Second
of two parts
As the Archdiocese of Milwaukee implements the third
cycle of its Parish Planning Commission, the Catholic
Herald looks at some of the parishes that have been
created through mergers. This story examines four recently
formed parishes: Our Lady of Divine Providence and Three
Holy Women in Milwaukee, St. Martin of Tours in Franklin
and St. Elizabeth Parish in Kenosha.
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| PRAYING
TOGETHER — Fr. Gerry Hessel, pastor
of Our Lady of Divine Providence parish in the
Riverwest area of Milwaukee, begins Mass at the
recently merged parish. The Milwaukee archdiocese
currently is in its third planning cycle since
1989. |
This past July saw the official start to Our Lady of
Divine Providence, a new parish formed by the merger
of the former St. Casimir and St. Mary of Czestochowa
parishes in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.
Parishioners, however, say the idea of collaboration
is nothing new. Mary Anne Borowski, who joined the former
St. Casimir in 1964, said the two parishes often met
and worked together to plan events such as festivals.
Like the Riverwest neighborhood she called home for
30 years, she said St. Casimir had a history of adapting
to change.
Patricia Beirne, who grew up at St. Casimir and became
a pastoral associate there in 1997, agreed. She remembered
the parish school with two classrooms of over 50 children
in each grade, and a barracks to hold students. Today,
the parish school is part of a multi-parish endeavor,
Catholic East Elementary.
Beirne, now pastoral associate for Our Lady of Divine
Providence, said that after the archdiocese recommended
collaboration for the two parishes in 1989, evening
Masses alternated at both sites. Later a joint parish
council was established, and administration, human concerns,
and even volunteer programs were combined.
“There always have been people who were ready,
who tried to move things forward. And, of course, there
will always be others who, like when we asked for names,
suggested, ‘The Two Judases,’” Beirne
said, chuckling.
Financial difficulties
lead to merger
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| JOINING
HANDS — Our Lady of Divine Providence
parishioners join hands while praying the Lord’s
Prayer at a recent Mass. The parish was created
by a recent merger of St. Casimir and Our Lady
of Czestochowa parishes in Milwaukee’s Riverwest
neighborhood. (Catholic Herald photos by James
Pearson) |
When Fr. Gerald Hessel came to the parishes in 2000,
he said he was told by the archdiocese that the merger
would not be necessary, and in his first two weeks as
pastor, he told people that. But within a month, he
realized that both parishes were in financial trouble,
and turned back to the archdiocese, asking for a merger.
Hessel said he was told that parishioners needed to
be prepared for a merger, and Archbishop Rembert G.
Weakland recommended strategic planning.
So Fr. Hessel and Beirne arranged a planning committee
and set up information sessions to explain the situation,
answer questions and consult with parishioners on options.
At the end of the sessions, all registered members were
asked which direction they’d like to take. Overwhelmingly,
they voted for a merger, Hessel said.
Beirne said that some savings have been realized, since
now there is only one insurance policy and one bank
account. But with the merger only a few months old,
it’s too soon to judge how the parish has been
affected financially.
Parish population
about 400
Looking
back, looking ahead |
Planning
commission stresses
need for communication |
Parishes throughout the
Milwaukee Archdiocese have already begun preparing
for the third cycle of a long-range archdiocesan
planning process by scheduling parish/cluster
meetings and district consultations this month.
An Archdiocesan Parish Leadership Day was held
Sept. 27 to help focus on the planning process.
Parish input is particularly being emphasized
in the cycle, said Auxiliary Bishop Richard J.
Sklba, who chairs the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Parish
Planning Commission.
“This time
we will be depending more immediately on the various
recommendations which will come from the parish
clusters themselves,” Bishop Sklba said
in an e-mail interview with the Catholic Herald.
“That will be evident from the fact that
the central steering committee last time had a
person or member from each district, whereas this
time the regional contribution will be at the
more local level of conversation and recommendation.
“Each parish/cluster situation
is unique and we will try to respect the ideas
which are proposed, recognizing that parishes
which choose not to participate may find themselves
severely disadvantaged in the future.”
He said the commission had also learned to bring
tentative directives back to the district dean
and parish cluster for reactions and review before
submitting them to the archbishop.
Maureen Gallagher, the archbishop’s delegate
for the Department for Parishes, and a member
of the parish planning commission, said parish
participation made the difference in successful
mergers.
“We learned that the
more people who were involved and the greater
the priest leadership — no matter what the
directive was — the greater was the acceptance
by the people,” she said. “We are
terribly in debt to the priests and the lay leadership
in the parishes for the success of the process.”
Bishop Sklba acknowledged that lessons the commission
learned in cycle two helped shape changes in the
third cycle of planning, but said he doubted the
commission would have done anything differently
the last time, “given the reality of people’s
mindset.”
“We probably could
have communicated more intensely with the parishes
and more often,” Gallagher said. “The
longer I’m involved in planning with parishes
and school, the more I know that we cannot ‘over
communicate.’”
