Minnesota press leak causes uproar until the actual plan is released

Father Jenson stepped up to the lectern when it was time for the homily to tell the group of about 250 worshipers that the press misunderstood the information that had been obtained from an unknown source and published before the archdiocese’s planned announcement of the strategic plan for parishes and schools.

“What is proposed for us and what will actually be the case is that our cluster of three [Holy Cross, St. Hedwig and St. Anthony of Padua] will change and one of our neighbors, St. Clement, will join us,” he explained. St. Hedwig has 410 parishioners, St. Clement has 385 and St. Anthony has 120.

The strategic plan states that Holy Cross, St. Hedwig and St. Clement will be merged into St. Anthony of Padua. The strategic plan notes that “Masses will continue to be celebrated at the church building of the merging parish until a decision which contradicts such use is made by the parish pastoral and finance councils of the receiving parish community, in consultation with the archbishop and Presbyteral Council.”

"The archbishop has not come in and said close, close, close, close. We will be making the decision.”

The Catholic Spirit

My comment to a comment in Sunday's Star Tribune on Holy Cross's "closing"

"This makes me so sick that they would close Holy Cross church. . . ."

Holy Cross will not be closing. The merger is set to begin on January 1, 2012, 15 months from now.

Father Glen Jensen, pastor of Holy Cross, announced at yesterday's Vigil Mass that the four parishes would become part of a new parish. Church canon law required that legally, St. Anthony of Padua, the oldest Catholic Church in Minneapolis must be the legal head of this new parish which will get a new name.

St. Anthony's is not nearly big enough to hold the parishioners of Holy Cross, let alone St. Hegwig's and St. Clement's, too. All four parishes will stay open for the time being, being known, for example, as the Holy Cross campus of "St. New-name" parish of Minneapolis.

This information was sent to Rose French, the author of yesterday's article, last night and she chose not to use it in today's article.

She could have attended a briefing on the archdiocesan plan yesterday and gotten the correct information. But apparently it was more important for her to break the embargo the archdiocese had placed on news of the mergers prior to its formal announcement.

See this Stella Borealis post for more details on this.