Zanesville community backs St. Thomas, but parish's future is still uncertain
ZANESVILLE — With the future of their church uncertain, supporters of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church came by the masses to attend services throughout the month of October.
Attendance was crucial that month since it's the sample the Catholic Diocese of Columbus uses annually to access the status of parishes throughout the state.
Father JCP Sullivan put out a plea to his congregation to attend as many services in October as possible.
The community answered that call.
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As the county's first Catholic church, a piece of Zanesville history was at risk of being lost should leadership in Columbus find St. Thomas unfit for funding. The church is in need of major repairs to its main building, which require approval from the Diocese.
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In February 2020, the 179-year-old church was condemned by the Mid-East Ohio Building Department, due to the structural weakness in the roof.
Services had to be moved across the street to the activity center attached to the church's school.
While it's still undetermined whether the project will get the greenlight, worries for the church's future have been put to rest for the time being since the people of Zanesville showed up when asked to take action.
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According to Mike Morris, director of facilities and finance at St. Thomas, attendance across the state decreased significantly due to the pandemic.
"Most churches went down to about 50 percent of their normal attendance on a weekly basis, as a result of the pandemic," he said. "I'm happy to say that our attendance went back to over 90 percent for the month of October."
Numbers are still looking strong even though the count is over.
"It's making people aware of the fact of how important it was," Morris said. "Honestly, we have continued to see a much higher percentage of our normal attendance at mass every weekend since then."
St. Thomas won't know if the church will receive the support of the Diocese to make the necessary repairs to the building for an undetermined amount of time, due to changes in upper leadership.
In late September it was announced that Bishop Robert Brennan had been reassigned to Brooklyn.
His last day in Columbus is today.
Morris said it won't be until another bishop is assigned to the Catholic Diocese of Columbus that any determinations about St. Thomas will be made.
Until then, St. Thomas is preparing for Christmas at the church with the first Sunday of Advent already in the books.
The community is invited to attend mass on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:45 a.m. and 11 a.m.
cmholmes@gannett.com
740-450-6758
Twitter: @cmholmesgannett
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Zanesville Catholics support St. Thomas amid church's uncertain future
