Change Issued for Catholic Churches, Jackson Citizen Patriot, September 15, 2008

Change Issued for Catholic Churches

Jackson Citizen Patriot
September 15, 2008

http://blog.mlive.com/citpat/2008/09/change_issued_for_catholic_chu.html

Two Catholic congregations in Jackson County will begin sharing a building and two others will form a "cluster," parishioners were told Sunday morning during Masses.

Sacred Heart Chapel, 1501 E. Michigan Ave., which serves the Spanish-speaking population, will close; those parishioners will move to St. Stanislaus Kostka, 604 S. Elm St., a parish strongly tied to its Polish roots.

St. Rita Catholic Church, 10720 Hayes Road, midway between Clark Lake and Lake Columbia, will form a cluster with historic St. Joseph Shrine, in the Irish Hills. In this arrangement, worshippers will continue to attend services in their respective churches but administrative boards will merge.

The Rev. James Shaver addresses concerns and questions at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Sunday about the Sacred Heart Chapel closing within a year and moving to St. Stan's.
Photo by Nick Dentamaro

Bishop Earl Boyea was to announce the changes this morning in a Lansing press conference. It is one of his first major decisions as bishop of the 10-county diocese that includes Jackson.

Boyea, who was installed in April, wants the changes to happen within a year. All regions of the diocese are being affected.

A diocese-wide look at parishes, schools and all related activities, "Planning Tomorrow's Churches," has been in the works since February 2006.

"Attendance at Masses in the Jackson region has fallen by 16 percent in the last eight years," said Michael D. Diebold, director of communications for the diocese.

The drop has been most pronounced at St. Stanislaus. In 1995, it had 382 registered worshippers; by 2005 that number dropped to 223, according to Faith magazine, a diocesan publication.

Meanwhile, Sacred Heart has grown to 150 registered families.

"We've got a parish with a dwindling population and dwindling resources that was slated for closure. We've got another parish with a growing population base that, because of infrastructure limitations, is hampered in their growth," said Diebold. "What a perfect marriage of the two."

After the relocation, the two ethnic congregations will share the St. Stan's building. St. Stan's members will have their Mass around the current time of 9 a.m. Sundays; the Saturday-evening Mass will be dropped.

Sacred Heart will be served by a priest from St. Mary Catholic Church, 120 E. Wesley St., who will celebrate Mass in Spanish at least three weekends a month. Its Mass will continue to be at noon Sunday.

In a change that could affect several county parishes, Diebold said any service where attendance is consistently less than 50 percent of the hall's capacity will be dropped or consolidated. This will free up priests who are stretched nearly beyond their limits.

Currently, 11 priests cover 36 weekend Masses for nearly 8,000 worshippers in the Jackson region. The number of priests will gradually shrink to seven.

"If worshippers were shrinking the same way the number of priests are, there wouldn't be a problem," the Rev. James Shaver told St. Stan's attendees Sunday morning. "But thank God they aren't."

Change is good news for some

Relief was expressed Sunday at two Jackson Catholic parishes, for completely different reasons.

Members of St. Stanislaus Kostka, an ethnic Polish congregation, learned at their 9 a.m. Mass that the parish won't close, as some had feared. Instead, it will become a chapel and be shared with the Spanish-speaking Sacred Heart congregation, who got the news at noon Mass.

At St. Stan's, 604 S. Elm St., fewer than 100 people sat in a sanctuary that would easily hold three times that number.

Meanwhile, 200 people crammed into Sacred Heart Chapel, 1501 E. Michigan Ave., some having to sit on a pew in a hallway that blocked their view of the Rev. Michael Kuchar at the altar. A few pews have kneelers, but most worshippers rested their knees on hard linoleum or thin carpeting. Several buckets collected rain water that dripped from the ceiling.

As she helped serve a lunch at Sacred Heart, Mercedes Kestner bubbled as vigorously as the water cooking the hot dogs.

"This news is what we have been waiting for," she said. "We are absolutely thrilled."

St. Stan's was organized in 1920 with 350 families. The parish school was run by the Felician Sisters who lived in the convent. At the church's 50th jubilee, the school had 200 students. Today, the sisters are gone and so is the school, its students consolidated with St. Mary Elementary School.

"I don't know when we last had a wedding here," said Loraine Vessey, 72, a lifelong St. Stan's member.

"I was married here, our children had their first communion here. I would have burst into tears if they told us it was closing."

Bill Smolak, a member since 1956, said Masses have been celebrated in Polish for many years, and the church is used to having a Polish-speaking priest.

"On Christmas Eve, we sing all the hymns in Polish," he said.

However, Smolak said he is grateful to have a priest to celebrate Mass, whether in English or Polish.

At Sacred Heart, the mood was upbeat.

"We've been here 26 years and this is a long time coming," said David Sauceda, who was the chapel's first altar boy. "Change is difficult and I know some of our members will fear the unknown. But we look forward to an exciting time as we grow as a Latino community."