More Church Closings - and Anguish - in Region

By Jonathan Lay
Philadelphia Inquirer
June 2, 2013

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20130603_Phila__Archdiocese_announces_church_closings.html#qH6vBCW6Ioh20sf7.01

St. Louis Church in Yeadon will be merged into Blessed Virgin Mary in Darby. As in all such cases, the combined parishes will use the name of the one where the two will be consolidated, so there will no longer be a St. Louis church. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer

Linda Fleming was baptized at St. Leo the Great on Father's Day in 1958, exactly two weeks after she was born. She received the sacraments of communion and confirmation there, and attended the church's grade school. The Funeral Masses for her parents were said at St. Leo's.

And even after moving to Bustleton in 2010, Fleming still attended services at the church in Philadelphia's Tacony section.

In short, Fleming said Sunday outside the church on Keystone Street, "This is our home."

That home is set to be incorporated into Our Lady of Consolation parish less than a mile away, also in Tacony, as part of an ongoing Archdiocese of Philadelphia initiative to merge parishes.

In all, mergers affecting 27 parishes throughout Northeast, Northwest, and West Philadelphia, as well as Delaware County, were announced Sunday in conjunction with the archdiocesan effort to cut costs and achieve greater efficiencies in light of declining membership.

In the latest round of mergers, effective July 1, 24 parishes are set to merge wholesale with one another, resulting in 10 parishes. An additional parish, Incarnation of Our Lord in Olney, will be divided and merged into two existing parishes, St. Helena in Olney and St. Veronica in Hunting Park.

Churches of parishes set to merge will remain in use, archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth A. Gavin said in an interview Sunday. Though their continued use is not guaranteed, he said, the archdiocese wants them to be available for more than just weddings and funerals.

"The goal is, on top of those special occasions, we'd like to have Mass offered there on a regular basis. It may not be every Sunday, but we are encouraging pastors in these new parishes to have Mass available [in the former parish buildings] on a regular basis," Gavin said.

The latest mergers will leave the archdiocese with 236 parishes. Previous rounds of mergers this year affected parishes in North, West, and lower Northeast Philadelphia. The first set of mergers impacted the city's Germantown, Harrowgate, and Manayunk neighborhoods, along with Coatesville and Phoenixville in Chester County.

Additional mergers are likely, with more parishes due to be reviewed in the fall, the archdiocese said. No target has been set on the ultimate number to be merged, Gavin said.

Sunday's announcement was the largest group of merger decisions to date, Gavin said, because some parishes in West and Northwest Philadelphia, initially studied in earlier rounds, had been set aside for further study. Their futures are now decided, Gavin said.

The mergers are a response to trends that have threatened parish sustainability. The archdiocese has cited demographic shifts in Catholic populations, concentrated density of parishes in a limited geographic area, declining Mass attendance and sacramental activity, increasing economic challenges, and a decrease in the availability of clergy to staff parishes.

Those trends don't explain some individual merger decisions, parishioners at St. Leo said Sunday. Speaking at a news conference and rally after the 11:30 a.m. Mass, they questioned the decision to merge with Our Lady of Consolation.

"St. Leo is a financially stable parish. We are able to stand by ourselves without merging with anyone," parishioner Ann Marie Kuvik read from prepared remarks.

"We have done everything that the archdiocese has asked us to do. . . . We followed the . . . process, and now they want to close us," Kuvik said. "We are confused and have many questions, which we seem to not be able to get answered. We have reached out, but no one will meet with us. We are the church - our voices need to be heard, and our thoughts need to be respected and valued."

Fleming said she was not sure whether she would attend services at the new, merged parish at Our Lady of Consolation. She said she was considering watching a televised Mass instead of attending services.

"I've thought about watching it . . . because here I have a connection. I don't have a connection at any of the other churches," she said. "And you know, here is where I want to go."

Fleming's sister, Cheryl, 53, also of Bustleton, said the announcement had shaken her faith in church leadership.

"It's leaving a bitter taste in everyone's mouth," she said. "You know what? Never once have I ever questioned my faith until now. And it's not so much that I'm questioning my faith - I know my faith is there. I'm questioning the people who are in charge, making decisions.

"Because I don't understand their decisions, and I don't approve of them not explaining their decisions."

Among the many questions they have, parishioners said one stood out: Why is the financially stable church being moved into the struggling one? St. Leo, they said, has about $1.3 million in its coffers while Consolation is about $500,000 in the red.

"This whole thing's a slap in the face. And now that they need the money, because we're more financially solvent, I think it's a disgrace that the combined parish is really just called Our Lady of Consolation," Anthony Costello, 47, said. "Nothing's being incorporated, and we're clearly being swallowed up by Consolation. And I think it's unfortunate."

Finances are only one part of the equation, Gavin said, adding that several combinations had been studied for each parish before the decisions were made. The process had been detailed to parishioners as it progressed, he said.

"It's a very difficult time for a lot of folks when they receive word of a parish merger," Gavin said. "Catholics in Philadelphia have very close ties to their parishes . . . so when a merger occurs, that's extremely difficult for people to process emotionally.

"It's necessary change. It's not something that anybody relishes or wants to happen. Really, what the church is about is not the stone walls of any one building."

As part of its announcement Sunday, the archdiocese said it had decided the following 15 parishes would remain independent. They are:

St. Joseph, Aston; St. Francis de Sales, Lenni; Our Lady of Charity, Brookhaven; St. Katharine Drexel, Chester; St. Vincent de Paul, East Germantown; St. Bartholomew, Frankford; St. Bernard, St. Matthew, and St. Timothy, all in Mayfair; St. Agnes-St. John Nepomucene, St. Michael, and St. Peter the Apostle, all in Fishtown/Northern Liberties; and St. Augustine, Old St. Joseph's, and Old St. Mary's, all in Center City East.