Pittston Dispatch // PD Columnists // Jack Smiles - Smiles and Frowns

Sunday February 08, 2009 | 12:00 AM

I was burning with curiosity as the weekend for parish restructuring approached.

My wife and I, members of St. Joseph’s Church in Wyoming, went to the 5 o’clock mass on Saturday at Our Lady of Sorrows in West Wyoming, something we almost never do, because we wanted to hear the first playing of the Bishop’s recorded announcement.

St. Joe’s and OLOS had been linked under one pastor three years ago.

Some folks from the Wyomings believed St. Joe’s and OLOS would close and be absorbed by St. Anthony’s in Exeter. Others had it that St. Joe’s and OLOS would consolidate at OLOS and St. Joe’s would close.

Everyone agreed the status quo was out. Something was going down.

The tension was palpable during the mass and though it was like any other of Father Walsh’s masses, it seemed unbearably long.

Finally when mass ended Father Walsh said anyone who did not want to hear the message was welcome to leave. If anyone did, I didn’t see them.

The Bishop’s “disembodied voice,” as Times Leader writer Mark Guydish succinctly put it, surprised and confused the St. Joe’s and OLOS parishioners when he said this:

“Our Lady of Sorrows, West Wyoming and St. Joseph, Wyoming will consolidate no later than July 2011 at the St. Joseph site. There will be an additional worship site, masses as needed per weekend with occasional funerals and weddings, at Our Lady of Sorrows which will be evaluated two years after the consolidation, based on geography, attendance, fiscal realities and the availability of priests.”

It was confusing because in a preamble to the closing announcement the Bishop defined a consolidation this way: “When two or more parishes come together in such a way that only one parish continues to exist. That one or new parish then serves the parishioners of those parishes which have closed.”

Anyway, after the announcement, almost everybody rushed out without waiting for the altar procession to walk down the aisle.

Though the Bishop’s announcement gave OLOS a two-year reprieve with the chance of a different evaluation after the two years, most folks reacted as though OLOS was doomed.

Just as the Bishop predicted, some folks were angry and some were sad.

We overheard one woman say, she was “going back to the Heights.”

Everyone wondered what becomes of the choir and the internal organizations.

I walked out with a devoted OLOS parishioner and family man. He wasn’t happy. He thought the decision was backwards but he did manage to joke that he was already thinking of ways to turn the OLOS church building into condominiums.

He may be on to something there.

While it was thought that OLOS would be the site of the consolidation because it is newer, bigger, and has a lot more parking, OLOS has a lot more potential as a piece of real estate.

Though selling it won’t be easy, if it comes to that, it would be easier to sell and remodel for another use, than would St. Joe’s.

Architecturally, St. Joe’s is a traditional Catholic church. It’s hard to imagine it as something else.

And I don’t mean that emotionally, but practically.

My wife and I have emotional ties to both churches.

My wife was raised in OLOS. We were married there.

But as we live hard by St. Joe’s we are members and we raised our daughter there.

Father Walsh is in a tough spot. He took over two parishes where he knew no one, replacing two long-time, beloved pastors, one at each church.

Trying to shepherd the parishes through the link was hard enough and now he’s got to deal with consolidation.

Though the diocese described the parishes as “linked” before the most recent announcement, about the only thing linking them is Father Walsh.

It’s not that the parishioners don’t like each other.

That’s nuts.

No two boroughs in the cluster get along better than the Wyomings.

They share a Little League, they shared a junior football program for years.

West Wyoming people use the Wyoming Library.

The councils and mayors get along famously, I saw them out for pizza just a couple weeks ago.

There are lots of friendships and family connections between the towns.

The kids, or most of them, are classmates at Wyoming Area.

But when it came to linking the parishes, folks were rigid.

Mostly, they went to their separate masses and boycotted each other’s fund raisers.

OLOS has more youth.

I’m 61 and I joke that I go to St. Joe’s to feel young.

But it’s true. I look around the church during mass and can count the number of people there under 50 on my fingers.

That’s not surprising. According to the last census, Wyoming is the oldest town per capita in Luzerne County.

The hope is that the young families from OLOS will transfer their allegiance to St. Joe’s.

But will it happen?

About the Author

Jack Smiles covers for the Times Leader. Reach him at or jsmiles@psdispatch.com.

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