Church merger being appealed

Church of the Epiphany closed in June

CHESHIRE » The merger of three Roman Catholic churches in town has hit a roadblock, thanks to an appeal filed by a parishioner at one of the closed parishes.

Maria Zone, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Hartford, said Monday that the merger of the Church of the Epiphany into St. Thomas Beckett and St. Bridget is the subject of what is known in canonical language as a recourse or appeal. Church of the Epiphany, located on Huckins Road, closed in June as part of a merger with St. Thomas Beckett and St. Bridget.

The merger created a single parish, St. Bridget of Sweden. St. Thomas Beckett remains open for some services, but masses are no longer said at Church of the Epiphany.

The merger of the Cheshire parishes was part of a diocese-wide consolidation driven by a variety of factors including a decline in the number of parishioners a shortage of priests.

Zone did not identify the parishioner who sought the recourse, but did say it was a woman who made the appeal.

Parishioners at St. Bridget of Sweden were informed of the appeal by the Rev. Jeffrey Romans during a service at the church earlier this month. Romans was not available for comment Monday on the appeal, but urged members of the congregation in the Aug. 13 parish bulletin “to pray for the success of those involved in our merger process.”

Church law requires that a decision regarding the appeal be rendered within 90 days of its receipt. But according to Michael W. Higgins, a Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, such appeals “are a lengthy process that can wind up in Rome.”

Higgins said parishioners of Church of the Epiphany “aren’t doing anything wrong” in appealing the ruling of the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese is the first step in the appeal process, even though the decision to close Church of the Epiphany came from that level of the church’s hierarchy. If the Archdiocese refuses to overturn its decision, Higgins said the appeal will at some point be reviewed by the Papal Nuncio, the Catholic Church’s ambassador to the United States, Higgins said.

“Both sides will probably consult the Papal Nuncio because they have a great deal of expertise in canonical law,” he said.

Higgins said closing churches “is a very bad strategy.”

“Closings always produce a lot of negativity, which is understandable,” he said.

One alternative to closing churches, Higgins said, is being tried in Germany. Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and a member of the church’s College of Cardinals, has authorized a broader use of lay people in the day-to-day operations and ceremonies of the Archdiocese’s churches, he said.

“It’s a good way to keep the parishes open and gives members of the congregation a greater sense of involvement,” Higgins said.