Parish Closures? Who? When? Part 3: Detroit

There are 2 parishes in Detroit slated to close per the AOD's summary of the recommendations of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council (APC).

St. Anthony Lithuanian, founded in 1920, is a tiny Lithuanian holdout in mainly Hispanic southwest Detroit. I have never been, but a friend has, and she described it as a small welcoming community who assured her that readings are in English on Sundays (at least at the 9am mass.) Of the 7 masses per week, 6 are in Lithuanian. The pastor is Rev. Gintaras A Jonikas. According to the AOD parish listings he is also pastor of Divine Providence Lithuanian on 9 mile in Southfield. The plan is to merge the St. Anthony community into the Divine Providence community in 2013. The council seeks further analysis on whether the St. Anthony building can be used by Holy Redeemer parish which is 10 blocks west south west on Vernor Highway. Holy Redeemer has recently been entrusted to SOLT who brought 4 priests and 14 seminarians to the archdiocese. Hopefully this building can be retained by the AOD.

St. Luke Parish (brief history on their website) is also recommended for closure. It and St. Mary's of Redford are already clustered under the pastorship of Rev. Tyrone Robinson. The recommendation is to merge the St. Luke community into St Mary's of Redford, but to "maintain an outreach center at St. Luke’s" per the APC document. The APC wants this completed by June 2012.

See also Parish Closures? Who? When? Part 1 and Part 2. Downriver parishes next. Then we will go into what the APC recommendations are for Parishes we have visited on this blog.

Parish Closures? Who? When? Part 2: Immaculate Heart of Mary, Detroit

The Immaculate Heart of Mary Center in Northwest Detroit (Part of Corpus Christ Parish) is being closed soon and the property is to be sold to Michigan Technical Academy Elementary School currently renting parts of the facility. From the RFP:

Michigan Technical Academy leases two buildings from the Archdiocese of Detroit (the Academy also owns a third building in Redford).The Academy is purchasing one of these buildings at 19940 Mansfield, Detroit, 48235, and constructing an addition to that building. The addition will permit the Academy to terminate the lease at the second facility, transfer its students and consolidate operations to begin the 2012-13 school year.

This won't be the first parish to be converted to a charter school, and it probably will not be the last.

The final mass will be at 9am on Sunday December 11, 2o11. Principal celebrant will be Bishop Hanchon. There is a lot more information in the article from the Michigan Catholic. Hopefully I can get to the Mass to document it., but the Michigan Catholic will likely cover it whether I can or not.

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.

Archdiocesan News

It has been a big news week for Catholicism in Detroit. (Going back to last Friday)

Friday: Brother Rice High School defeated Lowell for the Division 2 State Championship

Saturday: Detroit Catholic Central fell to Cass Technical High School in the Division 1 State Championship (more on this later).
Just after 4pm the faithful in churches across the archdiocese responded "And with your spirit" as the third edition of the Roman Missal was unleashed across the United States.
Later in the evening Orchard Lake St. Mary's defeated Mt. Pleasant for the Division 3 State championship.

Sunday: The Catholic Television Network of Detroit (CTND) changed their major content provider from EWTN to Catholic TV (CTV) of Boston.

Tuesday: A letter started circulating around the internet filled with stupid comments about Cass Technical High school and the Detroit Public School system. The letter was alleged to have been written by someone who attended the game and delivered to Coach Wilcher of Cass Tech. The undersigned does not appear to be attached to the CC family, but the damage is done. Fr. Ranalletti, the president of CC issued a statement. Here is an article on the subject.

THE BIG NEWS:
The big story for this Blog however came out today. The recommendations of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council have been posted on the archdiocesan website. Several parishes have been suggested for closure. There are further recommendations for clustering and mergers throughout the diocese. I will be writing on this as it develops and make efforts to feature parishes scheduled for closure before their closure.

Upcoming Events Sept 30 - Oct 2

Solemn First Vespers for the Feast of St Therese of Liseux at Shrine of the Little Flower Royal Oak
Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda will be in attendance and giving a homily.
7pm Friday Sept 30th. A reception will follow.

St. Hyacinth Banana Festival! I've never been to this one, but I'm sure it's awesome based on this cut and paste flyer.

St. Joseph's Oktoberfest 2011 (and other upcoming events)

I'd like to let you all know about an upcoming event which promises to be fun and will help support historic St. Joseph in Detroit: Oktoberfest 2011

What can you do at Oktoberfest?

