How to undergo a successful merger

Pastors describe what works when it comes to mergers

By Cheri Perkins Mantz Catholic Herald Staff

Members of Shepherd of the Hills Parish in Eden move a crucifix into a case in June 2005 for shipment to Haiti. Following a merger of churches in Armonstrong, Dotyville and Eden, and construction of a new church, the parish decided to send surplus items such as statues, pews and even stained glass windows to a Catholic orphanage in Lescayes, Haiti. (Catholic Herald file photo by Sam Lucero) MILWAUKEE — It’s not a painless process. Few people want to experience it. But the closing and merging of parishes in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is a reality. A growing number of Catholics throughout the 10-county archdiocese have experienced the sadness of their parish closing or merging. When mergers occur, the faith life of closed parishes doesn’t have to end when the church bells toll for the last time. Some merged parishes in the archdiocese have thrived, and some are continuing in their struggle of acceptance years after a merge. Some pastors and the archbishop are aware of what works when it comes to mergers. They understand the amount of listening and healing that is required if the merger is going to be successful. Fr. Phil Reifenberg is pastor of Nativity of the Lord, Cudahy, a parish that was established in 2000 with the merging of St. Frederick, St. Joseph and Holy Family parishes. Though the merge happened more than seven years ago, Fr. Reifenberg said the wounds felt by some parishioners are still healing. “The intensity of the feelings has mellowed and the sense of bitterness, but there’s still some misgivings on the part of some,” said Fr. Reifenberg. “Some wonder if there weren’t other alternatives or other steps that could’ve been taken. There’s always going to be second guessing.” Fr. Reifenberg said the original estimate was that more than 2,200 families would migrate to Nativity of the Lord from those three parishes. “But that never materialized,” he said. “They ended up starting at about a little over 1,200 families. There were fewer families because people were unhappy with the merge. That’s one reason, but there were other reasons. I’m pretty sure there were people in Cudahy holding onto affiliations with St. Fred’s and St. Joe’s because of longtime family affiliations. And when those parishes closed their doors, the point of contact was no longer there and people were free to shift their allegiance to a place closer to where they were living or that met their needs more directly.” Though he was not pastor at the time of the merger, Fr. Reifenberg said he understands why it was necessary. “It was something that had to happen,” he said. “There was no way, given the priest shortage and cost of running individual parishes, that three parishes in Cudahy could’ve operated as they had at that point. So something had to be done. There had to be a change. There had to be a switch in operational methodology.” Since he understands that people are still upset over the Cudahy merger, Fr. Reifenberg said that he addresses the concerns when parishioners discuss it with him. “I can empathize with them,” he said. “I know the feelings are real. I don’t try to just blow them off and say, ‘Get over it.’ That’s not an appropriate response. You try to tend to the hurt to whatever extent the hurt manifests itself and help them to move on as best they can.” He also offered advice for those whose parish is being merged. “Keep the faith,” he said. “I hate to be coy or flip about it, but the realities are that change is inevitable in so many cases. And we don’t like change. The rest of the world changes all around us and we’d like to think that church is an anchor point, a source of stability in one’s life. No one likes to change, whether you’re young, old, married, single. These parishes are where people experienced significant events — deaths, weddings, confirmations, all kinds of things. We don’t like to give that stuff up.” He said that financial circumstances, personnel issues, demographic shifts can necessitate change. “We need to be confident that the church is in control,” he continued. “And that in the end the church serves as a vehicle for people making their way to the kingdom; and if we keep our priorities in order, we can make our way to the kingdom.” Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said he understands the feelings parishioners experience during a merge. “We know sometimes that there is so much sadness, so much bitterness that they say, ‘I’ve had it with the church,’” said Archbishop Dolan. “That’s a shame because, as important as the local church is to the life of faith, it shouldn’t be synonymous with it. One’s faith should not depend on the address of where one worships.” While parish mergers may be a reality in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Archbishop Dolan said the archdiocese goes about it the right way. “The more I’m around, the more I see that this archdiocese does it pretty well,” he said. “I’d be the first one to say we could do it better. “We’ve got a pretty good heritage of a peaceful, patient, prudent way of doing this,” the archbishop continued. “There’s never an easy, totally non-painful way of doing it. There’s always going to be pain, but the archdiocese has a pretty darn good heritage of doing it in a very careful, effective way.” The archbishop reiterated that it is something neither he nor the archdiocese takes lightly. “You do worry about a couple of things in mergers,” he said. “For one thing, you worry about the pain of people losing their spiritual home. As weird as it seems, it’s a good sign when people are sad when their parish closes. I’d be upset if they said, ‘Oh, who cares about that place? The sooner you close it, the better.’ People love it; they’re heavily invested there. It has claimed a part of their heart. So when people cry when their parish closes, as sad as that is, it’s a tribute to their life of faith.” Archbishop Dolan said he knows that many people appreciated their small, neighborhood parish, but he knows that such an entity may no longer be reality for many areas. “We don’t have enough priests for neighborhood parishes,” he said. “... Sometimes we are unconsciously, by necessity, buying into the mega-church model. The genius of Catholicism was small, neighborhood-based communities where you have a priest who can literally walk to his parish, where you have people who know and recognize each other. “A decline in resources — human and money — has meant we’re buying into the mega-church model,” he continued. “The mega-church model can be very effective, and many of our parishes are making it so.” The merging of St. Rita, St. Hedwig and Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary into Three Holy Women on Milwaukee’s east side in 2000 has been well-received by parishioners and the community, said Fr. Tim Kitzke, pastor of Three Holy Women, since 1999. The parish has kept all three church buildings open and uses each building. But they have merged other aspects of the parish. “The history is that it made sense to merge the administrative roles because you didn’t need three separate staffs,” said Fr. Kitzke. “You don’t need three checking accounts, three savings accounts, three budgets. In all the parishes we now have one of everything; we just happen to have three sites. We need all three sites for different reasons. We can’t build one complex because we’re land-locked in the city.” Each parish that merged into Three Holy Women had a separate ethnic identity when it was founded. St. Rita was known as an Italian church, St. Hedwig was Polish, and Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary was Irish. While no longer considered an ethnic parish, Fr. Kitzke said they still participate in customs and traditions of their heritage. “We do different things, but try to maintain the ethnic customs to validate and honor those who have gone before us,” he said. “It’s not like you wipe out your past; you build upon it. “They enjoy some of the old-time traditions because it shows the full sense of Catholicism, that we’re a very diverse church with diverse histories. There’s a lot of history here.” Fr. Kitzke said when the three parishes merged, they had about 800 families. Today, there are more than 1,300 families. “I think every merger is different,” he said. “We’re in a neighborhood that was increasing in population so we added 500 families. I think our merge was unique to the east side and it’s gone very well.” Known as a pastor who has successfully merged three popular parishes, Fr. Kitzke has advice for others experiencing a merger. “First of all, start by listening to the people who make up the merging parishes,” he said. “Respect them in terms of their histories and commitment to their individual parishes. Secondly, begin to show forth a vision of hope rather than a vision of decay. It’s all in the attitude. Realize there’s going to be all different sorts of emotions. Whenever there’s a merger, there is a loss because individual identities are lost, but loss can move you to greater hope. “If the parish opens the doors with negative energy, who’s going to want to come?” Fr. Kitzke asked. “If you open the door with positive energy, a good liturgy, a sense that something good is happening, then people come.”