John Russell and Robert King

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis said Wednesday it will close three urban parishes in November in a move that reflects shifting demographics, slumping Mass attendance and a very limited supply of new priests.

The decision to close the Holy Cross and St. Bernadette parishes on the Eastside and the Holy Trinity parish on the Westside means roughly 1,000 local Catholics must relocate to neighboring parishes. In each case, they won't have to look far as another parish waits less than a mile and a half away — a reflection of the historic density of parishes in parts of the city.

But the announcement, along with word that four other parishes will remain open, but share pastors, parallels the challenges faced by schools and police departments — how to serve areas of the city that in recent decades have been hemorrhaging residents.

St. Bernadette, founded in 1952 in the Christian Park neighborhood, served upwards of 500 families during its heyday in the early 1960s. These days it has a new roof and a sound budget, but only about 130 families. So now it is being absorbed by the mother church of the Eastside from which it originally budded, Our Lady of Lourdes. Rev. Nick Dant, the priest who has been serving both churches, said Lourdes has tapped into the thriving "yuppy-ized" Irvington community.

But the closing of St. Bernadette, where many of the faithful have longstanding family ties to the church, won't come without pain. "There's a real family there. That will be lost. That sense of being a family. That small faith community."

Archbishop Joseph Tobin acknowledged that loss even as he outlined the conclusions he had reached after a 16-month evaluation of the people and the churches in the city. He even began his announcement with a prayer for "comfort, healing and hope to those who are being led through a difficult transition."

Yet, Tobin said, the pain is a necessary medicine for the realities the church faces. His archdiocese, which spans 39 counties across central and southern Indiana, has been adding an average of just two new priests a year. But in the next decade the number of priests scheduled to retire is twice that number.

"We recognize that today's mission and the viability of the Catholic Church in the future requires that we reposition our structures and marshal our forces in a new way," Tobin said.



One of the first decisions facing the newly merged parishes after their finances and governance are combined will be: what to do with the building from the closed parishes. Some, like Holy Cross, with its 136-foot bell tower, could be preserved as a chapel for weddings and special services or for use with its adjacent school. But, at least for now, their futures are in doubt.

Tobin said he wasn't sure what financial savings might come from the closures. But in rearranging the pieces, Tobin said the most important question to ask is one about the church's mission: Why are we here?

In at least one case, that question led to preserving a parish — Holy Angels on the Westside — that looked as if it might fall to the ax of reorganization.

The parish demolished its church building on West 28th Street three years ago. When the archdiocese began this reevaluation process, the process to plan a new building was put on hold and its members have been meeting for Mass in a chapel at Marian University.

"We felt very vulnerable," said Rev. Kenneth Taylor, the pastor.

But Holy Angels is one of the city's only predominantly black churches in a Catholic Church that has sometimes been criticized for failing to reach black communities. Being situated in an area with crime, drugs and abandoned houses, the parish was able to make a case that this was a community where the Catholic church needed a presence.

To Taylor, the decision to build anew in a black community when existing churches in white areas are being closed, signaled that the archbishop and his reorganization wasn't just chasing people into the suburbs. "I think he is very sincere when he says we are not leaving the city," Taylor said. "We have a mission to the city, not just to Catholics, but to the city of Indianapolis."

Despite the downsizing aspects of the announcement, Tobin said it is important to note that the archdiocese added 1,000 new members at Easter. One urban parish, St. Patrick's, baptizes 200 young people a year.

"I really would suggest that it's not a gloom-and-doom story," he said. "It is more an area of where there have been changes in parts of the archdiocese, we have to adjust to those changes."

Call Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter at @Rbtking.

The parish closures/mergers

Holy Trinity

Location: 901 N. Holmes Ave.

Founding: 1906.

Membership: 240.

Merging with: St. Anthony, 379 N Warman Ave.

Holy Cross

Location: 125 N Oriental St.

Founding: 1895.

Membership: 486

Merging with: St. Philip Neri, 550 N Rural St.

St. Bernadette

Location: 4838 Fletcher Ave.

Founding: 1952.

Membership: 278.

Merging with: Our Lady of Lourdes, 5333 E Washington St.