—
Margaret Plevak |
Fr. Hessel estimated parish population at about 400
families. He doesn’t know if new development along
the Milwaukee River will bring an influx of Catholics,
but he realizes the need for a strong evangelization
program that will involve the entire parish.
There is also a thriving Hispanic community in Our Lady
of Divine Providence. The parish offers a Sunday morning
Spanish Mass, at which bulletins and archdiocesan mailings
printed in Spanish are available.
Eugenio Imirez, a deacon at the parish, said the Spanish
Mass started about seven years ago. He believes parish
collaboration has brought about some changes.
“I think that the community has accepted the Hispanic
community now since we’re going to be worshiping
together more now than before,” he said. His sister,
Isabel Velazquez, attended St. Casimir when her children,
now grown, went to the parish school.
“For a while we felt like we didn’t belong
and then we stopped coming, but with the Spanish Mass,
we came back,” she said, adding that the merger
has started to form a sense of community among people.
“It used to be, ‘This is my church. This
is your church.’ I don’t hear that now.”
Three Holy Women
Parish
Fr. Timothy Kitzke came on as pastor to Milwaukee’s
Three Holy Women Parish in 1999, in the middle of the
merger process of the three former parishes of St. Hedwig,
St. Rita and Holy Rosary.
Collaboration had already been going on through Catholic
East Elementary School, a joint effort of six area parishes,
and a religious education program called East Side Child
and Youth, which involves five parishes. Holy Rosary
and St. Rita had been sharing a parish administrator.
But Fr. Kitzke knew that people had questions.
“Whenever there’s a merger, there’s
always a little percolating going on,” he said.
“What’s going to happen? What are we going
to lose in this? Who’s the new guy on the block
coming in with ideas?”
He encouraged people not to talk about buildings right
away, but focus instead on building a parish. To him
that meant balancing the needs of two generations.
“The original three parishes were built on a lot
of blood, sweat and tears, so what we tried to do is
show ultimate respect and gratitude for the past. Yet
we have a new reality as well, with all these people
who don’t have that historical connection, but
are moving into this part of the city, thus increasing
our membership,” he said. “We have to envision
the future, and realize that we need to work together.”
Parish offers ethnic
diversity
Three Holy Women’s incorporated ethnic traditions,
such as a St. Patrick’s Day dinner or the Polish
custom of blessing Easter food, were new to Jane Schumaker,
who moved here from Omaha, Neb., about three years ago,
shortly after the merger.
“At that time, I didn’t understand how ethnic
Milwaukee was,” she said. “I do now.”
People like Schumaker are helping Three Holy Women grow;
according to Fr. Kitzke, the parish registered 150 new
families since the beginning of the year. While the
three original parishes combined had a population of
about 900 families, Three Holy Women currently has over
1,000, he said.
Much of the area within the parish’s boundaries
is growing itself. City land, opened up with the removal
of the Park East Freeway, is becoming a site for condominiums
and other urban development that promises to bring in
more people.
And while the three former parishes averaged about five
weddings annually, this year Three Holy Women has had
40 so far, Fr. Kitzke said, adding that many of the
young couples return to the parish for Masses.
Serving young and
old
Parish programs often focus on attracting young adults
back to the church. Three Holy Women is one of the sites
for a diocesan-sponsored discussion program called Theology
on Tap. The parish also holds its own version, Eat,
Drink and Be Catholic.
While Kitzke estimated that the median age of parishioners
is about 50, he’s quick to note that the elderly
are still present. The parish partners with a program
called East Side Senior services to meet seniors’
needs, and hopes to expand it own services, he said.
At present, Three Holy Women keeps all three sites open,
with no unused space, Fr. Kitzke said. The parish is
using the Holy Rosary site for adult formation programs,
and the St. Rita’s parish hall for socializing;
a senior center, possibly in the basement of the church
at the St. Hedwig site, is being considered.
Fr. Kitzke, in his first pastorate at Three Holy Women,
believes such parish collaborations are the sign of
a future he envisions as promising, not cloudy.
“I would like to see the whole merger and planning
process as more than a knee-jerk reaction to losses
in the Church, be it of priests or resources,”
he said. “We have to see it not so much as what
we are losing but how we can use the gifts God has given
us more gracefully and efficiently. I think what people
are realizing through it all is that they’ve not
lost anything, really, but that they’ve gained
a whole lot.”
St. Martin of Tours
Before Holy Assumption and Sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary parishes merged in 1998 to form St. Martin of Tours
Parish in Franklin, Sacred Heart of Jesus Fr. Anthony
Russo was first an associate pastor, then an administrator
at both places. He’s since become St. Martin’s
pastor.
Over nine years, he’s witnessed the two different
parishes — Sacred Hearts, with 1,300 families
and an elementary school, and Holy Assumption, with
fewer than 200 families and no school — come together.
The merger has culminated in the ground breaking of
a new church, but the process was not without growing
pains along the way.
Though once associated with St. Mary Parish in Hales
Corners, Holy Assumption had begun collaborating in
a religious education program with Sacred Hearts by
the early ‘90s, in part because of its proximity.
