Updates will be provided in weekly bulletins and on its website. In coming months, all of the churches and ancillary buildings will be evaluated for their conditions, necessary repairs, utility expenses, seating capacity, accessibility and parking.ĭecisions will be made based on what the parish can afford, what it needs to deliver ministry and missions and what it can sustain. Lendvai wrote it is likely the ministry could be supported with one church, but, given the wide geographic range, he believes it is better to keep two.
In total, Guardian Angels includes about 3,000 families. The top comment from people, he said, was that the parish needs to reduce the number of buildings.įeedback shows 100% of parishioners indicated the parish cannot continue to maintain 22 buildings, he wrote. In his letter, Lendvai said a decline in weekly offerings, along with building expenses, could force the parish out of money by fall or early winter.Ĭhurch leaders spent several months conducting focus groups, interviews and surveys. Nearly half of all parish expenses are related to the buildings. Since then, building-related costs represent 72% of the parish’s nonstaff expenses. Guardian Angels Parish was a product of diocesan regroupings nearly two years ago.
We have 22 buildings, and there’s no way they can be taken care of.” “We accept the fact that you can’t keep on like this. “We have to accept that it is what it is,” Ed Mahdik said. While they attend Most Blessed Sacrament on Sundays, the couple is familiar with each of the seven parish churches since they travel for weekday Mass between the different buildings. Their children went to grade school at the now-defunct Blessed Sacrament elementary that operated for 66 years. When they met, Lucy was a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help along 11th Avenue and Ed was a member of Most Blessed Sacrament along Montana Avenue. Like Huey, other parishioners seem resigned to the impending closures.Įd Mahdik and his wife, Lucy, have attended services in Natrona Heights for more than 50 years. “It’s sad, but with the low numbers of people that are coming, what are you gonna do?” “If you don’t have the parishioners, you can’t sustain the buildings,” she said. Peter’s, which merged with Sacred Heart, and then we merged with St. She has gone through three mergers and said “this is nothing new.” “It’s a normal course of business these days,” said longtime parishioner Marilyn Huey, who has attended Mass for six decades at one of the three Roman Catholic churches along West Ninth Avenue in Tarentum. Parishioners, while saddened, appear to be taking the news in stride. July 24 at Most Blessed Sacrament for Lendvai to reveal recommendations that will be submitted to Bishop David Zubik.
Meager finances and dwindling attendance will force Guardian Angels Parish in Harrison to reduce its seven churches into two campuses later this year.
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