Local churches face uncertainty amid changes with local parish

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Throughout the Saint Cloud Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, the All Things New: Pastoral Planning Process has given parishes pause as the proposed merger brings up questions of combined services, staff reductions and even church closures.

Recently, the Mary, Mother of the Church Area Catholic Community (ACC) held an informational meeting at St. Ann’s Church in Wadena, to address some of proposed planning going forward as the congregations await the official decree from Bishop Patrick Neary, which will dictate the future of the Catholic Community which currently comprises churches in Wadena, Bluffton, Bertha, Menahga, Verndale, Bluegrass, Staples and Motley.

Over the past 15 months, a committee was set up to develop a plan of action which led to the submission of a plan to the Diocese, which was then accepted for consultation. Some changes have been made in the meantime, including giving themselves a bit of wiggle room when it comes to reaching a decision on the fate of each church property.

“We’ve given ourselves multiple years to comply with Bishop’s request that we have a decision on the use of a building, because if we didn’t we had to dispose of the property or raze the property.” said Pastor JC Duncan. “It is heavy when we have to talk about building closure, building repurposing, and maybe even our communities being pressed together in a new way.

“When we hear that no parish, no matter its size, will remain untouched,” Duncan continued. “When we hear even those parishes that are larger, have to go through a considerable amount of change. We hear that and it is disheartening for us too, but the reality is, it’s difficult work and this is what brings us great sadness. As somebody who has walked alongside you, having journeyed with you throughout this and heard that sadness, it is true and our hearts are broken as well.”

Along with the heavy news that with these proposed mergers, it has been a difficult year for the ACC as they braced for another year of operating the Sacred Heart Catholic School in Staples, Minn. on a shoestring budget with declining enrollment. Despite the challenges, they were confident they would be able to operate for another school year with the current resources.

“We angled towards that and a decision was made outside of our hands in many ways not to have another school year,” said Duncan. “That was unsettling for us as well. We’re awaiting still Bishop’s decrees, which we do not have in hand, but we have a pretty good sense, likely of what is to come.”

Bishop Neary called for the school to pause enrollment for the upcoming year as restructuring and realignment is underway with the All Things New process. In an effort to keep the school in use, educational leaders looked into offering a homeschool hybrid option within the school which would not be the school’s regular offering, but would allow parents to bring their students together to continue their education in community. The dynamics and cost of this option was feasible and the school hopes to offer this option this coming fall.

“We hope to continue to keep Principal Justin Edin on staff to be my right hand man, to discern a way forward,” said Duncan. “We have some wonderful opportunities out there including the possibility of talking about redesigning the school in a way that meets the current needs and the declining enrollment in our area.

“All of this takes time and managing a school and trying to design one at the same time while keeping staff and clergy at a minimal number, it’s just not possible,” he continued. “So this enrollment pause is the best for us as we discern the way forward, but it is a challenge too, it’s tough. We don’t want the school to completely fall off the map, so that’s why we’re committing a full-time person to help us study the possibilities of the future.”

Another question that Duncan mentioned was of concern to a number of community members throughout this process was the maintenance of their cemeteries. If churches were sold or razed, what would happen to the cemeteries full of the departed saints of each historic congregation?

“Bishop was very clear that we will maintain our cemeteries,” assured Duncan. “People will still be able to be buried in the cemeteries for which they have the right to be buried in. We’re not taking any of that away, in fact we will continue to maintain them and a part of what we need to discern going forward is how we will provide for the perpetual care for some of these cemeteries, so that is work that we have yet to do.”

Pastor Duncan himself wanted to make sure that staff between the parishes within the ACC would retain their positions as to the extent was possible. The largest problem is the lack of transferable positions from the Sacred Heart School as they close their educational program for the upcoming year. He explained there is regrettably no one-to-one transfer for those positions.

“We made a commitment to staff that unless it was through natural attrition, we wanted to do everything that we could to make sure that staff who committed themselves to the care of our church, we weren’t going to simply let them rest on the side,” he said. “We committed to trying our best to make sure we found ways to transition, so that we wouldn’t put families—who have committed themselves to this service—at risk.”

With church building closures as another large concern for parishioners, Duncan addressed each of the buildings which have been labeled as churches to be used on an infrequent basis by the All Things New process, which includes the Bluffton, St. John the Baptist, Menahga, Assumption of Our Lady and Verndale, St. Frederick churches.

