LORAIN — As the last notes of the last hymn to be sung at St. Joseph Church faded away Sunday morning, the bell chimed 114 times — one for each year the parish has been in existence — as some 200 parishioners took pictures, cried and consoled each other before the doors closed for good.

St. Joseph is the last church to be closed in Lorain County by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

“It’s a really sad day,” said 38-year-old Marisol Fairchild. “I feel bad for people who’ve raised their families here. Their traditions are here. It’s like a funeral.”

More photos below.

Bishop Richard Lennon celebrated the closing Mass and spoke about the 114 years of memories at St. Joseph parish.

“We cannot help, as we reflect, but to recall what St. Joseph parish has meant all these many, many years,” he said. “You have been enriched by that story. … Today is a time for looking back at all we must be grateful for. … Who you are today is largely because of the life of this parish.”

For 78-year-old Jeanne Riegel, gratitude was hard to come by as she openly cried after the Mass with her family. Her grandparents were members, she was married at St. Joseph, and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were baptized, took first communion and were married in the church. Her grandparents’ and parents’ funerals were at St. Joseph.

“I’m not just angry, I’m disappointed,” she said, pausing a moment to listen to her daughter ring the church bell. “I remember so many things. We finally got our bell tower and now we’re gone. It’s not just a building. You come here and you feel hope and you feel like you can go on with what’s coming next.”

Eight Lorain County Catholic churches were closed or merged in the past year as the diocese dealt with a dwindling Catholic population, a decline in the number of new priests and a lot of red ink.

“In 2006, 43 percent of the 230 churches in our diocese finished the year in the red,” said Robert Tayek, diocese spokesman. “Two-thirds of our churches were serving one-third of the people.”

Lennon, too, mentioned the 25-year decline in the Catholic population during his homily, referring to similar closings and mergers in Youngstown and Toledo. He urged the congregation to face the challenges head-on and to trust the reconfiguration will lead to a stronger Catholic community.

“If we are truly going to be vibrant, we need to do what we’re doing,” he said. “The church is asking the same thing today. It’s change and it’s challenge … and as the angel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary, ‘All things are possible in God,’ as they can be for us today and in the Diocese of Cleveland and the parish of St. Joseph.”

John Gerek, 62, a 50-year member of St. Joseph, fondly remembered his school days at the church and 25 years of bingo.

“It’s a shame that we struggled to keep this church open as long as we did and now it’s closing,” he said.
Dave Forbes, 88, raised his family at St. Joseph and is left feeling alone.

“I’m rather sad about the whole thing,” he said. “My family has been here for many years. My family has gone in different directions and my wife passed away a couple years ago and I’m kind of on my own now.”

As Lennon drew the Mass to a close and spent a few moments praying at several important icons inside the church, including the altar, the baptismal font and the confessional, an altar boy wept along with many in the congregation.

Sarah Evans, 28, wiped tears away as her infant daughter slept in her arms.

“There’s just a lot of memories here,” she said after the service. “I was baptized here. I was thinking about Christmas Masses with my grandmother and grandfather and my aunt and uncle.”

Some parishioners will attend the newly formed Mary Mother of God parish while others are still undecided.
Tayek said Lorain’s experience is not unique to what the Catholic Church is facing nationwide as more people leave the urban areas and form significantly larger parishes in the suburbs and even farther out in what he called “ex-urbias.”

“Lorain is a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere,” he said.

While the church and parish are now closed, Tayek said the women’s and men’s homeless shelters inside and next door to St. Joseph Church will remain open until the end of April and hopefully longer than that.

“The bishop is committed,” Tayek said. “He wants them here. Other portions of the property, however, will go up for sale.”

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.