St. Henry's Pastor Says He Won't Leave Church, Valerie Faciane, The Times-Picayune, October 13, 2008

St. Henry's Pastor Says He Won't Leave Church

By Valerie Faciane
The Times-Picayune

October 13, 2008

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/st_henrys_pastor_says_he_wont.html

The pastor of the Church of St. Henry has publicly thrown his support behind his parishioners in their fight to keep their parish church open.

Monsignor Henry Engelbrecht has told his parishioners and Archbishop Alfred Hughes that he is not prepared to be reassigned elsewhere in the archdiocese, despite Hughes' request that he indicate in writing by Oct. 15 where he would like to take up residence.

In an Oct. 8 letter from Engelbrecht to Hughes, the pastor repeated that he is "not prepared at this time to request residence or assignment elsewhere in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. . . . I am obligated to remain in residence 'in a rectory near the church.' "

Members of St. Henry's Catholic Church on Sunday protest the closure of the church by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Photo by Eliot Kamenitz

The letter was in response to one Hughes sent Engelbrecht, dated Oct. 2, stating that the pastor should indicate where he wants to be reassigned "when the rectory is closed together with the church as the end of this month or the beginning of next month."

Parishioners said they believed they would have until the end of the year before St. Henry's would close. The archdiocese plans to close St. Henry's and Our Lady of Good Counsel, merging them with St. Stephen's Church.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said the letter from Hughes "doesn't constitute a formal announcement of the church's closing. . . . We have received a plan from the leadership that the archbishop is reviewing. Once he has reviewed the plan, it starts the timeline for an official closure date."

In a news conference after Sunday's 10 a.m. Mass, parishioners of the 152-year-old St. Henry's disputed the archdiocese's claim that a transition plan for a merger was properly handled and completed.

The transition committee, made up of members of the three churches, never reviewed the final version of the transition plan presented to the archbishop, said Robert Morton, of St. Henry's parish council. He said he was among several members of the committee who resigned.

He said he resigned, in part, "because the process which the transition committee was forced to follow as directed by the archdiocesan facilitators was not accurately depicting all committee members' input."

Flanked by his crutches and his wheelchair, St. Henry's pastor, the Rev. Msgr. Henry Engelbrecht, addresses the congregation during Mass on Sunday. He has said he is not prepared to be reassigned.
Photo by Eliot Kamenitz

But Comiskey said the plan that was presented to the archbishop came from the leadership teams of all three churches. "It couldn't have come from any other source," she said. "The archbishop would not review a plan that didn't come from the leadership team."

St. Henry's parish has filed a canonical appeal to Rome to remain open.

In his letter, Engelbrecht said he is concerned that if he requested a new residence or assignment, it would be misconstrued as a resignation from St. Henry's.

Alden Hagardorn, head of the parish council at St. Henry's, called Hughes' letter to Engelbrecht an "eviction notice."

"What it truly is, is an eviction notice . . . to a priest who is physically handicapped and confined to a wheelchair and lives in a house that is handicapped accessible.

"It is also an eviction notice to two other priests who are in residence here at St. Henry's," he said, referring to Monsignor Ignatius Roppolo, a retired priest with Parkinson's disease, and the Rev. Doug Brougher, chaplain at Touro Infirmary.

The archdiocese's reorganization plan is based on several issues, Comiskey said, including population shifts before and after Hurricane Katrina; a priest shortage; and the need for the archdiocese to reorganize to best serve the people pastorally, spiritually, educationally and with their social outreach needs. She said finances are not one of the main drivers of the changes.

But Hagardorn said finances are the issue.

He said his church -- which serves about 375 families -- its school, school annex and former convent are "money machines" that generate substantial monthly rental income for the parish through its tenants. He suggested that that income would go to the archdiocese once the church is closed.

Valerie Faciane can be reached at vfaciane@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3325.