Merger of Catholic Churches - Plus a Recent Fire - Sends Cleveland Churchgoers in Search of New Worship Sites

Catholic churches in Cleveland cherish decades of tradition, bringing generations of parishioners together each week.

That's why it hasn't been easy to get used to the recent closings and mergers of dozens of local Catholic parishes.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is in the process of merging 41 parishes into 18, sometimes merging three or four parishes into one. Another 29 churches are closing.

"We give each (merging) parish a detailed welcoming manual with suggestions on how to reach out to the new parishioners," said Bob Tayek, who runs the diocese's communications center.

Four Churches Become Two Locations Under One Parish

The Rev. John McNulty is working on the creation of a new parish home, Communion of Saints, from the merger of four churches into two worship locations.

"It's a unique merger because we cover two cities, East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights," he said. "We run the gamut from the very poor to the rich."

The parish offices and one worship center are located at St. Ann Church in Cleveland Heights, while the second location is at St. Philomena Church in East Cleveland.

Communion of Saints also includes parishioners from St. Louis Church in Cleveland Heights and Christ the King Church in East Cleveland.

"We have our offices here at St. Ann, and we have a hunger center at St. Philomena that is ministered by a lot of parishes," McNulty said. "Christ the King has taken over the music at one of the liturgies, and they've done a very nice job.

"St. Louis is very sensitive to their sacred objects, like the statue and crucifix of St. Louis," he added. "They also have a Tenebrae prayer service on Wednesday of Holy Week. That's a tradition they are bringing."

A Tough Transition

John Houdek is getting used to attending Mass at St. Ann after worshiping for 17 years at St. Louis.

"It's a little difficult," said Houdek, who is on the Communion of Saints transition team. "Our pastor at St. Louis married (my wife and I), and we celebrated baptism and First Communion there. We had a lot of good memories there.

"Now, it's kind of like starting over again," he added. "We have a new group of people and a new pastor. It helps that Father McNulty is very low-key. He tells us that in time, things will be resolved."

Hanging onto Heritage

A new St. Casimir Catholic Church opened last fall at the old Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. St. George Lithuanian Church was also a part of the merger.

However, some parishioners are still lamenting the closing of the old St. Casimir location. They are conducting prayer vigils at the old church site at 8223 Sowinski Ave.

Dan Horn maintains the St. Casimir Alumni Web site, where parishioners can print letters to the Vatican, asking church officials to save the church building and preserve its Polish cultural heritage.

"I do know many Catholics who don't bother going to Mass anymore," Horn said. "They feel that if the church can do that to something so important to them, (then) the Catholic Church is not worth supporting anymore."

The Rev. Joseph Bacevice acknowledged that it hasn't been easy to get the entire St. Casimir family back together.

"We're working on it," he said. "We extended the invitations last summer, and a few have stopped by, but that's about it."

Bishop Warns St. Peter's Flock

St. Peter's Church, located at Superior Avenue and East 17^th Street, drew the attention of Bishop Richard Lennon in the days leading up to Lennon's April 11 closing Mass at the church.

Lennon warned parishioners in a March 30 letter not to celebrate sacraments in a leased office space at Euclid Avenue and East 71^st Street.

Instead, he asked parishioners to take a step to renew their Catholic identities: "While the physical edifice that is your parish church will close," he wrote, "you are encouraged to continue the good work done at St. Peter's by joining parishes with other Catholics within the Diocese."

Embracing the Future

In North Akron, St. Martha is the site of the new Blessed Trinity parish, which includes Christ the King Church of North Akron. Similarly, St. Martha School has moved to the Christ the King site, with the schools merging to form North Akron Catholic School.

Alan Irvin is the co-director of the Blessed Trinity choir, which only picked up one new member from Christ the King.

"They had a very small choir at Christ the King," he said. "But overall, these people are coming. Saturday evening Mass has become more populated, and 11 o'clock on Sunday is very populated.

"I look at this merger as a new beginning," Irvin added. "We were getting stagnant and losing some members at the time of the merger. We have a new beginning, a new parish and a new priest."

Still, old habits from the days when the site was St. Martha are hard to break.

"I had to write the name of the new parish in Sharpie when I cantored at Mass," Irwin said, "because for the first three weeks, I said, 'Welcome to S....Blessed Trinity Church!"