Church Closings

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
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Bishop Joseph Martino’s final decision on church closings gives three fates for churches – partnered, linked and consolidated, with consolidation resulting in church closings.

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Our Lady of Victory Church, Harvey's Lake

Courtesy: OLV Web site

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• At least 19 Lackawanna churches will be closing

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But there is an exception.

When consolidations are listed, a church that has been consolidated into another one does not necessarily close completely. They can be left open “as an additional worship site.”

For example, in the Back Mountain cluster, the final decision is that St. Therese and St. Frances X. Cabrini consolidate “at the St. Therese site,” but that St. Frances remain “as an additional worship site” for one Mass per weekend and occasional weddings or funerals.

In an introduction accompanying the official listing of the final decision for all diocesan churches, Martino wrote this explanation of consolidation:

“This happens when two or more parishes come together in such a way that only one parish continues to exist … In some instances of consolidation, however, a church building of a closed parish may remain open for a limited time. When this arrangement is provided, it will usually be to accommodate a Sunday Mass, funeral or wedding.”

In most cases, when a consolidated church is listed as an additional worship site, there is also a note – as there is with St. Frances – that the situation will be reviewed in two or three years.

According to a Times Leader tally, Luzerne County has 39 churches closing and another 10 consolidating but remaining – at least for a while – as additional worship sites.

The list published in Sunday’s paper, compiled by having people attend Mass in each cluster and report what they heard, did not always clarify the status as additional worship site. Those churches that consolidated to other sites but were to remain open at least for a while were St. Frances X. Cabrini, Our Lady of Victory in Harveys Lake, Holy Saviour in Wilkes-Barre, St. Martha in Fairmount Springs and Corpus Christi in Glen Lyon.

The story incorrectly reported the closure of St. Stanislaus in Hazleton, which will remain open but link with St. Joseph.

Across the 11-county Diocese of Scranton, The Times Leader tally showed 78 churches closing and another 30 consolidating but remaining available as additional worship sites. A few clusters listed consolidations without expressly noting the fate of a church building.

The changes detailed in the final decision are to begin to take effect no later than July of this year.

The closings are to occur at different times for different churches, but most are within one or two years.

Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161.