The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has backed off a proposal to close Holy Trinity Church in Bloomington.
As part of a large realignment of parishes and church consolidations across central Illinois, a Growing Disciples core team had earlier recommended merging St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity parishes in Bloomington and closing the art deco Holy Trinity church building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The plan also included merging St. Patrick’s of Merna and St. Mary’s of Downs. The Downs and Merna parish mergers remain in round three of the parish models released Sunday evening on a church website.
It recants the intention to merge St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity. The draft would assign two priests to commonly serve historic St. Patrick of Bloomington and Holy Trinity. St. Mary’s would have one priest of its own.
The model recommended "the pastor discern and develop long-term facilities and funding plan within 2 years," for Holy Trinity and historic St Patrick. It recommended the two parishes coordinate Mass times and ministry.
The changes come after the Growing Disciples Core Team met with two planning groups, one involving parishioners from each area and the core team, and the other composed of priests. Bishop Louis Tylka will review the findings and make final decisions by May 19.
“Publicly announcing the models will help all of us begin to work within our parish community and nearby parishes to prepare hearts and minds for change. Regardless of what may happen to our parish, everyone will experience a change, whether it is a new structure for our parish or the parish we grew up in, a new priest, or a renewed commitment and focus to evangelization and growing disciples," said the diocesan website.
The release of round three relieved several members of Holy Trinity who had submitted a lengthy report to the panels in the hope the proposed closure would be reversed.
“I think the document we spent a lot of time putting together, our demographic information, our Holy Trinity by the numbers work on our financial sustainability and strength, was a fair assessment," said Ann Sallen. “I think our pastor will definitely have to get more information about these recommendations of the long-term facilities and funding plan. But I think for now, I'm pleased.”
“I would say it's a victory for the parish members who thought well, wrote well, studied well and made a very, very convincing argument. I think congratulations are due to those parish members who put the document together as an impressive piece of work,” said historic preservationist and historian Greg Koos.
Sallen noted that the round three models omitted previous references to the alignment of parishes and schools. Holy Trinity and St. Patrick’s of Merna together fund Corpus Christi in Bloomington. St. Mary’s of Bloomington funds its school.
“I have heard that a future vision may be to look at all of the schools in the diocese, but I think this is really trying to say you've got two churches with lots of facilities. You know, how are you going to keep that? And how are you going to fund it?” said Sallen.
Koos said he thinks the reference to facilities and funding may have more impact on historic St. Patrick’s than on Holy Trinity.
“St. Patrick's has not kept up with the needs in terms of accessibility. Religious congregations are getting older. Many members of that parish are older, and they do need to accommodate them,” said Koos.
Koos acknowledged all older church buildings face ongoing maintenance needs, including Holy Trinity.
“Holy Trinity raised $3,300,000 over the past few years for restoration and for accessibility, for the creation of new kitchens in the church basement for parish events. They've done their due diligence with their pocketbooks," said Koos.
Holy Trinity was in the process of creating a new parking lot on the north side of the building on the site of the old Elmo Quinn service station when the initial round of models indicated potential closure. Parishioners indicated that work may resume.
“This adjustment, if you will, of the plan, looks to be an appropriate decision that recognizes the strengths of these various parishes,” said Koos.
Parishioner Terry Kelly had also lobbied to keep Holy Trinity open and said he was pleased the recommended model in Bloomington is essentially the status quo.
“It would be sad to see any parish close. And there are many parishes throughout the diocese that are closing. I know many people are sad about that. And it's very hard for those who have lived in those parishes and served those parishes and supported those parishes all these years,” said Kelly.
Kelly noted the entire process is called "Growing Disciples,” and that the exercise calls on all parishes to be more active and supportive of one another.
“Hopefully that that will be the byproduct of all this,” said Kelly. “We need to have a good plan for the future, to address what additional needs there might be, and make sure we have adequate funds for that.”
Kelly agreed with the model’s emphasis on coordinating mass times and ministry between historic St. Patrick’s and Holy Trinity. He noted part of Holy Trinity’s criticism of the process was that Mass times had been affected in recent years and changed when and where people attended Mass.
“Bloomington-Normal is kind of a unique, Catholic community. We all know each other, and people aren't as territorial about their church, maybe, as they are in other communities. It’s not unusual for a member of Holy Trinity to go to historic St. Pat's, or to go to St. Pat's of Merna or even to Epiphany or St. Mary's, or the chapel at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, or the Newman Center at ISU. There are a lot of opportunities to make a Mass. To coordinate that, I think, is an ongoing process. It's always been an issue,” said Kelly.
The diocese report also noted there is a long-term shortage of priests and Kelly said better coordination could partly address that issue.
“The hope for everyone is that this reinvigorates us to be better stewards of our Catholic faith, of our parish Holy Trinity, to support it better, to get more active to get so many of our parishioners who are on the books and who financially support the church, attending in the pews, and not just on Sunday. We have so many different programs available for so many people that hopefully, this will encourage them to become more active in their faith and more active in our parish life,” said Kelly.
When the potential closure was announced Holy Trinity had put on hold a new five-year strategic plan to do that, which Kelly said may now return to implementation.
Editor's note: this story has been changed to correct the attribution for Greg Koos. He is not a parish member.
