The Congregation for Clergy at the Vatican has denied an appeal made by a number of parishioners who opposed the merger of St. Joseph and St. Stephen Catholic parishes in Oil City.
The merger, which took effect Jan. 1 of this year, merged St. Stephen into St. Joseph. The merger was vehemently opposed by members of the former St. Stephen parish, who took their case to Erie Catholic Diocese Bishop Lawrence Persico and then filed their appeal with the Vatican.
A statement from St. Joseph Parish said the Rev. John Miller, the St. Joseph pastor, received notice Wednesday about the Vatican’s decision.
Schwabenbauer and those parishioners had asked that two separate parishes be reinstated in Oil City.
“The decision by the Congregation for Clergy will have no impact on the physical building of St. Stephen Church, a secondary mission church of St. Joseph Parish,” the St. Joseph statement said. “St. Stephen Church continues to be an active church building and is currently used for Mass each weekend and for occasional funerals, baptisms and weddings,” the statement said.
Miller said he knows the Vatican decision “will be disappointing to some parishioners but it is important that we find our source of unity in Jesus Christ and recommit ourselves wholeheartedly to the work of proclaiming the Gospel here in Venango County with a firm foundation under our feet and a plan for long-term sustainability of our mission.”
The merger of St. Stephen into St. Joseph was the result of a decree from Persico in December 2019. The decree was issued at Miller’s request as the result of a planning and consultation process over several months that was led by parishioners of the Oil City Catholic Community, the St. Joseph statement said.
Persico had earlier issued a decree in November 2019 that would have merged St. Stephen into the St. Joseph parish and reduced the St. Stephen church building to secondary status without mission status.
St. Stephen, without mission status, would have remained available after Dec. 31, 2019, only for occasional use such as funerals, weddings and personal devotion.
But mission status for St. Stephen was reinstated in the December 2019 decree, meaning St. Stephen could continue to have Masses celebrated there on Sundays and holy days of obligation or on the evenings preceding them.
That status has continued while the merger appeal played out.
The terms of the December 2019 decree that remained the same as the November 2019 decree were that St. Stephen, effective Jan. 1, 2020, was “merged and subsumed into St. Joseph. This means that the name of the merged parish is St. Joseph, sacramental records from both parishes will be kept at St. Joseph, and all of the assets, responsibilities and liabilities of St. Stephen Parish shall be transferred to St. Joseph Parish.”
The statement Thursday from St. Joseph Parish also noted that in a separate communication this week, Persico was notified by the Congregation for Clergy that Schwabenbauer also submitted a request for “hierarchical recourse” against a decree he issued in July 2020 relegating Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Siverly to “profane but not sordid use.”
“While parish administrators say they are optimistic about the possibility of collaborating with partners to repurpose the unused church building for service to the poorest members of the community, they respect the right of a parishioner to make the appeal,” the statement said.
Our Lady Help of Christians is another secondary church of St. Joseph Parish, but without mission status. That means it isn’t used on a regular basis.
