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Priests see restructuring as a loss and opportunity

The merger of parishes in the Erie Catholic Diocese can be seen in multiple ways.

It will surely be a loss for some of those who attend one of the churches to be “subsumed.”

But it could be an opportunity to grow and create a more vibrant church community.

Bishop Lawrence Persico announced Tuesday that 19 parishes in the diocese, including those of St. Anthony of Padua in Sheffield and St. Luke in Youngsville, will be made part of other existing parishes.

“Come February, the parish as we know it will cease to exist,” Fr. John Neff, pastor of both St. Anthony and St. Luke, said. “They’ll be wholly subsumed” by the Holy Redeemer and St. Joseph parishes, respectively.

“It’s going to be devastating for them,” Neff said of parishioners. “For 50 years here in Youngsville, and since at least 1970 in Sheffield, we’ve been independent parishes.”

The church offices will close. Assets and records will be handled by the new combined parishes.

“The administration of it will cease to exist and will go to Warren,” he said. “Canonically, (St. Luke) will be a mission of St. Joseph. St. Anthony will be a mission of Holy Redeemer.”

“The people are not happy with that,” Neff said. “They don’t want to see their independence gone – dictated by another pastor.”

“We have fought hard for the status quo to remain,” he said. “We have benefited greatly our communities.”

On the other side, “I do believe it could bring more vibrancy to the community,” Fr. Rich Toohey, pastor of St. Joseph, said. “We want to sustain the great work that St. Luke is doing.”

“We have united resources. Having our parishes working together it could become a more effective ministry,” Toohey said. “We can work together now to do what I would think would be greater things in the region.”

The restructuring plan and the decision to eliminate half of the county’s parishes were driven largely by demographics, Neff said. “Fewer number of members, declining membership, fewer priests… Things worked against us.”

The future of the St. Luke and St. Anthony church buildings themselves, which are to remain open as secondary mission churches under the restructuring plan, may be in danger.

“There will be one mass a week, according to the plan,” Neff said. “If the church in Sheffield becomes a liability, they’re not going to want to keep it open. They’re not going to want to keep the church in Youngsville open for one mass a week.”

“They feel it’s only a matter of time,” he said. “The pastor of St. Joseph or Holy Redeemer will petition the bishop to close the church down.”

Neff does not expect either of the existing parishes to stick together through the merger.

“I think the older parishioners will stay here,” he said. “The younger folks will want to go to a parish where there are more activities – religious education, fundraisers, social events.”

“If this is how it’s going to be, they’re going to gravitate elsewhere,” Neff said.

That elsewhere may not be the Warren-based parishes designated by the diocese.

For some who attend St. Luke, “it’s closer for them to go to Corry,” he said. And some parishioners in the Sheffield area are likely to move on to St. Callistus in Kane.

“People are bailing out and planning to go to other churches,” Neff said. “You’ve got personality differences, other things going on.”

He said some in the St. Luke parish feel slighted by Fr. Rich Toohey of St. Joseph.

During the preliminary phases that led to the final restructuring, “the pastor of St. Joseph made it known that he didn’t want this place to begin with,” Neff said, that doing so would “take away time from his work at the school.”

Toohey said he did suggest that St. Joseph be merged with St. Anthony of Padua rather than St. Luke.

St. Joseph is the largest of the four Catholic parishes and also the only one that operates a school. “It was possible that this job would become too demanding,” Toohey said.

“It was never a rejection of Youngsville or not wanting to work with Youngsville,” said Toohey. “St. Joseph’s would have the largest and biggest demand and Sheffield would have the smallest of the four. It was merely a practical decision of matching the demands of the largest and the smallest to balance out the demand of the pastors.”

“The Diocese decided not to go that route,” Toohey said. “I look forward to working with St. Luke’s.”

With his parishes both eliminated, Neff himself will be in line for a new assignment.

“Hopefully they’ll be contacting me and others in December for consideration for possible assignments,” he said. “I’ll be moving on after 10 years at St. Luke and four years at St. Anthony.”

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