{"id":165152,"date":"2026-03-16T16:56:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165152\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:56:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:56:43","slug":"st-camillus-catholic-church-remain-to-open-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165152\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Camillus Catholic Church Remain To Open in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Tablet Staff\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ROCKAWAY PARK \u2014\u00a0St. Camillus Church will remain open.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe heard you.\u00a0I am happy to tell you today that our bishop has decided that St. Camillus is to remain open,\u201d\u00a0announced\u00a0Father James Rodriguez, the church administrator, on March 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Father Rodriguez informed parishioners at the 11:30 a.m. Mass of Bishop Robert Brennan\u2019s decision to preserve the church, which has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetablet.org\/st-camillus-parishioners-reunite-queens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">served the community<\/a> for more than 115 years.\u00a0Last June, parishioners were told\u00a0that\u00a0St. Camillus <a href=\"https:\/\/thetablet.org\/st-camillus-church-to-close\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">would be closing<\/a>\u00a0due to\u00a0declining attendance and debt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout this time,\u00a0there was a growing sentiment that this could not be the end, that\u00a0there had to be something we could do,\u201d Father Rodriguez said. \u201cIn October, we met with Bishop Brennan, who agreed to prayerfully consider the upswell of support and hope represented in that crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As part of\u00a0the decision, Father Rodriguez,\u00a0who is also\u00a0pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church,\u00a0said Bishop\u00a0Brennan will assign a new administrator\u00a0to\u00a0St. Camillus, \u201cwhose attention can be solely focused on building up with you what you have so lovingly fought for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-274504\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ExteriorKatieV.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-274504\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ExteriorKatieV.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"  \/>Last June, parishioners were informed that St. Camillus Church in Rockaway Park would close. Eight months later, Father James Rodriguez informed parishioners at Mass on March 15 that it would remain open. (Photos: Katie Vasquez)<\/p>\n<p>St. Camillus was founded in 1908. It\u00a0merged with St.\u00a0Virgilius\u00a0Church in Broad Channel in 2008.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the time the decision to close St. Camillus was announced,\u00a0St. Camillus\u00a0averaged 175 people at their Sunday Mass and was more than $3 million in debt, which the diocese\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201ccan only be addressed by selling or leasing this expansive property.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On March 15, Father Rodriguez emphasized that the diocese\u2019s decision to preserve St. Camillus \u201cdoes not mean that\u00a0our work is done.\u201d He noted that while Mass attendance has \u201cconsistently and dramatically\u201d increased,\u00a0solving\u00a0the church\u2019s\u00a0financial challenges will\u00a0require \u201cinventive solutions and sacrifice.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the next few months,\u201d he said, \u201cwe will continue planning fundraisers and events, praying together for guidance from God,\u00a0who is the source and summit of all our joy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Tablet Staff\u00a0\u00a0 ROCKAWAY PARK \u2014\u00a0St. Camillus Church will remain open.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe heard you.\u00a0I am happy to tell&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-165152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}