By Terry Bibo
Peoria Journal Star
October 13, 2009
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1658511516/Parish-suspensions-hit-hard-in-LaSalle-area
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| Parishioners at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Spring Valley have spent the last several years refurbishing their church in honor of its 100th anniversary in June. Services were suspended days later. Photo by Dawn Becker |
Lack of priests one reason cited by Diocese of Peoria
"Mass SUSPENDED effective June 17, 2009
Questions regarding mass times at other churches, call 815-663-3731. To report information regarding these buildings and/or grounds, please call the number above."
The notice was posted by the Rev. Robert Spilman on the front door of St. Gertrude's Mission in Seatonville, one of five parishes where regular services stopped this summer. It was the latest in a series of changes in the LaSalle-Peru area. Two years ago, services were suspended at two parishes, and a third was designated a shrine for veterans. These are not small things in heavily Catholic villages and towns.
"We've got a post office, a restaurant and a church," says 84-year-old Betty Newhalfen of St. Thomas More Parish in Dalzell, population 700. "That's it."
So parishioners were shocked and grieved at the latest moves in June. They flooded their local newspaper with angry letters, then contacted the Journal Star, hometown paper for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
"We feel this story needs to be told," says 61-year-old Linda Micheli, a member of St. Thomas More for 38 years. "We didn't want to be forgotten by the Peoria diocese."
That doesn't appear likely. While this summer's changes seem abrupt, they have also been simmering for decades. It doesn't make much sense when you're standing outside the locked doors of a tidy and well-maintained church in Dalzell or Spring Valley. But it seems inevitable when you look from the perspective of all 26 counties in the local diocese.
The parishes
Services were suspended this summer at five churches in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. One was in the Quad Cities, but most were in the Illinois Valley area, which also saw changes two years ago. St. Bede Abbey served many of those parishes for decades. With declining numbers of aging priests, it no longer does so.
St. Mary's Parish in East Moline, founded in 1907, serves about 500 families. That is 250 families fewer than just a few years ago. The parish now has a significant Hispanic population, with a Spanish Mass offered weekly.
St. Benedict's Parish in Ladd has also seen declining numbers in recent years and now serves 195 families.
Sts. Peter and Paul Parish was organized in 1891 for Polish and Lithuanian Catholics. It is one of three Catholic churches remaining in Spring Valley, which has a population of 5,000. There are 140 households in the parish, which has seen a growth in its Hispanic population.
St. Thomas More Parish in Dalzell has about 100 families. It was founded in 1934, but structural problems with the old church made it necessary to build a new one in 1990.
St. Gertrude Mission in Seatonville was founded in 1899 but closed in 1913 when a nearby mine closed. Reopened in 1930, it has been attached to Sts. Peter and Paul, as well as St. Thomas More. About 40 families belong to the parish today.
"My heart goes out to the people of any of these parishes. Believe me, both the bishop and I do this prayerfully," says Monsignor Paul Showalter, vicar general of the diocese. "All these beautiful churches were built with immigrants' nickels and dimes. We don't want to destroy that. We hope to build on it."
Heaven may be the ultimate bottom line, but church business gets done on Earth. There are at least two sides to this story. You can look at it through the eyes of the people locked out. Or you can see why those churches are locked, for now. The diocese lost almost 10 percent of its priests last spring.
"Check the facts," cautions a priest who has watched this unfold all summer. "That whole process of closing parishes brings out the worst in everybody. It's a real catfight."
Feeling abandoned
When the Journal Star offered to interview anyone who wanted to talk about these churches on a recent Thursday morning, 40 people showed up. They stood and waited across the street from St. Thomas More in Dalzell, even though road construction made the reporter half an hour late and some of them had arrived half an hour early.
"I think there should be a red flag to the diocese: We are not comfortable joining with another parish," says Micheli.
At first, it's like a discussion of Sept. 11, 2001, or the day President John F. Kennedy was shot: Everyone remembers the moment they heard the news last spring.
• Kathi Sebastian found out about St. Thomas More from her husband, who found out on the golf course.
"Somebody said, 'Your church is closed,'" the 65-year-old recalls. "He said, 'No, it's not. I was there last night.'"
