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	Church-Merger Pace Surprises Some Change May Not Wait for the End of the Year By Bruce Nolan The Times-Picayune October 10, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1223616056256210.xml&coll=1 The Archdiocese of New Orleans appears poised to close two small Uptown Catholic parishes within weeks, rather than waiting for the end of the year, as many parishioners expected. Monsignor Henry Engelbrecht, pastor of St. Henry Parish, confirmed Thursday that Archbishop Alfred Hughes disclosed that the parish rectory and the church were to be closed at the end of this month or in early November. Engelbrecht declined to give other details. Meanwhile, the archdiocese confirmed that at its request, at least two lay delegates from St. Henry, as well as representatives from a neighboring parish slated for closure, Our Lady of Good Counsel, had completed merger plans with a host third parish, St. Stephen's. That plan has been presented to Hughes, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey. "The archdiocese still has not made any official announcements about when these parishes will be closed," she said. "But of course the plan has always been that once these transition plans are submitted, we move forward." Most parishioners at St. Henry's and Our Lady of Good Counsel have strongly opposed Hughes' order to close and merge with nearby St. Stephen's. Both parishes have mounted formal canonical appeals within the church's judicial process. Dozens of families from St. Henry's, a community of abut 325 families, have threatened to occupy their church until a new archbishop replaces Hughes, which might not occur for more than a year. When he announced a sweeping reorganization of worship life last spring, Hughes said nearly three dozen parishes scheduled to be closed or merged could plan their transitions at their own pace, so long as they were finished by Dec. 31. In subsequent weeks, parishes appointed delegates to hash out issues such as new service times, and how to blend ministries and music. When their work was completed, they notified the archdiocese, which then formally closed or merged many of the parishes. Despite heavy opposition to the decision from many of their neighbors, a few parishioners from St. Henry and Good Counsel agreed to serve on a transition planning team, as the archdiocese requested. Even so, many parishioners and friends of those parishes believed they would have until the end of the year before their parishes were closed. In fact, Alden Hagardorn, the head of the parish council at St. Henry, and Cheron Brylski, a resistance leader at Good Counsel, both said their parishes have scheduled weddings in November and December on the assumption their parishes would be open at least that long. "You can see this is coming as quite a shock to a lot of people," Brylski said. But Comiskey said the archdiocese's practice in all closings has been to let parish transition teams make their plans, receive those plans, then enact the merger or closure. That is the process under way now, she said. Moreover, Comiskey said a series of clergy reassignments will be announced in a few weeks. Hagardorn, of St. Henry's, said Hughes several times recently has asked Engelbrecht his preference for a new assignment. Hughes' assertion that St. Henry's would close around the end of the month came in a recent letter in which Hughes again asked Engelbrecht to share his plans, Hagardorn said. Nearby Our Lady of Good Counsel is led by the Rev. Pat Collum. He was unavailable for comment. But he, too, reportedly has told friends he will be reassigned at the end of the month, another sign that that parish is facing imminent closure as well. St. Henry's, founded 152 years ago as a parish for German immigrants, stands only a few blocks from 121-year-old Our Lady of Good Counsel, with about 450 families. Both parishes still contain fiercely loyal families with neighborhood roots going back four generations. The parishes date from an era when immigrant Catholics attended their own ethnic churches in a pattern that predates the current geographic structure of parishes. As a result, they are two of four Catholic parishes whose churches stand within one square mile of Uptown New Orleans bounded by St. Charles Avenue, Tchoupitoulas Street, Jefferson Avenue and Louisiana Avenue. Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
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