From staff reports
The Diocese of Erie has been notified that the first level of appeal that was presented for multiple parishioners of the former St. Stephen Parish in Oil City has been denied at the Signatura, the highest court at the Vatican.
This ruling upholds the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy decision in November 2020 that upheld a decree issued in December 2019 by Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico that merged St. Stephen Parish into St. Joseph Parish. Persico’s decree maintained mission status for St. Stephen, meaning weekend and Holy Day Masses could continue there.
St. Stephen supporters appealed Persico’s decree to the Congregation for the Clergy, and then the supporters also appealed the Congregation for the Clergy’s decision and took their case to the Signatura.
A further appeal by the St. Stephen supporters is still possible, so the matter remains ongoing, the diocese said.
Discussions about the future of Oil City’s two longtime Catholic parishes began in earnest during 2018, and in May 2019, an ad-hoc committee of 10 lay people from St. Stephen and St. Joseph was formed.
The Rev. John Miller, pastor of the Oil City Catholic Community, then made a request to the diocese to support the merger. Persico, after consultation with the diocese’s priest council, agreed to Miller’s request and then issued his decree.
Costs of needed repairs to St. Stephen and the shrinking Catholic population in Oil City were cited at the time as the reasons why the ad hoc committee felt the merger was necessary.
St. Stephen has continued to operate as a mission church while this appeal process keeps playing out.
