PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Kate Wilcox
Published: Saturday, May 4, 2013
Two parishes in the Greensburg Catholic Diocese will close, several others will merge and the fate of three diocesan elementary schools is in question, Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt announced Friday.
Citing an ever-declining population and funds, as well as a shortage of priests, Brandt said the diocese has been slowly closing and merging schools and parishes since a strategic plan was put in place in 2006.
All parish closings and reorganizations will be effective Tuesday, June 25, 2013.
• St. Hedwig in Smock, Fayette County, and St. Boniface in Latrobe will close. There are other parishes within five to seven miles of the two churches that parishioners can attend, Brandt said.
St. Hedwig has 192 families and St. Boniface has 141 families.
• Merging into one: Madonna of Czestochowa, Cardale; St. Thomas, Footedale; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Leckrone; All Saints, Masontown; St. Procopius, New Salem; and Holy Rosary, Republic. The new parish will be named St. Francis of Assisi with worship sites in Footedale and Masontown.
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