ARCHDIOCESECONSIDERINGMERGING8BRIDGEPORTAREAPARISHES
A set of proposals from the Archdiocese of Chicago could alter the church’s presence in one of its oldest enclaves, as the archdiocese considers merging at least half of the Bridgeport area’s eight Catholic parishes.
The archdiocese is reviewing a cluster of parishes in Bridgeport, Canaryville and Chinatown to see where consolidation can save money and resources as changing demographics and beliefs on organized religion pose challenges to the Catholic Church.
The review is part of the church’s “Renew My Church” effort to evaluate the vitality and future of every church in the archdiocese.
A series of five proposals was released to the parishes recently that outline potential changes to the church’s footprint on the Near South Side. At best, the eight parishes would be consolidated into four; at worst, two consolidated parishes would combine to serve the area’s Catholics, according to the proposals.
Under the proposals, most consolidated parishes would keep their churches open for worship, but they would share a pastor and staff and would have one parish council overseeing the churches, said Father Jason Malave, Cardinal Blase Cupich’s liaison for Renew My Church.
Two possible scenarios call for Santa Lucia Church to be closed for worship.
“There’s changes we can make now to leave a vibrant church for our children and grandchildren,” Malave said. “The consideration really is vitality, making sure that across the archdiocese there’s vitality across all the parishes. Sometimes growing into that vitality means bringing parishes together.”
The Bridgeport cluster is part of the archdiocese’s first wave of parish reviews.
A pilot grouping of parishes in West Humboldt Park announced in November that three parishes will become one, and the plan will be implemented in July.
“We’ll probably get hit the hardest,” said Father Tom Griffin, pastor at St. Gabriel Parish in Canaryville. He said the area’s concentration of parishes, plus its changing demographics and lack of available priests, is causing the drastic proposals.
But bringing change to the Bridgeport- area’s churches could prove to be challenging, as many of the parishes are over a century old and are deeply tied to the area’s ethnic communities.
St. Jerome, for example, serves the city’s Croatian population. St. Mary of Perpetual Help was built by Polish immigrants in 1903. Nativity of our Lord was built in 1876, though the parish was founded in 1868.
St. Gabriel is the only Catholic church in the historically IrishCatholic neighborhood.
In each of the Archdiocese’s five initial scenarios, St. Gabriel would merge with one or more parishes. Each one of the archdiocese’s proposals has St. Gabriel’s school on the chopping block. The two- parish solutionwould phase out the school, while the others would have it operate in some fashion while the archdiocese explores the “sustainability” of having multiple schools under one parish.
The archdiocese is using the benchmark of 240 enrolled students as a sign of a school’s vitality. St. Gabriel has 172 students. A healthy church is one that has aminimum of 800 parishioners attending Sunday Mass, while St. Gabriel has around 440, according to parish sources.
Because successful schools need the best facilities and robust staffing, combining schools could actually make sense for students, even if it would be a painful loss for some, Griffin said.
“Some of the scenarios are very practical,” said Griffin. “The thinking is, ‘ Do what’s best for the kids and not what’s best for your thoughts of the good old days.’”