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catholic church consolidation

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Side-by-side the women stood, de-eyeing potatoes for the tasty, greasy ethnic treats known as potato pancakes.

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Karina Graham, 10, gives game wheel a spin Thursday at bazaar at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Wilkes-Barre. Below, from left, Ann Levandoski, Melissa Bennett, Mary Lisa Lada and Karen Bonczewski de-eye potatoes Wednesday at St. Ignatius Church in Kingston for potato pancake batter.

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One is a longtime member of St. Hedwig’s – a Catholic church in Edwardsville that her husband’s grandparents helped build, a church that in 2007 closed its doors at the order of Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino.

The others are members of St. Ignatius – the Kingston parish just a few blocks away that absorbed St. Hedwig’s.

Given the recent closings and consolidations of numerous parishes as part of a diocesan restructuring, this year’s church bazaar season is an emotionally difficult one for people in many parishes, including longtime St. Hedwig’s parishioner and volunteer Gerry Dicton.

“It’s very hard. Being involved with this is very bittersweet,” Dicton, 72, of Edwardsville, said while cutting eyes from potatoes in the kitchen beneath St. Ignatius Church on Wednesday.

“We were just so involved, my husband and I. We were a part of everything,” for St. Hedwig’s bazaars, Dicton said.

Dicton wasn’t just a volunteer, she was the keeper of St. Hedwig’s top secret potato pancake batter recipe.

“I very reluctantly handed it over. I didn’t think that I would ever give this recipe to anybody,” Dicton said. “But because he is who he is, such a wonderful man, I would never refuse him.”

She was referring to the Rev. John Lapera, whose daunting task it was to pastor both St. Ignatius and St. Hedwig’s and then oversee their consolidation. – and the marriage of their bazaars.

Lapera, who was in charge of tossing potatoes into the automatic peeler for a few hours on Wednesday, said this year’s bazaar preparation experience has been “a nice mix of both parishes” as well as “a learning process – the traditional foods that St. Hedwig’s always made and the people at St. Ignatius learning how to make them.”

Before the consolidation, St. Ignatius outsourced its pierogi and potato pancake batter-making to a catering company.

This year, Lapera said, about 56 men and women from both parishes worked on pierogies, another 35 made haluski, and at least 25 more made the potato pancake batter.

“That’s over 100 people working together just on the food, so that’s a good sign. … For me, the advantage of this year will be in terms of the communities working together. It’s a strong sign of success, that it’s working,” Lapera said.

The bazaar ran Thursday through Saturday.

Transitioning is tough

Mary Thomas, a former St. Hedwig’s parishioner who attended the St. Ignatius bazaar on Thursday, said she misses St. Hedwig’s bazaar.

“The community was great. Everybody was for each other and with each other. With the consolidation, it’ll be interesting to see how everyone interacts. But I’m sure they’ll get used to it,” Thomas, 44, of Forty Fort, said while munching on some french fries.

Thomas said the St. Ignatius bazaar was “a lot smaller than what St. Hedwig’s used to put on, but it’s just as good.”

Mary Lisa Lada, chairwoman of St. Ignatius’ potato pancake batter committee, said on Wednesday that the coming together of the communities in preparation for the bazaar had been “working out wonderfully.”

Lada had an advantage recruiting volunteers because she had connections to both parishes. Although a member of St. Ignatius, her children had attended St. Hedwig’s school.

She also knew recruiting might be difficult because “a lot of people from St. Hedwig’s were a little leery about getting involved because it was such a big transition for them.”

Dicton’s son, Leonard Dicton Jr., 43, of Edwardsville, said he had been volunteering at St. Hedwig’s bazaars for about 15 years. While he jumped right in, washing and carrying potatoes at St. Ignatius, he said he’ll miss St. Hedwig’s bazaars.

“It’s just like one big family, something you look forward to every year. I’m sad to see it go.”

His father, Leonard Sr., has had a harder time adjusting, Gerry Dicton said.

“His grandparents were builders at St. Hedwig’s and it’s just very hard for him. He comes to church faithfully (at St. Ignatius), but it’s very hard for him to participate in the activities (such as the festival),” she said.

Does she think he’ll volunteer for St. Ignatius’ festival someday?

