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July 20, 2008

Holy Rosary, St. Anthony merge saying ‘it’s a wedding’

By Pam DeFiglio

CONTRIBUTOR

Holy Rosary Church survived for 126 years, through an arson fire, a changing neighborhood and the wrath of railroad tycoon George Pullman, who opposed its presence in the far South Side Pullman neighborhood he built.

But Holy Rosary couldn’t survive red ink, and the parish merged last month with nearby St. Anthony of Padua Church in ceremonies marked by both tears and smiles. The new parish goes by the St. Anthony name.

“It was hard,” said lifelong Holy Rosary parishioner Mary Ann Kopchak of the merger. “But we’re going to make it, we’re a good bunch of people. The Lord does things for a reason.”

The need to take action became clear last year, when pastor Father Mark Krylowicz and parish leaders looked at Holy Rosary’s finances.They realized the parish wouldn’t be able to pay its bills through 2008.

“Our numbers could not afford the cost of doing church,” Krylowicz said.

Bishop Joseph Perry advised they could try to double collections, attract more parishioners or raise a $1 million endowment fund. Holy Rosary tried all three, but the efforts proved too little, too late.

When the financial realities became clear, parishioners faced the decision of which neighboring parish to merge with. The fact that Krylowicz served as pastor of both Holy Rosary and St. Anthony helped some decide.

“I felt it was a no-brainer we’d go with St. Anthony,” said Kopchak, “because Father Mark was there and we all loved him and he was supportive.”

St. Anthony was also in a stronger financial position than other candidates, Krylowicz said, and the Holy Rosary parishioners didn’t want to go through another financial crisis.

“We were also a racially diverse parish and we thought we’d have a good chance of remaining diverse with St. Anthony,” said Kopchak, who also served as music director at Holy Rosary.

“They were Hispanic and older Italian, we were white (of many nationalities), African American and Hispanic,” she said.

Neither parish has a school any longer, so that was not an issue. In a parish vote, 85 percent of Holy Rosary parishioners chose to merge with St. Anthony.

A wedding to plan

In February, both parishes began planning for the merger. On the last Saturday in May, Bishop Perry celebrated Holy Rosary’s 126th anniversary Mass, even though the parish would close almost exactly one month later.

Both parishes decided to look at the merger not as a funeral, but instead as a wedding.

“A wedding means developing a sense of commitment and a sense of unity,” said Jose Oporto, former president of the St. Anthony parish council.

On Friday night, June 27, Holy Rosary held a “bachelor party” in the form of a jazz concert. Saturday, June 28 marked the final Mass, with leaders of St. Anthony parish ministries attending. At one point, the leaders of the St. Anthony ministries reached across the center aisle to clasp hands with the leaders of the Holy Rosary parish ministries.

At the end, Krylowicz decon- secrated the church and broke the church seal. He took the Eucharist out of the tabernacle, blew out the sanctuary candle, read a decree from Cardinal George, read the last entry in the baptism book and delivered a personal statement. Then the parishioners gathered the parish treasures—candlesticks, chalices, altar cloths, vestments, etc.—from the sanctuary and took them to the parish hall for the move to St. Anthony the next day.

On Sunday, June 29, Holy Rosary parishioners gathered at the front doors of Holy Rosary Church and Krylowicz invited them to embrace the church, literally hugging the building. Then he erased the Epiphany message written above the doorway and locked the doors. It was a solemn moment.

Holy Rosary parishioners stepped off in a procession, complete with a truck loaded with the parish treasures. At a certain point during their walk to St. Anthony’s, a costumed dance troupe of young girls from St. Anthony’s came out to escort them the rest of the way.

“As we turned the corner at Kensington, about 300 St. Anthony people were on the front porch (of the church), and they were cheering and applauding,” Krylowicz said. “It was one of those memorable moments. We were being welcomed. The whole mood just changed.”

Greeted on the steps

Oporto, who was then president of the St. Anthony parish council, gave a heartfelt welcoming speech. “I had no words to describe my joy,” he said.

Members of each parish had been given T-shirts in different colors, with instructions to meet people from the other parish wearing the same color. The Tshirts said, “As the sun sets, a new sun rises,” in English and Spanish. All attended a bilingual Mass and a reception afterward. Krylowicz said the new, merged parish takes seriously its financial responsibilities. Holy Rosary’s church building will be put up for sale and the proceeds will create an endowment fund to keep the new parish financially secure.

Krylowicz pointed out this is important in order to protect the future of the Catholic Church in the area. He’s also proud that Holy Rosary never went into debt before it closed.

Both Holy Rosary and St. Anthony parishioners say they’re hopeful about the life of the new parish. Krylowicz said he’s scared to death, but hopeful, too.

“Yet I’m pretty confident what we did was right,” he said. “It’s a blank slate. We have a lot of work to do.”