Sept. 18 , 2007

Bishop Announces Parish Mergers

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn has announced the merging of 13 parishes into six---five in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The changes became effective Sept. 1.

All but one of the new parishes, located in New Lots, Williamburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, East New York and Long Island City, have a new name.

The new parish names are Mary, Mother of the Church in New Lots, Most Holy Trinity-St. Mary in Williamsburg, St. Martin de Porres in Bedford-Stuyvesant, St. Paul and St. Agnes in Carroll Gardens, and St. Michael-St. Malachy in East New York. The sixth merged parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Long Island City, retains its original name.

In documents called canonical decrees, Bishop DiMarzio cited various reasons for the mergers, including changing spiritual practices, a decrease in available clergy and men and women in consecrated life, and population shifts. In some instances, the physical condition of parish facilities and the financial resources needed for repairs were also a consideration.

The 13 individual church buildings will continue to bear their original names and will serve as sites for Sunday Masses in their respective new parishes.                                                 

The mergers in Brooklyn are the following:

---St. Gabriel the Archangel parish in New Lots and St. John Cantius parish have become Mary, Mother of the Church parish. Both St. Gabriel the Archangel Church, 749 Linwood St., New Lots, and St. John Cantius, 479 New Jersey Ave., remain the worship sites of the new parish.  St. John Cantius was once a Polish national/ethnic parish, but it ceased to serve a Polish-speaking congregation many years ago.

---Three parishes in Bedford-Stuyvesant---Our Lady of Victory, Holy Rosary and Nativity of Our Blessed Lord/St. Peter Claver---have joined to become St. Martin de Porres parish, honoring the patron saint of interracial justice. The worship sites of this new merged parish remain Our Lady of Victory Church, 583 Throop Ave, Holy Rosary Church, 172 Bainbridge St., and Nativity/St. Peter Claver Church, 29 Claver Pl. The latter itself was formed by the merger of two parishes in 1973.

---In Williamsburg, Most Holy Trinity parish and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish, known familiarly as St. Mary’s, Maujer St., are merged, forming Most Holy Trinity-St. Mary parish. Most Holy Trinity, 138 Montrose Ave., is the principal worship site, and St. Mary’s will offer Mass on Sunday until the church at 72 Maujer St. is permanently closed.

---St. Michael’s parish, 284 Warwick St., and St. Malachy’s parish, 207 Hendrix St., in East New York now form St. Michael-St. Malachy parish. St. Michael’s Church is the principal worship site. Until the question of the closing of St. Malachy’s Church is determined, St. Malachy’s will continue to offer Sunday Mass. At its beginnings in the mid-19th century and for decades after, St. Michael’s parish served a large German-speaking community and was formerly considered a German national/ethnic parish. That designation has not been applicable for many years.

---In the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, the new parish of St. Paul and St. Agnes replaces St. Agnes parish and St. Peter/St. Paul/Our Lady of Pilar parish. St. Agnes Church, 433 Sackett St., and St. Paul's Church, 234 Congress St., will for now remain the worship sites of the new parish. St. Peter’s and Our Lady of Pilar merged in 1942, and the two merged with St. Paul’s in 1975.

The merger in Long Island City involved Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 23-25 Newtown Ave., and St. Margaret Mary, 9-18 27th Ave. The parish name is Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the church is the principal worship site. In advance of the canonical decree, the two parishes have functioned pastorally as one entity for many months.

Bishop DiMarzio also issued a canonical decree July 18 declaring that St. Vincent de Paul parish in Williamsburg has ceased to exist in canon law, due to the absence of a substantial Latin Rite Catholic community there and the availability of other parishes in the immediate area. The territory has become part of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, 274 N. Eighth St.

The six Sept. 1 decrees follow the issuance of four decrees last Jan. 1 that merged eight Brooklyn parishes into four. In Bushwick, St. Martin of Tours/14 Holy Martyrs and Our Lady of Lourdes became St. Martin of Tours parish; in Williamsburg, SS. Peter and Paul and Epiphany became SS. Peter and Paul parish; in Bedford-Stuyvesant, St. John the Baptist and Our Lady of Good Counsel became St. John the Baptist parish, and in Crown Heights, St. Matthew’s and Our Lady of Charity became St. Matthew’s parish. At its establishment in l903, Our Lady of Charity was an Italian national parish.

Six of the ten parishes created by the decrees are administered by priests of the Brooklyn Diocese. The others are guided by religious orders: the Vincentian Fathers at St. John the Baptist, the Conventual Franciscan Fathers at Most Holy Trinity-St. Mary’s and the Institute of the Incarnate Word Fathers at Mary, Mother of the Church and St. Michael-St. Malachy.

While Bishop DiMarzio has instituted a full diocesanwide pastoral planning process currently engaged in by the parishes, immediate needs prompted the decision to enact the recent mergers. Taken into consideration were the sacramental life of each parish, statistical changes in the neighborhood and parish, and other factors.

Before decisions were reached, the Bishop said in the decrees that he consulted with the Presbyteral (Priests’) Council, territorial Episcopal Vicars, clergy, pastoral ministers and others about the feasibility of the mergers. He was also advised by a 20-member committee of diocesan agency representatives, chaired by Auxiliary Bishop Frank J. Caggiano.

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9/18/07