Last Mass: Glenmont's Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church holding final service Saturday

GLENMONT − Declining numbers of parishioners and a shortage of priests are the reasons a number of churches in the Columbus Diocese are closing their doors. One of those 15 churches is Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Glenmont, which will have a closing mass held by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Jason Mays, senior director of the Office of Communications for the Diocese of Columbus, said the diocese concluded interviews regarding the Real Presence Real Future initiative about the future of Saints Peter and Paul Parish and other struggling churches in the district.

The consultative process spanned more than two years with three rounds of feedback from clergy and parishioners, according to Mays. RPRF started after priests voiced concerns at the 2019 convocation.

Former Bishop Robert J. Brennan, now of Brooklyn, listened to those concerns and started the strategic planning process. More than 30,000 pieces of feedback were read by diocesan leadership, clergy and parish teams, then implemented into the draft models. In addition, consultation was done with other dioceses that had been through similar circumstances to better understand the process.

Merging parishes is not a one-size-fits-all

The RPRF commission compiled draft models and presented feedback, data and final recommendations to Fernandes. He spent the past year getting to know the diocese, traveling almost 40,000 miles in that time.

Mays said each parish is unique, so the process of merging them with another parish is not one-size-fits-all. Pastoral planning takes time and collaboration. Pastors need to understand the needs of each parish and then communicate with Fernandes to establish an appropriate timeline for merging parishes. Nothing happens immediately.

When two parishes become one, even if both churches physically remain open, the pastor will oversee one staff, one finance council and one parish council. Various functions may be streamlined in ways that are more manageable for the pastor and staff; for example, one parish bulletin and one website.

More than half the parishes that were recommended to close will remain open thanks to Fernandes, the regional vicars, pastors and diocesan leadership, working to find alternate solutions. The original draft proposed 32 churches should be closed (merged with other parishes). The final number of churches that will eventually close is 15. One of those was Saints Peter and Paul.

"RPRF ushers in a new spirit of attentiveness and attunement to the specific needs of our Catholic community's needs," Mays said. "This allows us to focus our efforts on Evangelization and bolstering vocations in the Diocese of Columbus."

A look back at Saints Peter and Paul Parish

Many generations of Catholics attended Saints Peter and Paul Parish, in some cases going back as far as seven generations.

A Daily Record article from June 26, 1957, noted the church was completed on Oct. 14, 1857. Even before the present building was constructed by European immigrants, they built a log church in 1846 on an acre west of Jimtown and established a cemetery.

According to the article, “A small community of Catholic settlers, German, French and Irish sprang up in the Alum Rock Country, about four miles southwest of what is now Glenmont. The community was sometimes called St. Joseph’s Greer or Black Creek and Napoleon. There these people built their pioneer chapel out of logs, called it St. Joseph’s and it is entered under this name in the early record books.

“The foundation of this log church can still be seen, surrounded by the graves and tombstones, some of which bear the date of 1846," the Daily Record reported. "When the pioneer log chapel became inadequate, the people united together and built the present church out of stone hewn from the neighboring hills in huge blocks, one upon the other, without derrick or machinery, and in it are to be found specimens of the stone that has since made the community known to some of the greatest architects in the country made famous by the present Briar Hill Stone Company.”

At the time Glenmont had grocery and general stores, a wagon shop, physician, school house, two other churches and a hotel.

The Rev. Joseph Lamy, who later became the first archbishop of Santa Fe, was the founder of the fledgling pioneer community, according to a historical account by the late pastor of the Holmes County Catholic Community, the Rev. Ronald Aubry, who served as pastor on two separate occasions before retiring in 2021. He died Dec. 28.

Joseph and Salome Fesler were one of the original parish families who immigrated from Alsace Lorraine in 1834. They lived in Zanesville, where Joseph Fesler worked on the canal, then bought a farm just north of Greer on the Mohican River. They built a new house in 1874, which still stands, and concealment shoes were found during a recent renovation.

The Feslers were one of the families that helped build this historical stone church. They are buried in the cemetery along with four of their children. The rest of the family moved from the area by 1901.

In 1935 a grotto was added when the church celebrated its 75th anniversary. The church hall was added and was a hub of social activity of the parish with euchre parties and turkey and chicken dinners that were open to the community.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Catholic church in Glenmont OH holding final Mass before closing