In the past 18 months, Father Luke McCann has made three requests to his parishioners to contribute more towards the running of the Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish or else see closure.  "This is America and when you don't pay your bills, you have to leave," said Father McCann.

Not wanting to close the doors of the Church, the priest is trying to make alternative arrangements but is not sure of the outcome.  "I have applied for inter-parish financing, hoping that the more affluent parishes can pay our bills, but there is no guarantee of that.  The archbishop knows our problems.  He knows that we have a dependent population here who cannot always go across the river to attend Mass.  It is up to him now.  After all, somebody is going to have to pay the rent.

"Our overheads are beyond control," Father McCann said.  "Over twenty years, our rent has gone up from $300 to $1200.  We have six paid positions, we pay for the elevator, for the cleaning and maintenance of the water tower and other supplies.  Liability insurance costs us $3249 per year.  Heating in the large Chapel costs us $2050 per season.  Security costs us over $400 and air-conditioning costs us nearly $1,000 per season.  We are not in commerce and I wonder where all this escalation in operating costs is going to lead us.  We provide a service to the Island.  The Church represents stability and yet we are treated like a commercial entity."

Father McCann estimates that the operating costs for the parish are $2,300 per week.  The weekly income is less than half at $1000.  Sister Regina Palamara explains that this shortfall can be made up if more Catholics attend.  "Right now, we have about 350 active members, who cannot possibly come up with the operating cost.  There are nearly 1,000 Catholics on the Island but they do not come to Church.  They remain anonymous and are not registered.  I call them whimsical and social Catholics.  We are in a society of unconnected and disconnected people.  Even so, we are here when they need us," pointed out Sister Regina.

"Our collections will rise when people come back," said Father McCann.  "I have baptized the four hundred forty-first child on the Island.  If we can get people to attend our religious and adult education programs, we could manage.  If we made a great effort, we could get all the estranged people back.  We hold three masses on weekends, three during the week and some during the holidays.  If more people volunteer, we could keep the Chapel open for longer hours."

"What we need to do is to offer bread for the soul," said Sister Regina.  "We need good liturgies, good services and something that will get people juiced up for the week.  We want our parishioners to go out and evangelize.  We want more parishioners to come for the Sacraments."

Father Luke McCann points out that the problem stems from the fact that Southtown was not built according to the General Development Plan.  "When the Island was projected as a parish in 1972, it was to have included both Northtown and Southtown, but since the latter has not been built, the numbers originally projected to maintain a viable parish never became a reality.  We have been hobbled ever since."  In his letter to parishioners, Father McCann wrote that Southtown is projected to provide "studio occupancy housing," and continues, "Studio apartments would not foster family residency.  Thus prospects for FXC as a sizable, self-supporting family parish have diminished."

The parish is unique in that it does not own any building, so the rent keeps going up every year.  "We are never going to amortize anything.  Our only revenue comes from our parishioners and we can only look to those who live on the Island.  In other congregations, people drive to attend Church.  Here, we only have the people who are residents and many are transients," said Father McCann.  "This is a desperate situation."

In his parish letter, Father McCann wrote, "We are on the way to becoming a mission church [with] a priest of one of the mainland parishes traveling over for one mass on Sunday."