The Associated Press
28 August 2011
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The Catholic Diocese of Belleville is considering closing up to 20 of its 121 parishes because of the loss of population in some areas and the advanced age of some priests.
Bishop Edward Braxton said in a recent letter on the diocese’s website that parishes will be asked to evaluate their viability. Town hall meetings will also be held to gather input. The diocese covers 28 southern Illinois counties.
The Belleville News-Democrat ( http://bit.ly/oEkQYN) reports that decisions will be made sometime after February 2013.
The Rev. John Myler is pastor at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Belleville and a spokesman for the diocese. He said plans to close some churches are not related to the recent $6.33 million settlement of a sexual abuse case against a priest.
Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com
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Diocese may close up to 20 parishes: ‘If you can’t deliver the sacrament. … it’s like Nike not being able to make shoes’
bnd.com (Belleville New Democrat) Illinois
28 August 2011
BY LAURA GIRRESCH – News-Democrat
BELLEVILLE — At the end of a lengthy review, Catholics in the Diocese of Belleville could have up to 20 fewer parishes, Bishop Edward Braxton announced in an open letter on the diocese website.
He noted the diocese’s upcoming 125th anniversary in January, and with that, said: “As we give thanks for the past we must plan for the future, taking into account the realities of the present. A number of factors indicate that we need to consolidate some of our parishes if we hope to have strong and vital Catholic communities in the years to come.”
The process is called the Pastoral Plan for Parish Renewal and Restructuring, and it involves a first phase of six months, starting in September, in which parishes and diocesan schools will use a set of criteria to evaluate their viability. The first phase will also include town hall-style meetings for parishioners to express their views. The parishes will submit their reports to a committee chaired by the vicar general and moderator of the curia, Rev. John W. McEvilly.
In the second phase — May to February 2013 — the committee will study the recommendations and meet with parish leaders. The committee will make a final recommendation to Braxton.
As an explanation in part, Braxton wrote: “We currently have 69 diocesan priests in parish ministry. Five of these are 75 or older and three more are 70 and older.”
The Rev. John Myler, pastor at St. Peter’s Cathedral and a spokesman for the diocese, said other factors include the growth in population in some towns and cities and the loss of population in others.
When asked whether the reconfiguration is because of the $6.33 million settlement awarded earlier this month in a sexual abuse case against a priest, Myler said the diocese has laid out this plan independent of the court case. He said diocesan leaders were discussing this years before the settlement.
The diocese covers the 28 southernmost counties in the state and includes 121 parishes. A closure of 20 parishes would eliminate 17 percent of those in the diocese. Eight of the parishes are in Belleville, the largest single-city concentration in the diocese.
In 2002, the diocese formed “clusters” of parishes that would share priests, and Myler said that in some cases, the clusters have worked well.
“Now it’s time to move a little bit beyond clustering and talk about some reconfiguration,” he said.
The bishop and Myler emphasize that no decisions have been made; they want the parishes to be the first to make recommendations about their futures because every parish is different. Some may be geographically close together and want to consolidate to offer better services, while some may be too large to accommodate more people.
“It’s very much a bottom-up thing, not a top-down thing,” Myler said.
When the diocesan leaders first started talking about the plan, Myler said, “Virtually unanimously from every deanery, every group of priests, their response was, ‘We must do this and now is the time to do this.'”
Also, he said, “The response that I have received from a handful of parishioners is, ‘It’s about time.'”
Frank Flinn, who retired from his adjunct professor of religious studies position at Washington University in St. Louis but still teaches courses there in the subject, said there are two factors in the diocesan leaders’ decision to consider closing parishes: Declining enrollment in some parishes and a loss in the number of priests. There are fewer priests available to deliver the sacraments, which lay people cannot do.
“If you can’t deliver the sacrament. … It’s like Nike not being able to make shoes,” Flinn said.
While he’s not entirely familiar with the Belleville diocese or the populations of the communities that are part of it, he said that in general, loss of participation in a parish follows loss of community population, though at a slower pace.
“So maybe they’re just catching up in Belleville,” he said.
He said the consolidation of parishes may change the experience for Catholics who are part of them, but, “In the long run, I’ve found out that people adjust to that.”
He also said Catholic diocesan leaders around the country have gotten better about the way they close parishes. They used to just close them without any input. Now, they sincerely want individual parishes to weigh in.
Several Belleville pastors didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The Rev. Kenneth Schaefer, pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Herrin, said he’s not too worried about losing his parish. Our Lady of Mount Carmel covers more than 900 households. There are 330 children enrolled in the parish’s school.
He said they’ll do the review that the diocese is asking of them, but the only thing that concerns him is the chance that small parishes nearby may be consolidated with his. He said there’s no room; they already have to set up extra chairs for Sunday Masses.
He said that while some parishes are too small and need to consolidate with others, “you can’t take the Catholic presence out of all these counties,” he said, noting that Pope and Edwards counties don’t have any Catholic churches.
