To the Editor:

The Catasauqua Area Lions Club will not be holding its annual holiday dinner for the elderly and indigent this year.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Catasauqua, the location where the meal was held, closed forever and is being converted into a Muslim mosque.

Its fellowship hall was the only venue in town suitable to hold the event.

Muslims do not celebrate Christmas, so the new owners of the former church are not interested in allowing the hall to be used for holding the meal.

While they have not taken ownership of the building yet, attempts to contact the former church council to use the hall one last time were unsuccessful.

Other venues in Catasauqua were not viable for the meal because they were either too small to hold the anticipated number of attendees, wanted to charge fees that would detract from the funds used to serve the free meal or flat out said, “No,” as they were not interested in allowing outsiders to use the facilities.

It’s sad that after 40-plus years of holding this meal, it appears a new suitable location cannot be found. But let’s remain hopeful and see what the future brings us in 2020. We can only move forward and must stop looking back.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Robert Zakos Jr.

Past president, Catasauqua Area Lions Club

Catasauqua