Some Northeast Ohio Catholic churches begin merger

There is still a shortage of priests in Northeast Ohio as the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown continues its plan to merge churches.

It’s a plan that the late Bishop Murry began to roll out before he died.

“When I was ordained over 37 years ago, we had about 150 active priest, now we are facing a decline,” says Monsignor John Zuraw of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese.

Zuraw says it’s been a challenge.

“In 2024, there are 42 of us that are ministering within the six counties of the Diocese of Youngstown,” Zuraw said.

Stark, Portage and Trumbull Counties began to merge on July 1. In Canton, Saint Peter and the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist are now known as The Basilica of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Peter Parish.

Tom Sosnowski started attending the St. John Basilica in 1977 and says the change was needed and should not have been a surprise.

“A person was not expecting it? That was really silly,” Sosnowski said.

He told me it’s pretty obvious that the population Downtown has dwindled.

“Don’t have enough priests. I mean, if they did, still one would wonder about the financial viability of paying two priests and having two parishes; that becomes a rather expensive proposition. It’s expensive enough to maintain two buildings, especially two large buildings. They’re doing that, though,” he said.

In Niles, St. Stephen’s Church and Our Lady of Mount Carmel joined to form St. Pope John the XXIII.

Under the plan, a priest may be pulling double duty, overseeing multiple parishes with staggered services. The church buildings will remain open.

“The merged units, especially help where there’s not a multiplication of meetings, but rather there’s one finance council meeting, there’s one parish council meeting. So that does, in fact, save some time, it saves some energy,” Zuraw said.