But when the merger recommendation came down from the
archdiocese, Fr. Russo said that the consensus of both
parishes was to remain separate, citing strong differences
in areas like liturgical styles. When the merger went
through, many people felt the archdiocese hadn’t
really listened to them, he said.
Sale of church fuels
anger over merger
Two years ago, the Holy Assumption church building was
sold to members of another denomination, fueling the
anger some had felt over the merger, the priest said.
Carl Wise, once a member of Sacred Hearts, said he knew
some former Holy Assumption parishioners didn’t
want to subsidize St. Martin’s elementary school.
The parent of a sixth-grader and a third-grader, he
sees the school as a vital part of parish operations.
“With Franklin and Muskego growing as fast as
they are, if you have a school available, that at least
becomes an option for parents who want to give their
children a strong, moral, value-based education,”
he said.
Jeannette Schupp, 41, called Holy Assumption home even
when moves took her from Franklin to Greenfield and
West Allis. When asked by St. Martin’s former
pastor to be on the joint parish council, she said she
felt a commitment to see the merger through. Now she’s
involved in St. Martin’s music ministry and on
several committees.
She found the people from Sacred Hearts welcoming and
her transition easy, but knows others were hurt over
the merger. “There were a lot of people (from
Holy Assumption) who had family history in the parish,
so it was hard on a lot of them,” she said.
Parish now has 1,300
families
Fr. Russo estimated 70 families from Holy Assumption
joined St. Martin, leaving about 125 families who went
to other parishes. Those who joined, he said, have become
some of the most active members of the new parish, joining
its council or the choir, becoming Eucharistic ministers
and lectors. Some families from Sacred Hearts also left,
giving St. Martin a parish population of about 1,300
families, according to Fr. Russo.
“I think we’ve done very well,” he
said of the merger. “I think we’ve overcome
some of the obstacles. At a certain point, you realize
that you’re not going to convince people that
we’re supposed to be part of this (and get them)
to come back, but they’re always welcome. Some
of the things you wish could be different, you let go
and you move on.”
This month, St. Martin began construction on a new church,
which will retain the Sacred Hearts building as its
narthex. The church will seat 750, with space for up
to 1,000. Construction should be completed by next fall,
according to Fr. Russo.
Members are also contemplating long-range building plans
for the parish, including a new school, fellowship hall
and space for office and meeting rooms.
Kenosha church merger led to lawsuit
Fr. Roman Stikel, the 45-year-old pastor of St. Elizabeth
Parish, looks to the future as well, although when he
came to Kenosha in January 2000, shortly after the merger
of St. Casimir and St. George parishes, he felt a bit
apprehensive at the challenges lying ahead.
The merger had been scheduled to take place the previous
summer, but a number of people from the former St. Casimir
had filed a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese, trying
to prevent it. When the suit was dismissed, they filed
challenges with the Vatican, alleging the closings violated
canon law, but lost before the top Vatican court. They
appealed the decision.
“There were many people who went to other parishes,
who didn’t want to participate — not so
much in St. Elizabeth, but the merger,” Fr. Stikel
said. He felt he brought a new perspective to parishioners
as someone who couldn’t be seen to take sides.
He recognized the importance of incorporating some traditions,
so he brought a statue of St. Casimir into the former
St. George church, now the site of the new parish. He
kept Oplatek (blessed wafers shared by Polish Catholics
at Christmas) sales going each December. But he also
put up a painting of St. Elizabeth in the church and
ordered missals with the parish’s new name on
their covers. And he allowed parishioners to grieve,
while encouraging them to move ahead.
“Part of the tone I set early on coming here was
that this has been very difficult, very painful, but
at the same time, we’re here for a reason, and
that is we proclaim and we live and we speak the Gospel.
We have to make that tangible. And I think people responded
to that message,” he said.
Sense of community
arises from turmoil
Among the approximately 800 families at St. Elizabeth,
Fr. Stikel sees a sense of community. And in spite of
— or perhaps because of — the earlier dissension,
there is a strong sense of dedication in parishioners
that has led to active parish involvement and support,
he said.
Although the parish is in the final year of a five-year
lease of the former St. George school building to Kenosha
Unified School District, Fr. Stikel said parishioners’
generosity has allowed St. Elizabeth to bankroll much
of the rent that’s been collected.
Fr. Stikel said the merger has also allowed the parish
to add a pastoral minister and parish nurse—positions
neither former parish had—to meet the needs of
many homebound elderly parishioners, or those in hospitals
or nursing homes on the fringes of the parish’s
neighborhood.
He credits parishioners for helping bring St. Elizabeth
to life through turmoil.
“I think what allows one to work in the situation
is that there were just a lot of good people, who supported
the merger from both parishes, who decided to stay,
to contribute, to volunteer,” he said. “People
who kind of had a broader vision of their faith, who
said, ‘Yeah, this is our parish, but it’s
also God’s kingdom and not our own. We sort of
follow the Spirit and see where we go.’”
