St. Dennis Parishioners Still in Dark on Merger to Receive Letters This Week

Registered parishioners of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, St. Dennis and St. Mary Catholic churches in Royal Oak should be receiving a letter from Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron this week explaining the process for collaboration between parishes as a result of the Archdiocese of Detroit's Together in Faith plan.

The pastoral letters were sent last Thursday.

“They were sent bulk rate,” said Bill Blaul, a communication coordinator for the archdiocese. “We lost a mailing day on Monday due to Presidents Day, but people should start receiving their letters this week.”

Together in Faith was a plan initiated in 2011 as a way to deal with financial challenges and a shortage of priests in the archdiocese. Approximately 1,500 lay volunteers, nominated by their pastors, evaluated parish situations with the goal of being “better stewards of parish resources,” according to the archdiocese's website.

On Monday, the archbishop announced the outcome of that process. St. Dennis will move forward as cluster partner with St. Vincent Ferrer in Madison Heights early this year. Shrine and St. Mary, along with Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Clawson, will immediately identify ways to collaborate should the need emerge to implement a temporary cluster.

While Shrine and St. Mary will be standalone parishes, the plan for St. Dennis is to ultimately merge not only with St. Vincent Ferrer, but with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Justin, both in Hazel Park, too.

St. Dennis parishioners in the dark

Monday evening, parishioners volunteering at an overnight warming center in the former St. Dennis School said they knew little about plans to cluster their parish with St. Vincent Ferrer. St. Dennis Pastor John Christ was at the warming center but not able to comment, saying questions should be referred to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Wednesday afternoon, St. Dennis parish secretary Alice Heinrich said parishioners were still uncertain what clustering or merging would mean for the Royal Oak parish.

Blaul was uncertain why St. Dennis parishioners did not have information. He said Vigneron released the plan last week via email to pastors overseeing 270 parishes, including Christ. Many pastors discussed the plans in their weekend homilies.

“Our goal is to be open and transparent and to share information,” Blaul said. The plans for all parishes may be found on the archdiocese’s website.

What's the difference between cluster, merger?

A cluster refers to two or more parishes that share a single pastor and oftentimes a single set of administrative resources and personnel, such as a bookkeeper, grounds keeper or religious education teachers, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit website.

A merger refers to two or more parishes coming together to form a single parish with a single pastor, combining their finances and parish councils.

Parishes that have to develop a cluster plan must submit it to the archdiocese's Regional Moderator by the end of June. For St. Dennis, the plan will be evaluated by Vignernon along with Monsignor William Easton of Shrine, according to Blaul. Easton is the South Oakland vicar.

“The plans have to be very genuine,” Blaul said. “There can be no holes or shortcuts. Lay leaders will drive the plans. The status quo isn’t an option anymore.”

Scenarios for merging parishes

There are several scenarios for parishes merging. An option may be to sell existing worship sites and build a new church with a new name, or keeping existing worship sites, but share all resources.

“There is an example in Hamtramck of four parishes that merged. They chose to sell one of the worship sites but kept three of the four," Blaul said. "A merger doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of a worship site.”

Blaul said lay leaders at St. Dennis “know the numbers” for St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Justin. They have financial data, numbers of baptisms and confirmations and how many parishioners are at each church, he said.

“They know which parishes have shown the most growth and what buildings are in the best shape,” Blaul said. “It’s going to be up to them.”

“There was a time when archbishops would just announce long lists of church closings,” Blaul said. “We know now that is not good planning. It is not good stewardship. Making decisions from the top down is not the way to go.”

While Catholics wait for pastoral letters to arrive, Blaul recommends parishioners look at the plans online at www.aodonline.org/parish-action-plans and talk to their pastors.