Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Closing Mass for St. Andrew, Detroit, Aug. 31
Closing Mass for St. Andrew, Detroit, Aug. 31
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 1, 2008
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
St. Andrew Church, on McGraw at Larkins, was built in 1959. The parish was founded in 1920. |
Detroit — St. Andrew Parish, once one of the largest Polish-American parishes on Detroit's west side, will close at the end of this month.
The closing Mass is set for Sunday, Aug. 31, at 2 p.m., followed by a reception.
Its pastor for the past 21 years, Fr. Julian Chmura, who was granted senior priest status as of July 1, said he would take a year-long vacation in his native Poland after the closing, before returning to the Detroit area.
"This is very sad, as it is for any parish closing," Fr. Chmura said.
Four decades ago, St. Andrew Parish numbered about 2,500 families and had both a grade school and a high school.
But as the Polish-American population moved out of the city's west side to the suburbs, its congregation shrank. The high school closed in 1985, the grade school in 1987.
The parish still numbered about 600 families when Fr. Chmura arrived, but recent years have seen further losses, as funerals have became far more prevalent than weddings or baptisms.
Today, parish membership numbers just 130 families, made up of a total of 171 individuals. Fewer than 40 of those individuals live in the old neighborhood, and many of them are no longer able to make it to church. Most of those who attend drive in from the suburbs.
About four-fifths of the members are 80 years old or older, and there is only one person under the age of 35.
The decision to close the parish was made as the Together in Faith process seeks to use the limited financial and clergy resources of the Archdiocese of Detroit in order to best serve the sacramental needs of the Catholic faithful.
Under the process, some parishes have been clustered, some merged or closed, and new parishes are established where a need has risen.
"One of the provisions of the Southwest Vicariate's Together in Faith plan has been that when the pastor of St. Andrew retired, the parish would close," said Catherine Wagner, director of the archdiocesan Department of Parish Life and Services.
The parish's geographical territory will be added to that of Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish, she added.
As buildings on the St. Andrew Parish campus were no longer needed for its own purposes, beginning in 1992 they were put to use by Boysville, a social service program sponsored by the Order of the Holy Cross (best known for their sponsorship of Notre Dame University).
Now known as Holy Cross Children's Services, the organization will add the church and rectory to the former convent, school and gymnasium buildings it already operates.
Because of the dwindling congregation, the church has already been divided in half, with the northern end having become a social hall. Although the southern half of the building will no longer function as a Catholic church, HCCS will continue to use it as a chapel for its campus.
St. Andrew Parish is at 7060 McGraw, between Cecil and Larkins, in Detroit, telephone (313) 361-1717.
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