in."
The decision to merge the churches was fueled in part by their proximity. But a shortage of priests in the area also contributed, DiMarzio said.
The church is making great strides in its attempt to offset the shortage by recruiting priests from overseas, he said. But the preference is always to "look to ourselves to serve the church" by tapping into the local priests.
The three churches boast a combined membership of about 1,080 families.
The merger was logical, most say. And so was the name of the new parish, Saporito said.
St. Padre Pio is a well-known figure among local worshippers. He also is honored at a shrine that sits on 10 acres of farmland in Landisville.
The recently canonized Italian monk was credited with a number of miraculous healings before his death and was one of only a few saints who bore the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ.
Locals frequently pray at the Landisville shrine and continue to credit miracles to him.
"My family and I have always prayed to Padre Pio," said John Landicini, 56, a Vineland resident and parishioner at Our Lady of Pompeii the last eight years. "He's an Italian saint. We're from Italy ... It's just a common name for us."