What has been suspected for some time is now, in all likelihood, going to become a reality. In Tom Giambroni news articles in the Morning Journal last week and again yesterday, he reported that the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown is planning to consolidate some of their parishes to restructure the diocese. Wellsville's Catholic church is one of those parishes on the hit list. According to the news reports it is going to probably be merged with the St. Aloysius Parish in East Liverpool, along with St. Anns, also in East Liverpool. In the Catholic Church hierarchy a church in one community is called a parish and parishes in several communities make up a diocese. In this area all the parishes belong to the Youngstown Diocese. The diocese is like the headquarters. They call the shots.
Wellsville hasn't had a full time pastor since they took Farther Bernie away to minister in Ashtabula years ago. The suspicions of closing the Wellsvile Parish started back then. Last year they consolidated the parish office with St. Als. Now it appears the closing of Immaculate Conception is going to happen.
With declining members and fewer priests we can sympathize with their need to downsize but it's already a mess to attend services in East Liverpool. The only parking available up there is on the street. Even before the merger you have to go way early to find a parking space within walking distance. It's going to be a hardship on elderly members and the disabled.
No decision is expect to be announced until May 23. Bishop George Murry is taking comments and objections on the proposed moves until March 15. Here's some contact information if you wish to register a comment or objection:
The Most Reverend George V. Murry, Bishop of Diocese of Youngstown
114 Wood St.
Youngstown, OH 44503
Phone number is 330-744-8451
E-mail address is chancery@doy.org
The history of the Immaculate Conception Church goes back to the early 1800s. It's a shame to close the book on that chapter of our history.
We played around with the picture above. There's not a For Sale sign up yet but we fear it's coming.
ole nib
6 comments:
It is a very sad that we are probably going to see the closing of ICC as well as 24 other churches in the diocese. It is a trend that has hit many other dioceses through out the country.
You can write,call, or e-mail the Bishop but I have the feeling that the decision has already been made.
I believe that number is a fax number.
That was the fax number we had on there yesterday. Thanks. It's been corrected.
With 37 priests eligible to retire in the next five years and only 14 future priests now in the seminary we're afraid you're correct about the decision already being made to close them down. However, we still feel it's important to let the Bishop know our feelings. It may be for naught but at least you can say you let your views known.
nib
i always wonder why they don't just let married people be priests. if they loosened up the requirements, maybe we'd have more priests and wouldn't have to go through this.
not trying to be funny, but if you had to guess- how many of those 14 future priests do you think are queer? we should have married priests.......there is nothing in the bible that says they shouldn't be married. the only reason the church made that rule is because they were worried about the priests' families inheriting the church's wealth.
Good argument. We Catholics were taught that the priests weren't allowed to marry to emulate Christ. He nevered married.
We not theologians by any stretch of the imagination but the only thing I've ever learned that was directly attributed to Christ was the Lord's Prayer. All the other rules of Christendom were made by man. Some of those rules surely test one's faith. For us, one's choice of religion is strictly personal and should be left to individual decisions.
nib
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