St. Patrick parish in Smithtown, NY, is a vibrant community. However, we recognize that we are part of a greater community, the Body of Christ, our Lord, as represented by His Holy Church. We are bound together in community by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict the XVI and our Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. We are also bound to all the parishes in our diocese. Below is a listing of our closest neighbors. They offer many services and opportunities that compliment those found at St. Patrick’s. Many programs and services, for example, are only offered by the diocese.
St. Patrick Parish is part of the Diocese of Rockville Centre which serves the pastoral needs of Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, New York. The Diocese of Brooklyn, serving the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and the Arch-Diocese of New York, serving the remainder of the greater New York City metropolitan area, are our neighboring diocese.
A deanery, or vicariates forane, is an administrative grouping of neighboring parishes designated by the local bishop to work together towards assuring that managment, maintenance and pastoral goals of the diocese are properly met. Deanery meetings allow pastors to receive, share and exchange information relevant to the life of the church. Not all of the parishes closest to us are in our deanery. They are listed in the following sections.
St. Patrick parish is a Latin Rite Church, also known as a ‘Roman Catholic Church’. This is where the designation R.C.C. comes from. However, the Church, under and in full communion with the Pope, is made up of many communities or Rites. There are over 20 Eastern Rites that trace their apostolic heritage back to the church centered on the ancient city of Byzantium (today it is known as Istanbul.) Members of these Eastern Rite churches are as fully Catholic as those of us who belong to the much more familiar Latin Rite. To paraphrase Pope John Paul II of Blessed Memory, please take some time to 'breath with the other lung of our Holy Church.'
Our parish has close historical ties to one of our sister Eastern Rite Churches, the Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Church of Smithtown. The Church, located on Edgewater Ave, was the home of St. Patrick parish from 1929 up to the mid-1960’s. Many of the statues that are found on our campus originally came from our old church. Our parishioners regularly attend and participate in the sacramental life and fellowship offered by the Resurrection Byzantine Church.