“I hope he will. Only time will tell.”

Bittersweet end to bazaar

Time will also tell if a huge bazaar tradition on the West Side of the Wyoming Valley resumes at some point in the future.

The committee that has run what arguably has become the largest church bazaar on the West Side – the Holy Name/St. Mary’s Church Bazaar in Forty Fort – decided to forego the longtime tradition this year.

Mark Perugino, who has chaired the bazaar committee for the past 10 years, said the committee made the choice because “volunteerism has been kind of dwindling over the last few years.”

Perugino, 48, of West Wyoming, said the committee’s unanimous decision not to have the bazaar was not made “in spite or retribution” because Bishop Martino ordered that Holy Name/St. Mary’s consolidate into Holy Trinity Church by next summer.

“This was kind of like the icing on the cake or the straw that broke the camel’s back. … I couldn’t say if (a downturn in volunteerism for the bazaar) was due to the consolidation or the closing of the (Catholic) schools or whether it’s the youth not stepping up in proportion to losing the older people,” Perugino said.

He estimated the bazaar grossed more than $100,000 annually and netted the church about $65,000 to $75,000.

He’s sure the absence of a bazaar will put a crimp in the church budget, but “I don’t think it will cripple the church. We’re a pretty financially stable church,” he said.

Perugino expects there will be “a lot of very disappointed people” this summer.

“There are people from out of town who take their vacations at that time just so they can come home to the bazaar and see old friends.”

The bazaar was traditionally held the third weekend each July.

“They’re disappointed and shocked, but they understand,” Perugino said of longtime bazaar attendees he’s talked with.

He also talked with many Holy Name/St. Mary’s parishioners who plan to help out at Holy Trinity’s bazaar this year July 9-11.

Perugino said the decision left him and other committee members with “a bittersweet kind of feeling.

“I really didn’t want to see the tradition not continue. But there’s nothing to say it’s not going to rekindle down the road.”

He said after Holy Name/St. Mary’s consolidates with Holy Trinity, the combined parishes will be assigned a new name.

“Once that happens, I think we’ll all come together,” he said.

Hoping to attract volunteers

That’s what happened in Wilkes-Barre’s Catholic Community of North End when St. John the Evangelist Church was consolidated into Sacred Heart about a decade ago and linked with St. Stanislaus Kostka, said Patrick Conway, a former St. John’s parishioner who was working at the Catholic Community of North End bazaar at St. Stanislaus Church on Thursday.

Martino has called for Sacred Heart/St. John’s and Holy Savior to consolidate with St. Stanislaus by July 2010.

Conway said most volunteers who helped make 400 pounds of potato pancake batter and 200 pounds of haluski were from St. Stanislaus and most of the rest were from the former St. John’s.

There was minimal involvement, Conway said, from Sacred Heart parishioners, some of whom have waged a battle to stop the consolidation of their church with St. Stanislaus.

Conway said they need to “get over it. … We got a family here that’s prayin’ together and stayin’ together. With what we have here, everybody’s sticking together so far,” he said.

Monsignor John Sempa, pastor of Sacred Heart/St. John’s and St. Stanislaus, said he thought the churches were “coming together very well. We operate as one unit,” with a combined finance committee for the bazaar.

Peggy Jones, a secretary at St. Joseph Church in the Georgetown section of Wilkes-Barre Township, said she’s sorry to say that St. Joseph’s won’t have its annual bazaar this year because of its consolidation with Holy Trinity at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Park Avenue.

“I was with the Altar & Rosary Society, we ran the Christmas tree stand, decorated the trees with money. I will miss it. I’m in the office here 35 years. I was born and raised here in the parish,” Jones said.

Mary Alice Erickson, who began volunteering at the bazaar at Holy Rosary Church on Park Avenue in Wilkes-Barre six years ago and chaired the event the last two years, said she’s sad Holy Rosary Church isn’t having a bazaar this year, given its imminent consolidation into St. Patrick’s Church, along with St. Boniface Church.

Erickson, 46, of Wilkes-Barre, said St. Patrick’s hasn’t had a bazaar in a few years because of a lack of volunteers. But she hopes the consolidation will create a larger pool of helpers from all three parishes, and that a bazaar tradition might be reborn.

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