Our Lady Consolata Parish is the New Parish Name which includes: St. Pancratius in Cass City (a parish church); Holy Family in Sebewaing (church for additional use); St. Agatha, Gagetown (an occasional use church pictured above); and St. Michael, Wilmot (church for occasional use).
By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
SAGINAW— The restructuring of 50 churches in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw — including those in the Thumb area — begins this summer.
In Jan. 2013 as part of the Planning Tomorrow’s Parishes study, Bishop Joseph Cistone announced decisions to restructure parish communities across the diocese and to designate the usage of each church to better serve the faithful. The study reviewed 109 parish communities in the diocese. From that study, it was determined that 29 of those churches no longer will hold regular services, and 106 parish communities will merge into 56.
That process starts July 1.
“Those parishes impacted by the reorganization wrote their own action plans to revitalize parish life and to focus on areas such as providing enhanced educational programs for young people and adults, nurturing vocations and living out the Church’s mission of evangelization,” said Y. Chris Pham the diocese’s communications specialist.
Each of the parishes to be merged submitted a list of three proposed new parish names to Cistone.
In many cases, the names were voted on by parishioners and Cistone attempted to grant the top name choice as often as possible, explained Pham.
“The parish name changes and action plans bring us another step closer to enlivening and enriching our parishes,” said Cistone. “I am grateful to all those who are making every effort to cooperate with surrounding parishes, whether in mergers, linkages or partnerships as we move forward together to do the work of evangelization in the name of Jesus Christ.”
During the Planning Tomorrow’s Parishes churches were assigned one of three categories: A Parish Church, which is a main church where regularly scheduled masses and sacraments will take place for all members of the parish community. An Additional Use Church where mass will regularly be celebrated. An Occasional Use Church which will only be used with the permission of the diocese for weddings or funerals for former parishioners.
All parish communities will have one designated parish church. This is the main church where regularly
scheduled masses and sacraments will be celebrated for all members of the parish community.
A list of all new parish names is followed by the names of the parish communities joining together in the merger are as follows:
Our Lady Consolata Parish is the New Parish Name which includes: St. Pancratius in Cass City (a parish church); Holy Family in Sebewaing (church for additional use); St. Agatha, Gagetown (church for occasional use); and St. Michael, Wilmot (church for occasional use).
St. Christopher Parish is the New Parish Name which includes: Sacred Heart in Caro (a parish church); and St. Joseph, Mayville (a church for additional use).
St. Jude Thaddeus Parish is the New Parish Name which includes: St. John the Evangelist, Essexville (a parish church); St. Joseph, Bay City (a church for occasional use); and St. Norbert, Munger (church for occasional use).
St. Elizabeth Parish in Reese, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish in Vassar and Blessed Trinity Parish in Frankenmuth will remain distinct parishes at this time, but will partner or collaborate with the new formed Sacred Heart and Assumption parish.
The changes will mean about a 30 minute or longer drive to a new location for some.
The restructuring study started in the fall of 2011 with more than 600 lay people, pastors, pastoral administrators, deacons and sisters contributing.
The reorganization was necessary due to demographic shifts, declining mass attendance, fewer priests and shrinking resources. Since 1988, membership dropped by more than 51,000 parishioners to about 109,000 in the diocese, said Pham.
The Saginaw diocese covers Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac, and Tuscola counties.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.