Thursday, December 01, 2011

Parish Closures? Who? When? Part 1: East, North, and West Suburbs

St. Donald, Roseville is to close following the retirement of its current Pastor Rev. Michael Donovan. The parish opened in 1965, and that's all I know about it! 4 more parishes will remain in Roseville to serve the faithful.

St. Maurice, Livonia is to close at some point in 2012. This parish is already clustered with St. Genevieve in Livonia which has an active school and several active ministries. The churches will merge. The pastor is Fr. Howard Vogan. As far as I know the parishes have worked well together, and I think this merger will ultimately go over well. 5 more parishes in addition to the new merged Parish will remain in Livonia. Full disclosure: St. Genevieve was my boyhood parish.

There may be a bright side when this closes. St. Maurice serves as the home to St. Rafka mission, an outreach of St. Sharbel in Warren. This serves the Maronite Rite Catholics (Lebanese) on the west side. I have no idea what the finances of the Maronite Eparchy are like, but perhaps they could buy the parish? This would keep the land in Catholic hands.

Our Lady Queen of Peace, Harper Woods is proposed to be put up for sale in 2012 and to be closed upon sale. Fr. William Herman is currently the pastor. I know very little of the parish other than that it is near the Morross exit of I-94 and was founded in 1946.

There are 3 recommended closures in the Downriver area and 2 recommended in the city of Detroit. There is also a quickly approaching closure in Detroit which I will cover separately.

The list of recommended closures is here.

No comments: