The village of Pewaukee has filed a lawsuit against Queen of Apostles to block the razing of a historic Catholic church

The village of Pewaukee filed a lawsuit and temporary restraining order May 8 to block Queen of Apostles Congregation from demolishing St. Mary's Church. 

St. Mary's Church, 449 W. Wisconsin Ave., is owned by Queen of Apostles and was built in 1858. In late April, the church was designated a historic landmark by the village of Pewaukee Historic Preservation Commission.

Under the village's municipal code, Queen of Apostles cannot be granted a permit to demolish the church without the written approval of the village board. The complaint also noted that Queen of Apostles had not filed a petition under the historic preservation ordinance for demolition.

continue at JS

I'll try to find some time to follow this closer.  

From a reader:

Everything is quickly coming to a tipping point with the legal dispute between the parish and the local government, the court date tomorrow and the demolition equipment already in position around Saint Mary's.

It is frustrating in the sense that we are so rapidly seeing parishes close these beautiful historic buildings because they are too small or "obsolete" or whatever when it looks like the newer megachurch style parishes which came in with urban sprawl to replace the old parishes only see a handful of baptisms and weddings a year and their massive seating capacities wont really be needed in year 2030 or 2040 and we will probably wish that we had kept more of those picture perfect 19th century gothic type parishes.

Update: 

Update on the court hearing, there is a temporary reprieve, another hearing will be held on June 8.
Feast of the Sacred Heart

Minneapolis Catholic church is latest to shut its doors after appeals fail

Jerie Greve of St. Austin Catholic Church prayed for her church’s independence after a merger was announced in 2011.

Worshipers at St. Austin Catholic Church in north Minneapolis learned this month that their church would be closed — immediately.

It was the latest setback for a spunky church community that had taken its fight to avoid a church merger all the way to the Vatican.

St. Austin was among 21 churches the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced it would fold into 14 “receiving” parishes during a 2010 reorganization. It was merged into nearby St. Bridget parish, and religious services had been alternating between the two campuses since.

But that ended this month when the congregations voted that if only one church were to remain open, it would be St. Bridget. St. Austin skeptics claim the entire process was rigged. Proponents said no, the closing reflected the real challenges of operating two churches with limited money and members.

continue at  STrib

These are always sad stories. 

How a St. Louis Church Became a Skate Park

SKATEBOARDING HAS LONG RELIED ON the presence of empty space. When the counterculture kids of California first started occupying kidney bean-shaped, water-less swimming pools found in residential backyards under construction, skaters became known as a community of people who could reimagine abandoned architecture into places of utility. Skaters are known to revamp their worn boards by applying a smattering of skate stickers to their undersides; similarly, skate communities around the world have implemented a similar process to converting old spaces into new parks.

continue at Atlas Obscura

St. Augustine Church in Manitowoc County closes

KOSSUTH - Parishioners will say final prayers at St. Augustine Catholic Church on Saturday.

The small, rural church is closing its doors after more than a century of serving the community. No priest is available to celebrate masses, an official said, so the decision was made earlier this year to close the church. Church members likely will move to nearby St. Anne Parish in Francis Creek or Holy Cross Parish in Mishicot.

On Saturday, Bishop David Ricken of the Green Bay Catholic Diocese will deliver the final service at 4 p.m., with a meal to follow.

"The bishop normally comes when a parish church closes," said the Rev. John Becker of St. Anne. "When people lose something that means so much to them, he wants to be there."

continue at HTR

A walk-through of Chicago's long vacant St. Boniface Church, some stunning and sad photos

Despite the recent issuing of a demolition permit, a deal is still in the works

Residents of the East Village and Noble Square neighborhoods are very familiar with St. Boniface Church and its long struggle to find a new use. The old cathedral, designed by Henry Schlacks and constructed between 1902 and 1904, was shuttered in 1990 and has remained vacant since. The church has been the subject of many community meetings over the years and many different proposals for adaptive reuse. However, it has also been left to decay over the years and there have also been a couple of tense moments where the future of the church seemed uncertain.

continue at Curbed Chicago

HT St John Cantius

Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa to close 41 parishes

The Catholic Diocese of Sioux City plans to begin consolidating 41 parishes during summer 2017.

