Guardian Angels and
St. Brendan close
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 30, 2006
Detroit – Two northeast Detroit parishes closed in recent weeks, as the strategic plan developed by the Together in Faith process continues to be implemented.
Many former parishioners returned to nearly fill Guardian Angels Church, on Mayfield Street at Kelly Road, one last time last Sunday as Fr. Duane Novelly celebrated the parish's closing Mass.
Two weeks earlier, on June 11, many former members of St. Brendan Parish, on Morang Avenue at Beaconsfield, turned out to say good-bye to what had once been their church home.
Fr. Novelly became administrator of the clustered parishes last year, in addition to his continuing duties as pastor of St. Matthew Parish, on Whittier at Harper Avenue.
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Rue Dewaelsche, parish secretary at Guardian Angels Parish, is called forward for special recognition by Fr. Duane Novelly at the closing Mass last Sunday. | "In the course of the past year it has been our sad task to face some realities," which both parish councils faced with "courage and fortitude," Fr. Novelly said in his homily at the Guardian Angels closing Mass.
Membership of the once-thriving parishes had dwindled considerably in recent years, so that Guardian Angels was down to about 100 families and St. Brendan was down to only about 60 families, making both parishes unviable for the future.
The parishes had declined as the Catholics who once lived in the area moved to the suburbs. In fact, many of those who continued to belong to them had also moved away.
But Fr. Novelly said the nearly full church for the final Mass was a "such a great testimony to the faith that this community instilled in so many."
Guardian Angels Parish was founded in 1927, and its current church built in 1959. St. Brendan was founded in 1954, and its church built a few years later. Both parishes once had thriving grade schools, now long closed.
At the Mass, Fr. Novelly read the gathered congregation a letter from Cardinal Adam Maida and the official Decree of Suppression. "The reading of these letters is never easy for anyone, especially for one who is charged with bringing light and future hope to a community," Fr. Novelly said.
But he put the closing in perspective by adding, "The Church is not dying; a parish is closing. We can proudly say that, during this 79 years (of Guardian Angels' existence), we were doing what we were supposed to be doing," Fr. Novelly said.
Rather than see it as a failure, the proper way to look at it is as "a mission accomplished," he said.
Fr. Novelly acknowledged that a parish closing can be a troubling experience for its members. But just as Jesus was there to calm the troubled waters in the day's Gospel reading, "Jesus is there to calm the waters of our lives," he said.
Marie Vortkamp, a Guardian Angels parishioner for about 60 years, recalls the parish's heyday in the 1950s and '60s, when about 1,200 families belonged. "All six Masses on Sundays were filled to standing room only," she said, adding that it was an active and busy parish with "something for everyone."
"I went to school there and my kids went to school there, and all 10 of my brothers and sisters went to school there," Vortkamp said.
But membership began to fall off considerably in the late 1970s and early '80s, she continued, and has continued to decline gradually ever since. "As people moved, died or got sick, nobody took their place," she said.
Steve Nemeckay, a St. Brendan parishioner for 43 years, recalls when it was a very active parish of about 500 families. "It was just a well-knit, loving parish, and we had great leadership. I put six kids through the school," he said.
But numbers began to drop about 10 years ago, and even more so when Detroit police officers and firefighters were allowed to move out of the city. "That's when the end was near," Nemeckay said.
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