St Henry Parishioners Reject Merger Talk, but Do Not Seize Church, by Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune, June 30, 2008

St. Henry Parishioners Reject Merger Talk, but Do Not Seize Church

By Bruce Nolan
The Times-Picayune
June 30, 2008

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/st_henry.html

With food rations and toiletries stacked on a back pew, defiant parishioners of St. Henry Catholic Church Monday night angrily rejected all talk of closing their parish, but in the end returned to their homes without seizing the church in protest, as they said they might.

"I think we're OK for now, but in a heartbeat we'll let you know if we're not," parishioner Alden Hagardorn told more than 150 parishioners as the raucous meeting ended.

Parishioners from St. Henry Catholic Church came prepared to stay for an indefinite time and occupy the church which is slated to be closed. The group was meeting with facilitators from the Archdiocese of New Orleans about the joining of the church with St. Stephens Catholic Church. Holding bumper stickers, church members chant in protest of the closing of their church.
Photo by Eliot Kamenitz

The Archdiocese of New Orleans had summoned parishioners to meet with three volunteer facilitators who were to help St. Henry fashion new leadership as their 152-year-old parish closed and merged with two others.

But the meeting broke down within moments. The facilitators were unable to generate any discussion of the mechanics of merger; one after another, parishioners, most of them elderly, life-long Catholics, rose to denounce the archdiocesan closure plan and vowed not to abandon their church.

"If I have to sit on the front step and put on a hunger strike, I'll do it," said 85-year-old Anthony LaRocca, a parishioner for 60 years, told the facilitators. "We're not moving, and that's final."

Archbishop Alfred Hughes has ordered that St. Henry be closed and merged with nearby St. Stephen and Our Lady of Good Counsel parishes. The archdiocese says it can no longer staff small closely spaced parishes like those Uptown communities because of a growing shortage of priests.

But Hagardorn and other lay leaders have asked Hughes and his aides to consider alternative solutions, including a cluster arrangement in which the three parishes, plus nearby Blessed Sacrament parish, remain open under some kind of priest-sharing arrangement.

Hagardorn and others have said the archdiocese has refused even to acknowledge the suggestions, much less discuss them, which has infuriated parishioners all the more.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey, who said again the archdiocese is committed to the mergers, monitored the meeting, but did not take part.

She asked television crews covering the event to stay out of the building out of respect for the facilitators to minimize the berating they were absorbing inside.

But the meeting broke down and the facilitators left when the crowd learned that cameras were being kept outside. They rose to their feet and began to chant "We want the media!" ending the hour-long session.

Comiskey said later the archdiocese has completed most of the formalities associated with closing some storm-damaged parishes and may issue formal decrees shutting them down later this week.

Other parishes resisting the plan, like St. Henry, still have until the end of the year to complete their merger, she said. Given the breakdown of the transition process, however, it was not clear what the next step will be.

Bruce Nolan can be reached at 504.826.3344 or bnolan@timespicayune.com.