Archdiocese of Chicago says lower numbers, higher debt demand mergers of 12 parishes, closures of schools. Decision on 29 more parishes to come this weekend.
Officials at the Archdiocese of Chicago said this week they plan to close four Chicago area schools struggling with declining enrollment and mounting debt and merge more than a dozen churches in the months ahead, with announcements regarding the fate of another 29 parishes scheduled for over the weekend.
To date, of what began in 2017 as 344 parishes in Cook and Lake counties, 139 parishes have been part of the Renew My Church initiative. Beginning with the first consolidations announced in 2018, the 139 parishes have been consolidated into 56, with 43 of the churches no longer used on a regular basis for Mass, according to the archdiocese.
The latest round of school closures and parish consolidations will mean the shuttering of several suburban Catholic schools, including Christ Our Savior in South Holland, Sacred Heart in Melrose Park, St. Ann in Lansing and St. Joseph in Summit.
St. Benedict School in Blue Island and St. Walter School, 11741 S. Western Ave., will merge into one school, but will continue to offer classes at two campuses, with students in the upper grades at St. Benedict and the lower grades attending St. Walter, which officials said are about a mile apart.
The decision to close the schools was made by Cardinal Blase Cupich based on what officials described as “low and steadily declining enrollment levels” and large financial deficits at the affected parishes.
At the four Catholic schools that are closing, student enrollment has plummeted an average of 31% in the last four years, adding up to a total deficit of around $1.12 million this school year.
The merger of St. Benedict and St. Walter schools is happening alongside the Renew My Church initiative, which is anticipating the merger of the two parishes in the future, officials said.
“The bringing together of these two schools helps stabilize them financially,” Jim Rigg, superintendent of Catholic Schools said in a Thursday statement.
“School closures are always difficult because we recognize the impact they have on students, their families and our staff,” Rigg said, adding that the archdiocese plans to, “work with each affected student and employee to assist them in finding places at other Catholic schools wherever possible.”
Among the school closures is Christ Our Savior School in South Holland, which officials said has seen a 24% decline in enrollment during the past four years, and despite fundraising efforts, is now facing a $300,000 deficit due to the loss of 41 students.
At Sacred Heart School in Melrose Park, which has seen a 33% drop in enrollment in recent years, and where the loss of 65 students has led to a $207,000 deficit, parents on Friday were awaiting information from the archdiocese about other Catholic schools where they can enroll their children.
“Our immediate thoughts were, well, why would you send a family to another Catholic school when every single year, it seems like they’re under this threat of being closed?” said Kristin Trusco, a Sacred Heart School board member and alumna.
Trusco recalled one family who enrolled their daughter at Sacred Heart after their previous Catholic school, St. Cyprian School in River Grove, closed in 2018.
Now, Trusco said just two years later, “they’re being shut out again.”
The Archdiocese of Chicago “is trying to claim that they need more people coming to their churches, yet they’re closing churches. They’re closing schools,” Trusco said.
“It’s kind of making it impossible for kids to maintain that faith,” she said. “There’s really no stability.”
The announcement that Sacred Heart was closing hit Deborah Bennett Matthews, 60, particularly hard. Her family lived on church grounds for 23 years while her parents both worked at the school as custodians, she said.
“I was born there, went to school there, went to church there, married there. So it’s deep,” said Matthews. “My father was buried there, both of my brothers — my brother was killed in Vietnam, and was buried there.”
Now, said Matthews, she’s uncertain about the parish’s future, and has not yet told her 97-year-old mother about the school’s impending closure.
In the north suburbs, St. Lambert and St. Peter parishes in Skokie will merge into one parish, and St. Isaac Jogues in Niles and St. Martha parishes in Morton Grove will also be consolidated, but all four churches will continue offering worship services, officials said.
Parish mergers are also planned for Chicago’s Logan Square and Avondale neighborhoods, where Our Lady of Grace and St. Sylvester parishes will unite, but continue to offer two worship sites.
Several parishes in Chicago’s Chatham and Park Manor neighborhoods will also be merging, with St. Clotilde, St. Columbanus and St. Dorothy becoming one new parish based at St. Columbanus.
St. Clotilde and St. Dorothy parishes will be halting their regularly scheduled Masses in the months ahead and moving toward a formal closure, archdiocese spokesman Manny Gonzales said Friday.
In south suburban Summit, St. Blase and St. Joseph will unite to form a new parish, with a new name, but St. Joseph School will be closed at the end of the school year, the spokesman said.
The parish will continue to offer Masses at two worship sites, including services in English, Polish and Spanish, Gonzales said.
The week’s announcement of parish mergers also includes six parishes in the city’s Bronzeville, Hyde Park and Washington Park neighborhoods, officials said. St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Corpus Christi, St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas the Apostle and Holy Angels will unite by July 1 to form one parish based at Holy Angels.
St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Corpus Christi and St. Elizabeth will close for Sunday Masses, and the future of the buildings is yet to be determined, the archdiocese spokesman said.
St. Thomas the Apostle will remain in its current structure, and there are no anticipated changes to Holy Angels or St. Thomas schools, officials said.
Another 29 parish communities will learn the fate of their churches Friday and Saturday, with public announcements coming after parishes have been informed in online meetings. The scheduled announcements include parishes in the city as well as several in the southwest and west suburbs.
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