Bishop Zubik announces five parish mergers

Five church buildings recognized as shrines

Bishop David Zubik announced in a letter to members of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Saturday the first five parish mergers from the “On Mission for The Church Alive!” initiative, and recognized five church buildings as shrines.

Each of the five groupings will become a single new parish, with a new name. However, diocesan officials emphasized that no churches will be closing at this time.

The five new parishes are: • Christ Our Savior on the North Side combines the parishes of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in Brighton Heights, Holy Wisdom and Saint Peter on the North Side and Risen Lord in Marshall-Shadeland.

• Saint Teresa of Kolkata in South Pittsburgh combines the parishes of Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Pamphilus in Beechview, and Our Lady of Loreto, Saint Pius X and Resurrection, all in Brookline.

• Saint Paul of the Cross in the South Hills combines the parishes of Saint Anne in Castle Shannon and Saint Winifred in Mt. Lebanon.

• Holy Spirit in Lawrence County combines the parishes of Saint Camillus in Neshannock, Christ the King in Bessemer, Saint James the Apostle in Pulaski and Saint Joseph the Worker, Mary Mother of Hope, Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Vitus, all in New Castle.

• Saint Matthias in Greene County combines the parishes of Saint Ann in Waynesburg, Saint Hugh in Carmichaels, Saint Ignatius of Antioch in Bobtown, Our Lady of Consolation in Crucible and Saint Thomas in Clarksville.

“These five parish groupings have worked extremely hard since last October to foster relationships and, after consultation in the groupings, were prepared to share with me their desire and readiness to form a new parish community,” the bishop wrote.

The new Shrines of Pittsburgh Grouping brings together the parishes of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Polish Hill, Most Holy Name of Jesus in Troy Hill, Saint Nicholas in Millvale and Saint Patrick-Saint Stanislaus Kostka in the Strip District.

Bishop Zubik wrote that the Shrines of Pittsburgh “will both provide for the pastoral care of the faithful in these parishes and promote these shrines as places of pilgrimage and spiritual renewal for people throughout the diocese and even across the country.”

The shrines included in this new grouping are:

Saint Anthony Chapel in Troy Hill, which contains the world’s largest collection of relics after the Vatican and the largest collection of relics available for public veneration; Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Polish Hill, a prime example of “Polish Cathedral” architecture, which is modeled after Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and the first church in the United States to have the Divine Mercy Novena; Saint Nicholas Church in Millvale, which houses the one-of-a-kind murals of Maxo Vanka, which depict the immigration of Croatian peasants to the United States, Vanka’s expression of the futility of war and his sadness at the destruction of Europe during World War II; Saint Patrick Church in the Strip District, which contains one of the few replicas of the Holy Stairs that Jesus ascended to be judged by Pontius Pilate before he was crucified; Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Strip District, one of the earliest Polish communities in the United States, which was visited in 1969 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope Saint John Paul II.

All of the changes will take effect on July 1.