A Catholic bishop whose jurisdiction includes many south and west suburbs announced plans Thursday to close or combine more congregations — the latest changes to the church’s brick-and-mortar presence in that area amid hardships over finances and membership that appear to be fueled or exacerbated by a decades-long clergy sex abuse scandal.
Among the changes announced by Bishop Ron Hicks, who oversees the Diocese of Joliet, the arm of the Catholic church for DuPage, Kankakee, Kendall and Will counties, are the following closures: St. Mary Church in Park Forest, St. Patrick Church near Manhattan, St. Luke Church in Carol Stream, St. John the Apostle Church in Villa Park and St. Lawrence O’Toole Chapel in Kankakee County.
Other congregations in Braidwood, Monee, Oakbrook Terrace and Wheaton will be downgraded to secondary “worship sites” amid consolidations, meaning newly reconfigured parishes will essentially have two campuses, with one likely more active.
“I fully expect them to be closed at some time,” says Brody Hale, an attorney who has advised parishioners on fighting parish closures. “As a matter of course, I’ve never seen a secondary worship site last . . . it’s normally an intermediate step before property is sold and final closure comes.”
The changes announced Thursday — set to take effect July 1 — represent the latest wave of church closings in the area, with a series of congregations already impacted in the city of Joliet.
Hicks wrote on the diocese web site Thursday: “This third phase of restructuring for our diocese is our final phase for now. However, that does not mean we remain static or complacent.”
“My obligation as your bishop is to remain attentive to our pastoral needs and to the shifting needs of our faithful and surrounding demographics. We will continue to monitor the health and viability of our parishes, schools and ministries to make sure we are a vibrant, thriving Catholic Church that is dedicated to passing on our faith to the next generations.”
The Joliet diocese was one of the epicenters of the sex abuse crisis as it unfolded over the last 20-plus years, and the names of more than 70 clerics accused of molesting children are now on its publicly available list.
Millions of dollars have been spent on legal settlements with victims, though Hicks has refused to divulge the total financial cost or discuss the topic.
An aide to Hicks has said church restructuring was “driven by statistics, including too few pastors to cover too many parishes, especially as numbers are projected into the near future.”
“Other factors include declining Mass attendance and budgetary issues, exacerbated by the pandemic as well as aging buildings that require extensive preservation measures.”
But church reformer Tom Doyle, a former priest, has said the sex abuse crisis permeates virtually everything going on in the church in the U.S., directly or indirectly affecting finances, church attendance and even the number of men choosing to go to seminary.
“The Catholic church not only in Joliet” but the whole country “is bleeding profusely, and one of the main reasons it’s bleeding is because of the sexual abuse,” Doyle said.