After some 50 years, members of the Cistercian community are withdrawing their presence and service from the Diocese of Trenton.

Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., announced that at a June 24 meeting with Dom Eugenio Romagnuolo, the Abbot President of the Cistercians, he learned of the Cistercian council’s decision to withdraw the Cistercian priests from St. John Neumann Parish, Mount Laurel, and to suppress or close Our Lady of Fatima Monastery, where the priests reside. During the meeting, Dom Romagnuolo presented Bishop O’Connell with the official “Decree of Suppression.”

In a letter to the St. John Neumann community that was read at all weekend Masses June 25-26, Bishop O’Connell informed the congregation that the Cistercians’ departure will not “alter the status” of the parish. St. John Neumann had been staffed by the Cistercian priests from the time of its founding in 1978 until 2013, when Bishop O’Connell redirected the parish leadership to a diocesan priest, Father Philip C. Pfleger.

Father Pfleger was initially named administrator of the parish and then was named pastor.

Bishop O’Connell indicated that the “time of the Cistercians’ actual departure has not yet been determined nor has the future use of the monastery,” but that parishioners will be kept informed once the decisions have been made. There are currently three priests residing in the monastery: Father Maurizio Nicoletti, Father Awte Weldu and Father Musie Tesfayohannes, with the latter two also serving as parochial vicars of St. John Neumann.

“Please join me in expressing deep gratitude to the Cistercian community for their many years of service at St. John Neumann Parish,” stated Bishop O’Connell in his letter. “May God be with our Cistercian priests as they return home” to Italy.