“We feel fairly confident that Bishop will choose the plan that kept Bluegrass over Bluffton open, largely because it fits the Diocesan layout of trying to make sure there is a web of parishes all throughout the Diocese for people to attend,” stated Duncan. “The whole idea as I surmise of the All Things New, is putting in place a web, to protect—not only in our area—but all of the Diocese so that everybody has the opportunity to attend Mass within a 20 minute drive.

“This is not unlike many of our Latin Mass friends, who will travel great distances to go to Mass and not unlike many of our Protestant brothers and sisters who might even travel an hour to go to mass,” he continued. “In many ways, we are facing some of the same pressures as well.”

With the committee continuing to seek the right options for each church building, there have been several parties who have expressed interest in utilizing these sacred spaces. St. Frederick in Verndale has the potential to be sold to a party who will use it in a non-profit way which would honor the history of the building as well as the town itself.

“It will not be a for-profit use in any way and we can put some stipulations likely on the sale of the building,” said Duncan. “I think it will be a great use.”

Assumption of Our Lady in Menahga has several interested parties who would like to purchase the building and both would continue to use the space for ministry purposes.

“Both would use it for purposes that would be fitting as well, likely they would have ongoing ministry in them,” said Duncan. “That wouldn’t be our ministry, but certainly to those who have need and it would be a great use of this particular site and building as well.

“Then we think about Bertha, which remains in many ways, a difficult conversation for us because of the realities of the parish,” he continued. “We have the option of potentially beginning a ministry of service to the poor and we’re hoping in that site, to institute a Catholic Worker’s House, where we would intentionally reach out to those who are poor. We have somebody who is interested in assisting in this work of helping us potentially start this mission that would allow everyone in our ACC to perhaps serve in missions locally. It’s also a way we hope to alleviate some loneliness among certain populations of our ACC, while bringing people together in service and in care and perhaps even taking care of our own needs, so we look forward to that.”

One church building that currently has a more uncertain fate is St. John the Baptist in Bluffton. The committee has reached out to around nine religious communities seeking interest. Currently a federated Franciscan community is contemplating the opportunity to receive the building, but no decision has been made by either party.

“Regrettably, we do not currently have any plan for Bluffton,” said Duncan. “It doesn’t mean we aren’t looking, we’ve still continued to contact several religious communities asking if they would even want to receive the building for free. We will continue do the work of looking at meaningful usage, because we just don’t like the idea of razing buildings ourselves as well.

“We’d like to see some type of ministry going on,” he continued. “We just don’t have a concrete answer at this point for the Bluffton parish building. We talked about the church rectory over there and the moving or sale or razing of that all may be options. The cemetery of course, would remain in our care and it would be open to any of the members of our ACC to use as well.”

With all of these changes, one constant should remain the same, the name of the new parish was proposed to be Mary, Mother of the Church, which comes from their Area Catholic Community’s name which has held them close over the past few years. This change brings eight church corporations, finance committees, and everything involved with running a small parish, to one corporation with one finance committee with several locations.

“This reflects the reality that over the last five years, we couldn’t have done ministry without each other anyway,” said Duncan. “We were dependent on each other, no parish—neither the big ones nor the ones who were clustered other ways—could have done this on their own. We needed one another and we still do need one another.

“We did this together and therefore we saw growth and there was this overwhelming desire to continue to do ministry together and that’s what we hope to do,” he continued. “I think opportunity is the key to all of this. We had to talk about the loss and the reality is it’s been tough, but the opportunities are great. I’m looking forward to our combined church, our parish.”

Duncan also spoke about how in the years of settlement Catholics were called to build these churches and now area Catholics are called to realign and offer their parishes as a sacrifice to each other, to combine in a meaningful way which may be uncomfortable.

“I am excited by the possibility of living out what the All Things New committee has said,” he explained. “We are not giving up our parishes, but we are voluntarily offering them to each other. All parishes are going to change, even those that are not closing, they too will become sacrificial. This parish, well-appointed over the years, it will have to change.

Everyone is going to face this together and we are being moved, even if it’s uncomfortable, away from what we knew to a place of living out those values of the church being one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. The church isn’t Verndale, the church isn’t Menahga, the church isn’t Motley, Staples, or Wadena, or any of the rest, but the church is one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. That’s what excites me, we’re being moved toward something. It feels like loss, but we know that the church will prevail, even against the gates of hell. That the mercy, the sacramental life of the church, that it being the harbinger of God’s grace, it will exist.”