The office unveiled a proposal Thursday that would reduce the number of the diocese’s parishes from 108 to 67, due to a shortage of priests and decreased Mass attendance.

In the last eight years, only 16 out the 108 parishes have grown, according to the Associated Press. Overall Mass attendance has dropped nearly 25 percent since 2008.  [these numbers are from the AP or from the diocese?]

Parishes being consolidated will become oratories, meaning there will be no weekly worship services. An oratory will still be able to host a variety of social functions, such as prayer services, funerals and weddings. None of the buildings will close [yet] but oratories will be maintained by the parish receiving the worshippers of consolidated parishes.

Bishop Richard Pates of the Des Moines Diocese said the city and surrounding neighborhoods are not facing similar problems. In fact, he said, the Des Moines Catholic population has seen roughly 10 percent growth over the last few years.

continue at Des Moines Register

Massive overhaul slated for Chicago Archdiocese; "as many as 100 churches could close over the next 14 years"

A radical overhaul in the nation's third-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese could shutter many of the Chicago church's houses of worship by 2030 as it reckons with decaying buildings and an expected shortage of priests, the church's chief operating officer confirmed Friday.

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich told priests and advisers in meetings in recent weeks that the shortage — an estimated 240 priests available in 2030 for the archdiocese's 351 parishes — could necessitate closings and consolidations. The archdiocese governs parishes in Cook and Lake counties.

Based primarily on those projections and on future capital needs, the priests who attended the meetings say a large number of churches could close over the next 14 years. Several of those priests who attended the sessions with the archbishop shared details about the reorganization process with the Tribune, some requesting anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussion and because they didn't have permission to speak on behalf of the archdiocese.

The reorganization process will kick into high gear next week when auxiliary bishops begin meeting with parish leaders and staff in their regions to discuss solutions.

Priests who spoke to the Tribune said, based on the expected priest shortfall and future infrastructure needs, as many as 100 churches could close over the next 14 years.

continue at Chicago Tribune

also WSJ: Archdiocese of Chicago Facing Parish Closures
also Crux

In an interesting related development, I received this email over the weekend.

Knowing that you had earlier covered the Shrine of Christ the King, I thought you would be interested to learn that there is still hope of saving this Renaissance Revival masterpiece by architect Henry Schlacks.

Preservation Chicago has received pledges to cover the cost of stabilizing the Shrine of Christ the King in Woodlawn, a Chicago Landmark threatened with demolition by the Archdiocese since early January. The Archdiocese has said that rebuilding the church, which lost its roof in an October fire, would be “cost-prohibitive.”

To announce this wonderful news for a Chicago Landmark, the Coalition to Save the Shrine, the group which has been advocating for its preservation, will hold a Press Conference in front of the Shrine at noon tomorrow, Monday, February 8th. The announcement will be made by Ward Miller, the Executive Director of Preservation Chicago. Also confirmed in attendance in support of #SaveTheShrine are Bonnie McDonald and Lisa DiChiera, the President and Director of Advocacy for Landmarks Illinois and Jack Spicer, the Preservation Director of the Hyde Park Historical Society.

Photo

Dying parish, buried lede

I've been told the most interesting news in a Milwaukee Catholic Herald article is usually in the middle.

Or in this case, perhaps tied with the headline, which you recall was Muslim Group Purchases South Milwaukee Church.

In the middle of the article, we read that after a couple of unsuccessful attempts by the merged South Milwaukee parish to sell the old St. Adalbert Parish church and school building,

"It was decided that the property would be left for back taxes."

I assume that's in the unwritten contingency planning for every other parish.

Letter: Save St. Boniface Church for Catholic services

Sorry, no April Fools here.

St. Boniface Catholic Church, Manitowoc, WI

via htrnews

Somehow the St. Patrick’s Day parade got away from me this year. Perhaps it was because in past years an evening Mass was held at St. Boniface Church and then the priests, in bishops’ attire, joined the parade festivities. It was fun — religious and jubilant.

