Lost Souls: Faithful shaken by the loss of two local parishes

By Kathleen Carey, Delaware County
Delaware County Daily Times
May 31, 2014

http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20140531/lost-souls-faithful-shaken-by-the-loss-of-two-local-parishes

Mary Kepler, who has been a member at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church since1949, pauses as she reflects on the loss of her religious home of 65 years.

Two Catholic congregations filled their pews Saturday evening and learned of their parishes’ demises as one grappled with confusion and frustration and the other hung onto hope.

At the 4 p.m. Mass, the Rev. Anthony Orth, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish announced that his parish would be merging with St. Gabriel Parish in Norwood. At a Mass beginning an hour and 15 minutes later, the Rev. Karl Zeuner, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Ridley Township, shared that his parish would be merging with Our Lady of Peace, also in Ridley Township.

These changes are effective July 1 as the result of the ongoing Parish Area Pastoral Planning evaluations taking place throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and are based on various factors including population shifts, high parish densities in small areas, declines in Mass attendance, Sacramental activity and availability of priests.

Since the process began in 2010, 30 parishes have been closed. The entire process is expected to take five to eight years.

Zeuner substituted the announcement for his sermon.

“Over the past few weeks, I have been suffering and will continue to suffer for the rest of my life,” he said. “I consider this, this action of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, to be completely unjust.”

He told the congregation how he wrote to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on Monday addressing his concerns about the impact to the Notre Dame parish school, the community residence for the Don Guanella developmentally disabled men onsite and the Swarthmore College students who attend Mass there.

Zeuner said the response he was given was “This has all been discussed by the panel and has been decided.”

He explained how Notre Dame was financially healthy but said Our Lady of Peace is $400,000 in debt and has decreasing church attendants.

“I did nothing wrong,” he said, at one point pausing to regain his composure. “It is not my fault and I know that. Just as I know that ... this is not your fault.”

Notre Dame parishioner Diane Madison compared it to a death.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced losing a loved one and burying them and then that next day, you’re lost,” she said. “That feeling of just, all that craziness and all that stuff, and then, you’re just set to mourn and it’s all quiet.

“I’m devastated,” she said. “My family’s here. I can walk in and feel the presence of my sister, my father, people I’ve lost that were buried from here. My grandchildren were baptized here. My children were married here. It’s my second home. It’s truly my second home.”

She spoke of the senior citizens who would pray novenas at the church and the children who learned their hymns and sang in choirs there. Just this Friday, the new carpet was finished being placed in the sanctuary.

Her faith had been challenged by this.

“It’s really hard to separate your faith from the politics of it,” Madison said. “If (Chaput) doesn’t care that I have a church to worship at, why should I care? To me, it’s all (about) money. How much money do they need?”

Forty-two year member Paula Huff teared up when thinking about what was transpiring.

“It’s heartbreaking that we’re losing Father Zeuner because he’s wonderful,” she said. “Then, to lose our parish too, it’s very, very overwhelming. It doesn’t makes sense.”

Down along the Industrial Highway, Orth tried to inject humor into the announcement.

“I have good news and I have bad news,” he said. “Well, the bad news is that St. Margaret Mary’s is going to close and then merge with St. Gabriel’s... (and) I have been named pastor of St. Gabriel’s.”

With that, the congregation broke into applause.

“It means everything to me,” Bonnie Luniewski said. “It’s still hard (but) it’ll make it easier.”

Luniewski attended school there, bought her home to be a member of the community there and had her marriage blessed there 15 years ago.

She spoke about the Holy Week services and how she’s sit at the church from 7 -10 p.m. on Holy Thursday. She spoke of how the Rev. William Keech at 88-years-old came from Wilmington, Del. each week to help with the Masses.

And, she shared how she grew after she was asked to become a Eucharistic Minister, visiting the sick and elderly.

At first, Luniewski said, “I didn’t feel worthy to do it.”

After some time, she changed her mind. “I prayed about it and I said, ‘Alright,’” she said, adding that led her to some special moments. “Over the years, I’ve had quite a few special people.”

It was the people, many parishioners said, that made the difference.

Mary Cummings said her parish opened their doors to all, including people from other churches and those staying at nearby hotels.

“Anybody that ever came to this church, everybody said the same thing,” she said. “What a welcoming parish this is.”

She hoped that the merged parish would result in the same warmth.

“I hope the people of St. Gabe’s will recognize what we’re going through and welcome us as we would have welcomed them,” she said.

The pastor relied on that evening’s reading of St. Peter to direct the congregation how to face the situation.

“We have a choice, especially when it comes to suffering,” Orth said. “We can complain about it and be resentful about it, or in the midst of our suffering, we can continue to be kind and caring and optimistic people ... How we handle the bad news is really how we proclaim the Good News.”

And, that is what he said they were being called to do.

“So, the people of St. Margaret Mary’s parish have to move on,” Orth said, “to a new church, to a new people, to new experiences - same old pastor - but when we do that, we once again give glory to God.”