OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — Citing a declining Catholic population, Oil City’s two catholic parishes could become one in just a little over five months.

(St. Joseph’s Church, Oil City. Courtesy of Timothy Rudisille Photography.)

An ad-hoc committee has recommended merging St. Stephen Parish and St. Joseph Parish into one parish located at St. Joseph effective January 1, 2020.

The committee consists of four members elected from the pastoral council (two from each parish); two members elected from the finance committee (one per parish); and four at-large members (two from each parish).

“With the encouragement of the diocese, we have begun to look seriously at how we will prepare for our future as Catholics of the Oil City area,” a letter sent to parishioners of both churches this week said.

The result of that encouragement was the formation of the ad-hoc committee which is recommending a two-phase course of action.

The first phase includes the following seven steps:

1. Merging St. Stephen Parish into St. Joseph Parish effective January 1, 2020;
2. Petitioning Bishop Lawrence Persico, of the Erie Diocese, to relegate St. Stephen Church to prepare for sale or demolition as soon as possible following the merger;
3. Utilize St. Stephen School, Assumption Social Hall, and/or Knights of Columbus Hall for parish functions;
4. Consolidate parish offices at St. Joseph Rectory by July 1, 2020;
5. Demolish St. Stephen Rectory and reclaim land use for St. Stephen School;
6. Complete necessary repairs and improvements (including parking) to St. Joseph Church to allow for exploration of viable long-term options for the life of the Catholic community in the region; and
7. Reach out to neighboring parishes regarding collaboration for the future of the parish.

The second phase will be “about building the future rather than simply managing decline,” according to the letter.

“Phase II planning will involve developing the best possible structure for handing on the faith to future generations, building a financial safety net for the community, adapting to meet the needs of our parishioners and our community in a changing world, and placing greater emphasis on the worship of God as the center of our lives as Catholics,” the letter states.

According to the letter, Phase II planning will begin following the completion of Phase I.

In the letter, the ad-hoc committee gave the reasons why it believes the two parishes should merge.

“This plan was devised in light of current realities impacting the Catholic faith community in Oil City,” the letter said.

Some of those realities include but are not limited to a decreased Catholic population; a 96 percent decreased in baptisms from the 1950s to now (from approximately 320 per year in the 1950s to 14 in 2018); declining offertory; increasing age of parishioners (67 percent over the age of 50); declining number of families (minus 500 families since 2010); and a projected continued demographic decline, according to the letter.

“Furthermore, our facilities were built to service a large population that no longer exists and the cost to repair and maintain them is beyond the capacity of our current and projected-future resources,” the letter said. “We believe this is the best plan to ensure the best possible care of souls in Oil City.”

In an accompanying letter from Father John L. Miller II, the Pastor of the two parishes, and Father Ian R. McElrath, Parochial Vicar, both priests mentioned how the two faith communities have grown closer and closer together since 2017 when Bishop Persico enacted a pastoral plan which saw a contraction of five parishes into two parishes in the Oil City region.

“We have celebrated Mass together each week,” the priests wrote. “We have grown together in faith through our new family-based intergenerational faith formation model, we have established a unified pastoral council to address the needs of our entire community, we have made new friends, we have celebrated life together in baptism, we have mourned the passing of loved ones together at funerals. In time, more and more parishioners have begun to ask why the formal distinction between the two communities as independent parishes continues to exist.”

That coupled with rising maintenance costs at both parishes “physical plants,” which the priests said are in “dire straights” make the consolidation appear needed.

“The cost to repair and maintain even or main buildings is beyond the capacity our already stretched financial resources,” the priests wrote.

“In 2018, serious concerns were raised about the towers at St. Stephen Church following the discovery of debris in the parking lot. Consequently, the towers were temporarily stabilized.

“Recognizing that the extreme costs of repairs to just one portion of the building could financially cripple the community, the parish council recommended bringing in Building System Incorporated (BSI), of Erie, as a consultant to evaluate the condition of our two parish churches. At the same time, we began compiling data regarding the demographic, financial and sacramental realities of our parishes. Both the reports from BSI and the other data were staggering.”

It was once the parishes had the above-mentioned data that the ad-hoc committee was formed, and the plan to merge parishes ended up being formulated.

Both Miller and McElrath said in their letter that they understand the plan is not easy to read.

“Nevertheless, just as the painful experience of merging Assumption, Help of Christians and St. Venantius has given birth to a more vibrant community, we believe that this plan is the best option for securing the future for the faith in Oil City so that just as we have received the faith from our ancestors, so too, future generations in Oil City might always know the name of Jesus Christ,” the priests wrote.

According to Anne-Marie Welsh, Director of Communications for the Erie Diocese, the fact the parish itself is making the recommendation as opposed to the Bishop decreeing it is what Bishop Persico was hoping for when pastoral planning was being done in 2015 and 2016.

“It is really exciting to see this is happening from the parishes,” Welsh told exploreVenango.

“When he did pastoral planning in 2015 and 2016, the Bishop didn’t want to sit here and decide (the fate of parishes). He did not close a single parish or church at the time. What we are seeing is (parishes and churches) putting together task forces of their own people and doing it based on passing the faith on to other generations and keeping the faith alive. That is what is driving these decisions. They are asking what they need as a parish and as a faithful community in an area.”

Welsh believes if the St. Stephen and St. Joseph Parishes do decide they want to merge and the Bishop approves, the process could move smoothly considering the parishes have just recently been through the process.

“Once it is decided, it’s not like they have to build a new church,” Welsh said. “They will be moving over to St. Joseph. There will be some logistics involved of course.”

According to Welsh, once a request is made to the Bishop to merge the parishes, the Bishop in some recent cases of parish mergers will consult the Presbyteral Council, and she pointed out some of the processes that will have to be merged.

“Each (parish) has its own financial and pastoral councils as they are two separate parishes who share a pastor,” Welsh said. “They will have to merge those together and form one.”

Welsh said the Erie Diocese has a document on its website to help parishes in the process of merging that can be found here.

While the ad-hoc committee has made its recommendation, a final plan won’t be published until the week of September 9, as the parishes are inviting and encouraging all parishioners to offer feedback on the plan through Monday, August 26.

Options for giving feedback include a letter submitted to the parish office, emails submitted to href=”mailto:feedback@oilcitycatholic.com”>feedback@oilcitycatholic.com and listening sessions. Information on the listening sessions will be forthcoming.

HISTORY OF THE PARISHES

St. Stephen Parish was actually originally part of St. Joseph Parish, which was established in 1864 in response to the population grown resulting from the oil boom in the region. The current St. Joseph Church was dedicated on June 26, 1894.

Four years after the current church was dedicated, in 1898, the territory of the parish was divided in half with St. Stephen Parish being erected on the south side of the Allegheny River and St. Joseph Parish remaining on the north side.

The split was due to overcrowding at St. Joseph, according to the Oil City Catholic website.

St. Stephen was formed in 1898, and a new church was dedicated on December 22, 1907, and was rededicated on June 1, 1952, following substantial renovation, according to the website.