St. Leo Catholic Church Gets Good News, Other Catholics to Learn Their Parish's Fate at Weekend Mass

By Patricia Montemurri, Elisha Anderson and Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press
February 19, 2012

http://www.freep.com/article/20120219/NEWS01/120219008/catholic-church-fate-detroit?odyssey=nav|head

Juanita Maxwell, 83, of Belleville, has been coming to St. Leo's for 56 years. Here she reads the gospel during Sunday mass at St. Leo's Catholic Church in Detroit, Mich., Sunday, February 119, 2012. St. Leo's got good news today. They will not close, but will merge with St. Cecilia. Behind her is Winfred Jones, 54, of Detroit

Parishioners at St. Leo Catholic Church – which is renowned for its outreach to the homeless, hungry and destitute – got good news Sunday.

The church, on Grand River near Warren on Detroit's westside, will stay open, but as part of a merged parish with St. Cecelia, about two miles away on LIvernois near the Jeffries.

"Yes, we will be open. We're not closing down. We're changing, "the Rev. Theodore Parker, said to the applause of about 200 congregants at St. Leo's noon mass.

In November, the Archdiocese of Detroit listed St. Leo's, once the home parish of peace activist and retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, as one of the churches it planned to close in the coming years --- in a proposed realignment of 270 parishes across the six-county archdiocese to deal with a severe priest shortage and financial shortfalls.

Parker told the congregants that Catholic Archbishop Allen Vigneron decided that St. Leo and St. Cecilia should merge into a new parish by June 30, 2013. Parker has been pastor of both parishes for several years now. By merging them, it means he'll only have to deal with one parish council instead of two and one set of books instead of two, among other efficiencies.

"We have the opportunity to become something new," said Parker, "Will you join us in becoming something new."

Until the Archdiocese of Detroit makes all of Vigneron's decisions public late Monday on its website, most Catholics will learn about their parish's circumstances at weekend mass.

Pastors found out mid-week about Vigneron's decisions regarding their parishes and were instructed to share it with parishioners at weekend masses. In addition, the archdiocese mailed out letters explaining Vigneron's decisions to 270,000 Catholic households across the six-county archdiocese.

Vigneron will hold a press conference at 4 p.m. Monday before all his decisions are made public Monday evening on the archdiocese's website at www.aodonline.org.

Late last fall, Vigneron said the church realignments could result in as many as 48 of about 270 parishes being closed within the next five years. But that number is likely to drop based on Vigneron rejecting some closure recommendations made to him by an Archdiocesan Pastoral Council in November.

For example, Vigneron spared from the chopping block the eastside Detroit parishes of Nativity, Good Shepherd, St. Augustine/St. Monica and St. Charles Borromeo. The rejected recommendation for those parishes was to merge them, close them and build one new environmentally-friendly church for the E. Jefferson corridor.

The archdiocese says that 35 percent of parishes in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park are having problems paying their bills; as well as 20 percent in the suburbs.

Moreover, the archdiocese says it will have about 100 fewer priests in 10 years available to work at parishes. The archdiocese ordains roughly four priests a year. It has about 290 priests now working in parishes, and their average age is 57.

Some 270 parishes across the archdiocese participated in a review process, assessing their finances and demographic shifts. Several parishes, through the review process, decided to close or merge soon on their own.

In November, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council revealed that parish councils of several parishes had decided to close or merge in coming months or years. They include St. Donald in Roseville to close in mid-2012; St. Maurice and St. Genevieve in Livonia to merge and close St. Maurice; St. Anthony (Lithuanian) in Detroit to close and merge with Divine Providence (Lithuanian) in Southfield; St. Elizabeth to merge with St. Joseph in Wyandotte; St. Stanislaus Kostka will close and merge with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Wyandotte; Our Lady Queen of Peace in Harper Woods to close; and Our Lady of Lourdes in River Rouge and St. Francis Xavier in Ecorse to merge into one worship site.

Contact: pmontemurri@freepress.com