I applaud that as a Manitowoc community will save a 1939 armory skating building. I do not applaud that as a Catholic Manitowoc community we will allow the desecration of St. Boniface, our mother church of 1853. St. Boniface needs to be open to Catholic masses and services, not made into apartments and office space. How was this decision reached with no input from the parishioners of St. Francis parish?

I urge you to write Bishop David Ricken regarding the destruction of our heritage of Catholic faith here in Manitowoc. If services were held at St. Boniface Church the people would come. I quote Matthew 19:26: “With God, all things are possible.”

Simply put, save St. Bonfiace Church.

Cecelia Maurer

Manitowoc

From 2012: Latin Mass attracts faithful to Manitowoc (offered by ICKSP from Green Bay)

The same paper gave a somewhat glowing story recently of the 'fantastic marriage' of the closure:  St. Boniface inspires transfer

Hartford area church opens for Mass once a year on St. Patrick's Day

Erin — Nearly every year for more than a century, Catholics in and around this rural town have gathered at this small church on St. Patrick's Day to invoke the lessons and blessings of the patron saint of Ireland.

Many feared the tradition might die in 1999 when the church closed its doors and the congregation merged with St. Kilian in nearby Hartford. Or again last year, when the Rev. David La Plante of St. Kilian was too ill to preside at the annual Mass.

But La Plante and the faithful returned to what is now St. Patrick Chapel again on Tuesday to celebrate the Eucharist and reflect on the missionary zeal of its fifth century namesake — at a time when all Catholics are being called to newly evangelize the faith.

"We use it as a celebration of the Irish," said La Plante, who called on worshippers to emulate St. Patrick's spirit of charity and mercy.

"But the mission is to the whole world. This mission of mercy and charity has to go out to everyone."

The annual Mass offers a prayerful alternative — or perhaps prelude — to the more raucous traditions of a holiday better known for free-flowing green beer than spiritual reflection. This year, about 200 worshippers filled the pews, many donning green attire or the woolen sweaters of the Aran Isles, with more than a few redheads in the mix.

continue at JS

HTR profiles parish merger and sale in Manitowoc

MANITOWOC – St. Francis of Assisi Parish and Hope House officials believe if St. Boniface were alive on Earth today he would approve of what's happening to the church bearing his name.

They know they have the required blessing of Catholic Diocese of Green Bay Bishop David Ricken.

A recently signed agreement opens the way toward possible sale of the historic church, which opened in 1853, to the organization providing shelter to homeless women and couples, with or without children in the adjacent rectory.

St. Boniface Catholic Church has not been the site of regular worship services for nearly 10 years since the July 1 "birth" of the consolidated St. Francis of Assisi Parish. The last two years' Christmas and Easter liturgies that had been at the church were moved to Roncalli High School.

"Our merger into one parish really brought the Catholic community together," said the Rev. Dave Pleier, who on Thursday signed a new lease with option to buy agreement with Sister Camilla Wolfgram, Hope House's current board chairwoman.

continue at HTR News

Winona(MN) Diocese releases "Vision 2016" plan; calls for mergers, closings

WINONA, Minn. -- Fewer priests and shifting demographics across southern Minnesota will result in merged Catholic parishes and shuttered church buildings in coming years.

“Nearly half of our parishes have received recommended organizational change as a result of the draft plan,” Msgr. Richard Colletti, vicar general and director of planning for the Diocese of Winona said in a prepared statement.

A proposed reorganization plan — Vision 2016 — was announced during weekend Masses in all parishes of the Diocese of Winona. The planning process began in 2011 and is to be finalized by spring 2016.

The draft plan calls for 21 of the smallest parishes to be merged with larger parishes nearby. Their church buildings will be converted to “oratory” status — meaning they will not be the site of regular celebrations of the Mass, but that Catholic weddings, funerals, prayer services and other liturgical events may be held there as long as it is feasible to maintain the building.

Locally, parish churches in Altura, Dakota, Elba, Lanesboro, Minneiska, Minnesota City and Wilson are proposed to become oratories. The parish membership will merge with parishes in Rollingstone, La Crescent, St. Charles, Preston, and St. Stanislaus in Winona.

continue at La Crosse Tribune

Racine parishioners bid farewell to Cristo Rey parish

Parishioners said goodbye Sunday, Nov. 23, to a place that has been spiritual home to many of Racine’s Latino Catholics for more than 30 years.