“From a practical point of view, yes, we have to close some of our parishes,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s probably places we should open parishes.”
In those cases, he said, the diocese should be “evangelizing, not retrenching.” Nuns and lay people may be able to administer a parish day-to-day, while priests just come in to say Mass and perform sacraments.
He’s trusting the process Braxton has set up.
“I’m very optimistic that this will work to the benefit of the diocese,” he said.
Contact reporter Laura Girresch at lgirresch@bnd.com or 239-2507.
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Belleville Diocese pays $6.33 million to former altar boy who was sexually abused
Belleville News Democrat
10 August 2011
BY BETH HUNDSDORFER – News-Democrat
BELLEVILLE — It took less than 10 minutes on Wednesday morning to end a nine-year legal battle between the Catholic Diocese of Belleville and a former altar boy who was sexually abused.
The diocese handed over two checks totaling $6,329,041 to Mike Weilmuenster, attorney for sexual abuse victim James Wisniewski.
A St. Clair County jury awarded Wisniewski $5 million from the diocese in 2008. The Rev. James Kownacki, who is suspended from ministry, sexually abused Wisniewski while Wisniewski was an altar boy at St. Theresa’s Parish in Salem nearly four decades ago.
David Clohessy, executive director of the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, talks with members of the media after the Catholic Diocese of Belleville handed over two checks totaling $6,329,041 to Mike Weilmuenster, attorney for sexual abuse victim James Wisniewski Wednesday morning. – Derik Holtmann/BND
“On behalf of my client, I would like to thank the ladies and gentlemen of the jury for compensating for all the irreparable damages done to Mr. Wisniewski and attempting to send a message to the Belleville Diocese that enabling sexual abuse and covering it up will not be tolerated by this community,” Weilmuenster said after the hearing before Circuit Judge Lloyd Cueto, who presided over the 2008 trial.
Diocese lawyer David Wells declined to comment.
Wisniewski didn’t attend Wednesday’s hearing.
There were two checks. One check was drawn from money placed in an escrow account by the diocese. The other check was issued from an insurance company.
“The punitive damages in this case were to punish others for their actions in this case in covering up the abuse,” Weilmuenster said. “It’s unclear to me whether that message was received by the Diocese of Belleville.”
The diocese appealed the 2008 jury verdict to the appellate court. The appellate court upheld the verdict. The Diocese then asked the Illinois Supreme Court to review the case, but the court declined to hear the case.
Wisniewski responded with “disbelief” when his lawyer told him that the diocese was paying the $5 million judgment, plus interest that has accrued at $1,250 a day.
“He couldn’t believe that this day had finally come,” Weilmuenster said.
Bishop Edward Braxton has said in a letter to priests that paying the settlement could strain “resources for responding to other abuse victims and for sustaining pastoral services in the Diocese of Belleville.”
But David Clohessy, executive director of the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, contended that it’s difficult to know how much of the settlement was paid by insurance and how much came from the Diocese.
“We will never know,” Clohessy said. “The diocese is as secretive about money as they are about pedophile priests.”
Clohessy continues to urge Braxton to publicly post the names and address of Belleville diocese priests removed from the ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
“It never should have come to this,” Clohessy said. “I urge Bishop Braxton to shift its efforts from legal hard ball to prevention.”
Weilmuenster currently has three other lawsuits pending against the Diocese concerning abuse by Kownacki.
The diocese settled another case involving Kownacki, paying $1.2 million.
The diocese has never acknowledge that Wisniewski was abused, Weilmuenster said, nor has it offered Wisniewski an apology or counseling.
Wisniewski continues to attend Mass at holidays, Weilmuenster said, but no longer considers himself a practicing Catholic.
“He’s still Catholic in faith, but not in practice,” Weilmuenster said.
Weilmuenster, who is also Catholic, said he received a lot of support and encouragement from the Catholics in the community, but added “It has been very trying.”
Wisniewski never had the opportunity to confront Kownacki about the abuse, Weilmuenster said, and he was “disillusioned.”
“Jim has never expressed hate (toward Kownacki), just more … devastation,” Weilmuenster said.
As to what Wisniewski, who now works in the health care industry as a consultant, intends to do with the money, Weilmuenster said he was unsure.
“The money is secondary to Jim,” Weilmuenster said. “We have never to this day talked about money.”
More proof that the damage done by clerical molesters and the relatant cover-up by Church officials is immeasurable and on-going.
That aside, it will be novel indeed if parishioners have a say in the church closures. My guess is that the churches to be closed have already been ear-marked by the powers that be. I’d say the consultation process is mere window dressing to soothe the troubles masses while manipulating them to think their input is of value.
A final thought: Why no vocations?
There will not be many vocations where there are plenty of abusive priests, except for more pedophiles who want in on the action. Cutting out the Sunday collection seems to work elsewhere.