‘Very sentimental’

At a recent Communion Service at St. Margaret of Scotland in St. Clair Shores, more than a dozen people filled the pews. A deacon presided over the service in the church’s chapel, a smaller space with colorful stained glass windows. Mainly older adults attended the service, including Lawrence D’Agonstino of Fraser.

D’Agostino, a parishioner of St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish in Roseville for 53 years, said the restructuring process is “concerning.”

“It’s very sentimental, because everyone … wants to have their own parish stay open, which is common sense,” he said.

One issue is that men are not becoming priests, D’Agostino said. Another issue is the financing of the parishes.

“It’s a shame that the younger generation doesn’t fulfill their obligation as we did when we were younger … and so therefore the amount of people going to the parishes is limited,” he said. ” And due to the fact that it’s limited, it makes it that much (more) difficult … for the parishes to stay open financially.”

D’Agostino, 79, said he doesn’t know where St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish “is standing financially.” He thinks the archdiocese will be considering whether parishes are “in the red” or “in the green,” with those in the red likely to be a concern.

Paul Padyiasek, a parishioner at St. Louise de Marillac in Warren, said the restructuring has “got to be done.” He said priests are retiring and parishioners have been dying.

He added that some people who used to attend Mass at his church now go to churches farther north in Macomb County. Padyiasek, who is an usher at St. Louise, estimated that a total of 200 to 250 people attend one of two weekend Masses at the church, which is down from around 300 people three or four years ago.

Padyiasek, 81, said he is part of a group of around 20 people who get breakfast together every Sunday after Mass. They’ve already been talking about what church they might attend if St. Louise closes.

“I know a lot of people are going to be going probably to St Anne’s,” Padyiasek said.

St. Anne Parish on Mound Road in Warren will stay open because it has a school, he said.

“I think a lot of the churches that don’t have schools will close,” Padyiasek said.

Experience with closures

St. Christopher Church in Detroit, which was renamed St. Juan Diego Parish in 2019, held its final Mass on Jan. 11, drawing longtime and former parishioners and neighbors. The church had served Detroit’s community since 1941, but in recent years drew as few as 20 worshippers to Sunday Mass.

Slaughter, 80, said her parish in Detroit, Our Lady of Victory, closed in the 1980s and merged with Presentation church. The merged church, which is called Presentation Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, lost its building in 2014, but it continued holding Masses in the chapel of St. Scholastica Parish in Detroit until recently.

Slaughter, who wrote a book about the history of Our Lady of Victory, said the Black Catholic Church in Detroit has lost “so many Catholics” over the decades because of archdiocese policies that “didn’t serve us.” She said her priest has changed frequently over the years, sometimes every two to three years, and the longest she has ever had a pastor is eight years. She argued that white Catholics have priests for longer periods of time.

Slaughter said Our Lady of Victory will “probably be hit again” because of the low numbers of parishioners.

“And then I’ll make a decision on what I’m going to do after that hit takes place,” she said.

The archdiocese’s Amore said the frequent changing of priests is “really the case across the archdiocese.” He said six to 12 years is a normal term for a priest to be at a parish community.

Amore said the Archdiocesan Restructuring Commission includes Detroiters and people from Black Catholic parishes. He noted that “we are the Archdiocese of Detroit.”

“And so the city of Detroit needs to be a definite focus for us,” Amore said. “And the archbishop has committed to that through this process.”

A Catholic church in Detroit known for its mural of a Black Jesus, St. Charles Lwanga, was at risk of closure late last year, but those plans were reversed thanks to a coalition of parishioners who fought to keep the church open. St. Charles Lwagna is still a place of worship, but now as the newly combined parish, Christ the King.

The biggest lesson that Steve Wasko, a leader in the Anti-Racism coalition, said should be applied to the restructuring process is asking the question, “What does it take to have a flourishing church?,’ as opposed to asking the question ‘What are we going to do with fewer parishioners, less money and less priests?”

Wasko, a longtime member of St. Suzanne Lady/Our Lady Gate of Heaven, said when the Archdiocese of Detroit closes parishes in the city, it disproportionately affects Black Catholics.

“There’s no evidence nationally that these restructuring processes lead to anything other than further retrenchment, usually impacting communities of color the most and usually resulting in the eventual continued loss of Black Catholics from their faith, organized religion and local parishes,” Wasko said.

Some parishioners moved to the suburbs

Southwest Detroiter Walter Glinka, 71, became a parishioner at St. Francis D’Assisi as a child, when his neighborhood was an enclave of residents of Polish heritage. He was baptized there, confirmed there, attended grade school and got married at the parish that is over 100 years old.

In 2004, his parish was merged with nearby St. Hedwig, less than one mile away. He described St. Francis as the oldest Polish-speaking parish in the city.  But St. Francis and St. Hedwig have relied on Spanish-speaking immigrants and other Latinos for decades, he said.

Glinka became a lay minister at St. Francis years ago to help with services. But many of his peers have not been as loyal to the parish.