The final masses were held Sunday at Cristo Rey Parish, 801 College Ave., including a packed 10:30 a.m. Mass attended by Cristo Rey parishioners and some from St. Patrick’s Church, 1100 Erie St., with whose congregation Cristo Rey is being merged.

Next Sunday will conclude the yearlong process of the merger, when Cristo Rey parishioners will march from their church building and make their way to St. Patrick’s, where they will be welcomed by Archbishop Jerome Listecki, the spiritual leader of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

It will also mark coming full circle for Cristo Rey, which was born out of St. Patrick’s. Eloy Contreras, parish council president for Cristo Rey, said that due in part to feeling, at times, unwelcome at St. Patrick’s, which in the late 1970s only had a small Hispanic membership, congregants there went about setting up a spiritual Hispanic community center across Douglas Avenue from St. Patrick’s. In 1979, a new parish was formed, first holding Masses at St. Patrick’s before acquiring and moving to the former St. Mary’s Church in 1983. When members left for their new church, a symbolic procession took place, Contreras said. Next Sunday’s procession will be a spiritual homecoming, Contreras said.

continue at Racine Journal Times

Oshkosh Hermit answers, What to do when faced with a parish merger?

Photo

After his first column, I had someone ask for advice while in the process of going through a parish closure merger.  I again invoked the assistance of the Oshkosh Hermit for some insight.  I didn't highlight but OH is one of the most quotable men I know.

I am saddened by your loss. It’s like losing a family member to have a parish church close. I prayed a rosary last night for you and your community. It’s a tough situation. My heart goes out to you – sincerely.

I have some bad news, but you probably knew it already. No, there is nothing you can do. Ouch. I’m sorry.

We hold none of the cards

When I was in the military, I was responsible to my troops under me and responsible to my superiors over me. It was certainly an unequal situation, but if I were incompetent enough or despicable enough, my subordinates could have had me in a wringer in short order. Breaking a law? Breaking a regulation? It doesn't take that much – low troop performance, low troop morale, and sundry other things could have gotten me fired as platoon commander, and I’d have been another senior enlisted guy checking out basketballs at the base gym until retirement.

Unlike the military, however, the Catholic Church is an almost-purely top-down organization. This is a gross oversimplification, but for our purposes: The pope can do just about anything he wants. The bishops, in turn, can do just about anything they wish in their dioceses. Unlike the pope, bishops are not free to break canon law, but that’s about it (though in practice, I concede, many bishops do get away with breaking canon law). I believe there are several thousand bishops in the Catholic Church today – retired, auxiliary, in charge of a diocese, in the diplomatic corps, at the Holy See, and so on; a bishop getting dismissed (or resigning before a dismissal) is an international headline in the Catholic press and only happens a few times a year. When it does happen, I all but guarantee it has NOTHING to do with buildings, with priest transfers, with financial mismanagement, with generating ill will in the faithful of a diocese, et cetera.

What about prayer? Well do popes and bishops – and the two of us for that matter – answer to God? Sure. But popes and bishops (and the two of us) get unlimited free will and vast volumes of patience on God’s part. Prayer generally only works when it’s God’s will and when the people involved are willing to listen to the Holy Spirit.

What can you do?

Don’t do a thing if it will cause you to lose charity, to lose sight of the Eternal Church you wrote of. I’ve seen people go SO bananas over this stuff, they quit on God and God’s Church. Know your limits, stay prayed up to stay in touch with God, and stay grounded with a core group of like-minded people who pray for one another. If you don’t do those things, the Devil will almost certainly make short work of you. I’m not talking about eternal destinations here, I’m talking about being left spiritually bruised, battered, and limp on the side of the road, so to speak.

Guest Post: Oshkosh Hermit: The Anatomy of Parish Closures

I have enlisted the assistance of the "Oshkosh Hermit" for a series of posts.  

Closing churches? This topic’s about as much fun as getting a dry socket at 5:02 PM on a Friday. Matt kept badgering me to write about it though, for reasons known but to God and Matt’s confessor. Here goes.