Enjoy delicious German food (various sausages, saur kraut, pickled beets, strudel, etc), beer, and wine. There will also be pop and cake and other delights.

Enjoy diverse styles of music.

• Brazil and Beyond http://www.brazilandbeyond.com/
• 60's pop hits performed by the Liras.
• German Accordian music (and some Polkas too) by Herb Langegger
• German Folk Dancing (Carpathia Dance Ensemble)
• Choral Festival in the Church featuring Renaissance Voices, Assumption Grotto Choir, and the St. Joseph's Men's Schola.
• David Zakria Band

Tour the church and/or go to Holy Mass

• 10am Sunday Mass in German
• 12pm Sunday Mass in English
• 5pm Saturday and Sunday Guided tours of the church
• 

There is also a raffle with some nice prizes including an Autographed Miguel Cabrera Jersey and dinner for 2 at any Restaurant in the area! Tickets are $1 or 6 got $5. Ask a parishioner if you would like to buy some.

And now, more bullets and links!

• Facebook event for Oktoberfest. Invite your friends!
• While you are in Detroit you can go to Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. Hyacinth (FB event) on Sunday at 1pm.
• St. Joseph Blog posts from Oktoberfest 2010.
• THIS Sunday the 18th of September there is an EF Mass at St. Albertus.
  

Greetings from Santiago de Compostella

you might wonder what Santiago de Compostella has to do with Detroit. well today it just so happened that former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Daniel Flores, celebrated mass at this 800 year old Cathedral. His excellency is now the bishop of Brownsville, TX. Here is a picture.

Pilgrimage Success!

Other than a sprained foot, a sprained ankle, and probably more than a few blisters the Pilgrimage for Christian Culture down Woodward Avenue went very well. Over 40 young adults participated in the activities which included a skit about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Mass in the Extraordinary form for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist at Shrine of the Little Flower (pictures), 3 ordinary form Masses, and of course plenty of walking, praying, and singing. We had Latin Rite participants from 4 (arch)dioceses (Detroit, Lansing, Saginaw, and Chicago), 3 Chaldeans, and one Syro-Malabar.

I have many pictures including some of historic Churches of course. I hope to have more time to post these! For now here is one of the group upon entering the city of Detroit.

Young Adult Pilgrimage in Detroit

Readers, I have been busy not only with work, but with planning. I am part of a group planning a pilgrimage starting at St. Vincent de Paul in Pontiac, following mostly along Woodward Avenue and ending at the Detroit River. As this is over 30 miles this is a 2 day affair.

Day 1 (June 24th, the Solemnity of St. John the Baptist) will start with Holy Mass celebrated at the aforementioned St. Vincent de Paul, part of the newly formed Pontiac community parish of St. Damien of Molokai. Our first major stop is St. Hugo of the Hills where we will have lunch and an opportunity to view the beautiful stone chapel on their sprawling campus. We shall pay a visit to Manresa, the Jesuit retreat center. Our first day concludes at Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak where we will have dinner, confessions available, a skit about St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mass for those unable to make the early one, and the opportunity for Adoration in Shrine's perpetual Adoration chapel. We will be sleeping in the area.

Day 2 (June 25th) starts with morning prayer followed by Shrine's 8:30 am Mass followed by breakfast. After breakfast our journey resumes. We will stop by St. James in Ferndale for lunch. Other planned stops include St. John the Baptist Romanian Byzantine Church, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Patrick (where we will celebrate the anticipated Sunday mass), and the original site of Ste. Anne de Detroit (now denoted by a plaque).

Please consider joining us as we walk, pray, sing, and enjoy fellowship with fellow young adults.
Partial participation is allowed, so if you can do only one day, or only join us for Friday night's festivities or one of the masses that is very welcome.

More information including links to the Facebook events for day 1 and day 2 can be found at our website.

Upcoming Church Tour: June 10th

Hey readers, I saw that some people found the site looking for Church tours, so I thought I should give a heads up regarding an upcoming tour.

Next weekend is the Call to Holiness conference. An optional part of the conference is a church tour on Friday June 10th. I am not sure if there are any spots available at this time, but give them a call and find out.

Call to Holiness Church Tour

All five churches have been featured here so you can get a preview on this very blog. Click on the appropriate "tag" below to see posts about the churches: St. Aloysius, Old St. Mary, Sweetest Heart of Mary, Holy Family, and Ste. Anne.