The Pueblo Chieftain
By:  Marvin Read

Two of the churches that constitute the three-parish complex known as the Historic Southside Community are scheduled to close shop after services on March 30, the Sunday following Easter.

That means that approximately 226 households belonging to St. Patrick Church, 226 Michigan St., and about another 240 family units who pray at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 900 E. Routt Ave., will have to worship at St. Mary Help of Christians Church, 307 E. Mesa Ave., or at other churches of their choosing.

Members of the parishes were notified at Masses last weekend of the Pueblo diocese's decision to close the churches. A press release was e-mailed to The Pueblo Chieftain on Tuesday morning over the signature of Barbara Duff, who is in charge of the diocese's business and finance office.

Bishop Arthur Tafoya, who heads the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo, and other diocesan officials were to meet Tuesday evening at Assumption Parish with representatives of all three congregations to discuss the transition. He was not available for comment earlier Tuesday.

The three parishes had been clustered into a single entity, the diocese said, to help each of the congregations retain its own identity while sharing a single pastor for sacraments, even as a "shortfall in vocations to the priesthood" made it impossible to staff as many individual churches as the Catholic Church once did. The diocese said that because of "changing demographics of the neighborhood in which the three parishes are located, the number of registered households has declined dramatically over the last 10 years" at St. Patrick and Assumption parishes.

All three congregations are in the Bessemer neighborhood and within a mile of each other, the diocese said.
The Pueblo Chieftain Online
 
 
 
 
CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/
CHRIS McLEAN
St. Patrick's Church at 226 Michigan St. is one of two local
Catholic parishes scheduled for closing in March
 

Neither parish, the diocese said, can continue to "sustain the financial burden placed on them in just meeting the maintenance and upkeep of their facilities."

At stake, beyond the financial and personnel considerations involved, is the emotional and spiritual connection of people and their churches.

One older man, who insisted on not being identified by name, said, "What I am sorry about most of all is us old people. We buried our parents here, got married here, baptized and raised our kids as Catholics here and supported the churches. Now, we have to be moved, and we can't even be buried from the church we used to call home."

The two congregations will merge with St. Mary Parish, where the Rev. Ben Bacino has been pastor since the summer of 2005.

Assumption and St. Mary's parishes began joint operations in about 1991, and the third parish, St. Patrick, came on board in 1995, and the collective name became known officially as the Historic Southside Community.

As least one clustering of parishes also has taken place in the San Luis Valley, the diocese said.
The Pueblo Chieftain Online
 
 
 
CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/CHRIS McLEAN
Services for parishioners at Our Lady of the Assumption
have been held in the parish's elementary school at 900 E. Routt Ave.