• Eighty-two-year-old Peter Yucus found out about St. Gertrude's from his wife, who heard it at the grocery store.
"I was altar boy there at the church," he says. "I was trustee at the church."
• Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Spring Valley was celebrating its 100th anniversary on June 14. Services were to be suspended two days later.
"I was baptized here. My grandfather donated money to this church," says 68-year-old Pat Raineri. "My kids were baptized here."
Most of the people who attended the meeting in September were from St. Thomas More. They did not necessarily want to speak, but they did want their views to be heard. So they nominated Micheli as spokeswoman.
Her synopsis was concise: Over the years, tidy brick St. Thomas More had become a mini-complex, with a house, church and parish hall. They'd paid for it all and put money in the bank, mostly through fundraisers like the parish's famed sausage breakfasts and ravioli dinners. After their priest became ill last winter, St. Thomas More parishioners continued the children's education classes, building maintenance and perpetual adoration chapel.
"We had that adoration chapel eight years 24/7," broke in Dalzell mayor and St. Thomas More member Gloria Orlandi, 78. "They came from all over."
Micheli said parishioners don't understand why they are locked out, why they aren't allowed to maintain their own building, why they can't keep going on their own. They've been told there will be a study of all the church facilities before any final decision is made, but they would like some answers now. What will happen to their funds? Their specially donated statues and paintings? Their history?
"The church was our community center. We feel like we're in limbo," she concludes. "We're like sheep without a shepherd."
Heads nod as Micheli speaks. It seems no one knows where to go or what to do.
"I could go to the Presbyterian church right across the street," says Peter Yucus. "They're nice."
People sigh. Eyes roll. No matter how nice the Presbyterians are, that doesn't seem to be a serious option.
"We are strong Catholics. We will never leave our faith," Micheli says, adding many feel their faith has left them. "Nothing pastoral. They took care of the business part. Nothing pastoral."
As the main meeting breaks up, two members of Sts. Peter and Paul linger. Their church in nearby Spring Valley is less than 10 minutes away, and they agree to guide a tour of what can be seen from the outside.
"It's gorgeous. It's like the Cathedral," says Raineri. "I bet you it was over $300,000 spent on this church. It has to be a cardinal sin to close it."
And it is indeed lovely, with asters and roses still blooming in the gardens outside. This brick church dates to 1909, but the cornerstone of the original church was laid in 1891. Sts. Peter and Paul is believed to be the first Polish Catholic church consecrated in the United States, on May 31, 1920.
With fellow parishioner Dawn Becker, Raineri points out the highlights from years spent preparing for this June's celebration. A new roof. Copper gutters. Tuckpointing. Electrical work. Plumbing work. The organ was rebuilt. Pews were pulled apart and reworked. The chandeliers were taken down and replated. A new commercial stove and refrigerator were installed.
The 62-year-old Becker was raised in Chicago but moved here after she got married, and she now lives next door to the church. It pains her to see weeds in the once-pristine gardens. She doesn't understand why her church is locked, especially when the Rev. Spilman lives in the house on the other side.
"We have a priest living right here," she says. "He says Mass at the other churches."
Like the people of Dalzell, Becker and Raineri wonder what happens next.
"We just want an answer, whether it's going to be open," says Raineri. "We don't know whether to join another church. Now we're 'Roamin' Catholics. I never thought this would happen in our lifetime."
Stretched to the limit
He didn't put it quite the same way, but Showalter can probably relate.
"When I was growing up in Rock Island, Ill., the parish had a priest and two assistants," he says. "Now that part of the diocese has a priest with three parishes."
Showalter himself is not only the diocesan vicar general but also administrator of three parishes, including the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.
"In this day and age, we just can't continue to staff each and every parish as we used to do. This isn't a phenomena just for the Catholic church," he says. "The church buildings aren't always where the people are, or where the growth is."
Nationwide, the number of people who identify themselves as Christian is about 34 percent. But mainline Protestant denominations have been losing numbers, as well as Catholics, and some estimates indicate Islam will be the predominant American faith by 2050.