I've lived in four of Wisconsin’s five dioceses; I worked at a parish that was being closed; I've gone to mass all over the Dairy State, a number of times at churches that were being closed; many friends and relatives have endured church closings, a handful more than once while living in the same spot; and the parish in which I was married, my parents were married, my great grandparents were married, and which had been in my family for five generations was – you guessed it – recently closed. All this does not make me an expert in church closures, and, “the plural of anecdote is not data,” as they say.

There are myriad reasons why parishes get shuttered. If you’re on Badger Catholic, you already know dozens of reasons. At its most crassly oversimplified level, a parish is like a stool with three legs named Money, Parishioners, and Priests…should one of those legs be missing, the stool tips over, and the parish is no more. Do I like this?  No.  Is natural selection pretty heartless? Yes. This is pretty mercenary, but I know a parish that has multiple masses a weekend that are often standing-room-only; this parish serves the disabled, the elderly, and the working poor better than any other parish around, but they were given a dollar amount to raise each week in the collection, they’ve fallen short for a long time now, and so they’re slated to close. A parish without enough parishioners, or even with the “wrong” demographic profile of parishioners, faces the same fate. I remember one Wisconsin diocese that figured to have one priest per county by 2035…the priestly situation there has gotten better since I crunched the numbers a dozen years ago…but church closings there are as sure to happen as the sun setting in the west tonight – no matter how healthy the parishes are in terms of money and parishioners. I’m sure being a bishop has its eternal and temporal perks, but dealing with this mess is not one of those perks!

In terms of a priest shortage, I have seen two stopgap measures – that of foreign priests and that of parish administrators. Foreign priests are self-explanatory. Parish administrators are laity, permanent deacons, or religious who are in charge of the governance, religious education, and day-to-day functions of a parish; such a parish often relies, for weekend mass and sacraments, on a diocesan priest who already has a parish of his own…rarely the “rent-a-priest” system is employed. Some bishops believe in foreign priests and parish administrators as a secondary solution, while other bishops do not. The heartburn is that some dioceses have had a lot of turnover in the bishop department and no one knows whether or not to count on a certain level of foreign priests and parish administrators because the next bishop may feel completely differently. For example, Green Bay had six bishops in the twenty-five years from 1983 to 2008 (which includes an auxiliary who was acting bishop for a time). La Crosse isn't far behind in the instability department. Madison, Milwaukee, and Superior have had some episcopal stability.

Cdl. Burke: Bishops must have a grave reason to close a church

When considering the suppression of parishes or the closing of church buildings, bishops should hew closely to canon law not simply because it’s a legal requirement of the church, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said, but because it helps foster unity.

In a May 7 interview with the Catholic Review, the prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s highest court, said following proper procedures helps ensure legitimate decisions.

“When we don’t follow the requirements of the law, then people rightly claim that they’ve been aggrieved by this,” said Cardinal Burke, who was a featured speaker at the Eastern Regional Conference of the Canon Law Society of America, held May 6-8 at the Hotel Monaco in Baltimore. The cardinal’s presentation was closed to the media, but he granted a brief interview to the Catholic Review.

“(When) we do follow the requirements of the law,” he said, “even if we take a decision that’s unfavorable to people, at least they know that it was taken legitimately with respect to what the church requires for that decision.”

According to canon law, a bishop has the authority to suppress (close) a parish when there is a “just” reason. He must consult with his diocesan presbyteral council, and parishioners have the right to make their views heard.

Closing a church building, a process canon law refers to as relegating it to “profane, but not sordid use,” requires that a bishop have a grave reason for the closure.

Cardinal Burke noted that when discerning whether to reduce buildings to profane use, dioceses should “avoid presuppositions that are not correct,” including the notion that a parish can have only one church. It is possible for a parish to have two or more church buildings, he said. Although a parish may be suppressed, its buildings may continue to be used as part of another parish.

- See more at: http://www.catholicreview.org/article/news/local-news/hew-to-canon-law-when-closing-churches-cardinal-burke-says#sthash.4WlY8fky.dpuf