For Catholics, the number of priests may be dropping faster than the number of the faithful. There are more than 1,500 Catholics for every priest in America. Between 1995 and 2000, more than 70 percent of dioceses restructured - clustering, linking, merging or closing parishes - occasionally opening new ones in burgeoning areas. In 2006, one-quarter of U.S. Catholic parishes had no resident pastor. Just to put that in perspective, in highly Catholic Brazil, there are 7,500 Catholics per priest, and the laity conduct three-quarters of all Sunday celebrations. Still, the logistics here are daunting.
The LaSalle-Peru area is an interesting example because of its history. Nearby coal mines attracted immigrants from many different countries, and it seems each nationality founded its own church. In Spring Valley alone, there were four different Catholic churches - one Polish, one German, one Italian and one Irish. Now St. Anthony's Parish (Italian) and Immaculate Conception Parish (Irish) remain. Both are pastored by Spilman, who is now the administrator of Sts. Peter and Paul and St. Gertrude's.
Spilman referred all comment about the Spring Valley/Dalzell area to diocesan attorney Patricia Gibson, who deferred to the vicar general.
Although he agreed some things could have been communicated better, Showalter tried to shed some light on what's happening. For starters, the diocese was nearly as surprised as those parishes when the ever thinner line of priests finally snapped this spring. Perhaps most unsettling, St. Bede Abbey near Peru is no longer supplying the priests who have traditionally tended the local churches.
"We had taken care of those parishes from the beginning," says Abbot Claude Peifer, who points out that the Benedictines of St. Bede's are also operating a school with more than 300 students. "It's difficult both for the bishop and his advisers. It certainly is for the people. And it's difficult for the priests, also, who are remaining here."
The numbers issue is more than the dwindling number of priests. Those who remain are of greater age. In Dalzell, for example, the Rev. Bernard Horzen helped St. Thomas More as long as he could.
"He is 83, I think, and is very unwell," says the abbot. "We now have 25 monks. Nineteen of them are priests. Two of the brothers are over 70. Fourteen of 19 priests are."
Apart from St. Bede's, seven diocesan priests retired this year. Two others went on leave. Four international priests' service term was up. Altogether, 16 priests left active service. (Most if not all retired priests continue to say Mass.) On the flip side, only two new priests were ordained. Some long-delayed decisions had to be made.
"In May and June, when we make our moves, even at the last minute, we had no men to put in those parishes," says Showalter. "So we suspended services."
What that means is the question behind the chaos. As Bishop Daniel Jenky had said in letters to some of the parishioners, the monsignor emphasized that suspending services does not mean the churches are closed permanently. It does, however, mean change for some of them.
"To be honest, we won't end up using all the buildings," he says.
In mid-October, Showalter will attend a meeting with some of his peers in Chicago to determine the best way to handle these issues for the state of Illinois. He says an outside firm will be hired to assess the demographics and the church buildings so more permanent decisions can be made next year.
"Sts. Peter and Paul is a beautiful example, lovely church. They've put a lot of money into that in the last few years," says Showalter. "Will it be used the way it has been in the past? Probably not. Will the church be torn down? No."
The people of Dalzell should take some comfort from the monsignor, as well.
"You take a parish like Dalzell," he says. "It's right off the interstate. The building is in good condition. We're not going to close it."
Finances are a part of these decisions, of course. As parishioners pointed out, upkeep and maintenance costs for these buildings continue. According to the monsignor, some of the parishes may be debt-free, but they were dipping into their savings to pay regular bills.
"The fear is, 'They'll close our parish and the money will go to Peoria,'" he says. "No. You can't do it. It can't be done."
The diocese does not just take buildings or funds because each parish is a corporation - with the bishop as the head of the corporation. It makes these changes complex on the financial level, as well as the feeling level.
"We respect the autonomy of the individuals," Showalter says. "But the thing is, too, we've been talking about Spring Valley going to one parish for years. In the back of people's mind is: 'But maybe it won't be our parish.'"
As the assessment begins, he pleads for the people of the parishes to be patient and perhaps to look at the view of the church as a whole.
"We're just saying, for a little while, can you share the same facilities?" he says. "We'll keep things going as best we can. I know we're not going to be able to please everybody."
Terry Bibo can be reached at tbibo@pjstar.com or 686-3189.
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