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« : March 19, 2006, 07:59:13 AM » |
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East Fairfield faithful wrestle with diocese plans to close their church
Bishop Matano announces at Father Sullivan's Funeral that the Rev. Henry Mlinganisa would take Sullivan's place as St. Anthony parish priest. Rev. Henry arrived a few days early from Africa, just in time. Bishop Matano also announced that another priest would be arriving from the Congo on April 8th.
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer
March 19, 2006
EAST FAIRFIELD -- Attending Mass at St. Anthony Catholic Church last Sunday felt like a funeral to Horace Riley.
Only a day earlier, his wife, Barbara, read in the latest edition of the Vermont Catholic Tribune that the church was one of seven around the state the Burlington Roman Catholic Diocese wants to close, due to a shortage of priests and declining attendance.
As he entered the stone chapel his father helped build in 1940 and where he once served as altar boy, he was told that the church's pastor, the Rev. Joseph Sullivan, had died Saturday afternoon at his home in St. Albans.
"I was devastated," Riley says.
Charlotte Pudvah, a church parishioner from nearby Bakersfield, says the gloom in the church sanctuary was almost palpable. The Mass was celebrated by a temporary replacement, the Rev. David Kiyingi.
"You couldn't concentrate on the Mass," Pudvah says.
No one could, really. Everybody knew that, under the diocese's just-released consolidation plan, no church would be closed until its parish priest retired or was reassigned.
With Sullivan suddenly gone, that time appeared to be at hand. Was it just a matter of time before St. Anthony vanished from their midst just as St. George's Catholic Church in Bakersfield had back in 1997?
Thursday, Bishop Salvatore Matano said no -- not yet, anyway.
Speaking at the funeral for Sullivan in Holy Angels Catholic Church in St. Albans, he announced to applause that the Rev. Henry Mlinganisa would take Sullivan's place as St. Anthony parish priest.
How long Mlinganisa, just arrived from Tanzania on Africa's east coast, will stay here is unclear. In the meantime, East Fairfield's faithful remain in the middle of the diocese's struggle to trim its sails and still serve its flock.
Seven churches have been marked for closure under the consolidation plan announced by the diocese. The operations of 14 other churches will be combined.
Three of the churches to be closed, including St. Anthony's, are in the diocese's Franklin-Grand Isle deanery, an area that has the heaviest concentration of Catholics in Vermont, according to a 2000 study of religious affiliations in the United States. Building a parish
Johanna Lumbra carefully unwraps the white cloth that swaddles the wood-carved crucifix stored in the room to the side of the altar at St. Anthony's.
"Isn't it just beautiful?" she says softly, holding the light brown crucifix in her hands. Her husband, Lynford, and Charlotte Pudvah gather around her.
The crucifix once hung over the altar, but was deemed unacceptable for display by a former parish priest and had been put in storage.
The carving was the work of Frank Moran of East Fairfield. Legend has it that Moran, who died in 1967, was a hermit who lived without electricity, a telephone or an automobile, and walked three miles from his home on Skinner Hill to attend Mass every Sunday.
"I remember how Frank, when he would go hunting, would crawl on his hands and knees," Lynford Lumbra says, chuckling.
Everything about St. Anthony's oozes a sense of community. The building is in the heart of the East Fairfield hamlet on Vermont 36, directly across from the post office and two doors down from Stone's Texaco.
The exterior is composed of stones salvaged from the foundation of a hotel on the site that burned to the ground in a fire in 1929. The fire leveled half the buildings in the center of what used to be called Puddledock.
"We took a stone cellar hole and built a church out of it," Riley says proudly.
The interior, including an altar of red marble mined from a quarry in Swanton, features exposed wooden beams and sets of thick, square glass blocks for windows.
Before it was built, East Fairfield Catholics worshiped on the third floor of a building that later was a general store run by the Lumbras. In the late 1930s, the Rev. William Tennien began a campaign to build a church in town.
"We lived on a farm one mile down the road from town," Riley recalls. "I remember as a little boy, Father Tennien stopping by the farm about 5 p.m. in his Packard. He'd say to my dad, 'Come on, John.' They'd take an older brother, leave us younger ones to do chores, and they'd go work on the chapel for the evening."
The church, constructed entirely by its parishioners, was built in just 82 days over a five-month span. The diocese had lent the East Fairfield parish $8,000 to build the church. By the time the work was finished, the parishioners had raised enough money through donations, entertainment and suppers to pay the loan back in full. Changing times
In its heyday, Riley says, the parish had a flock of 200 and was a significant presence in the life of the community. Now, turnout for Mass at St. Anthony's averages fewer than 50 on Sundays.
"We had a pretty good parish," Riley says. "All my brothers and I were altar boys. Barb and I were married there, and I hope to have my funeral there. In my life, it's just always been there."
The Lumbras were married in St. Anthony's and have been closely involved ever since. "It has a certain magic for us," Johanna Lumbra says. "There's an aura there. It's small, but it's warm and friendly.
Kim Stone, proprietor of Stone's Texaco, has served on the St. Anthony's parish board in the past and still goes down the street to shovel the walkway up to the church after a snowfall.
"What I like about it is its homey-ness," she says. "I'm never quite at home when I go to another church. My kids were raised to come to this church. It's a comfort thing for this town."
Everyone, however, understands the dilemma facing the diocese. Statewide, there are 130 Catholic churches but only 81 priests, down from 92 just two years ago and almost 300 in 1975. More than half the priests are 60 or older; six are past 80. Sullivan turned 80 two months before his death.
"I know they've done a lot of study on this," Johanna Lumbra says. "I look at it like I look at our general store closing. It's the end of a way of life. I don't applaud it, but it's happening." Her husband, Lynford, agrees. "Their hands are tied," he says.
Pudvah says she wonders how the church is going to resolve the shortage of priests when it continues to demand they be celibate.
"It's a lonely life," she says. "I've been a widow for 30 years, and it's hard when you can't share your life with someone."
She thinks the church should make celibacy optional and allow women to become priests. "They've held back women too long," she says.
Changes like that might help reverse the church's decline in attendance, Pudvah says. Young people have busy lives, and the church needs to learn how to connect with them. "It's the age of evangelism," she says.
Johanna Lumbra says it's more a matter of commitment.
"If you want to find time to go to church, you can," she says. Looking forward
Lynford Lumbra stands outside St. Anthony's Catholic Church, staring up at a spot where a shingle has come loose and is lying at an odd angle on the roof.
"That's going to need attention," he muses.
The repair will be taken care of now that the diocese has assigned a priest to the church to replace Sullivan. But the repair raises the question of what happens to the church if the diocese does close its doors.
Some parishioners say they'd like to continue to use St. Anthony's for special events like weddings and funerals, but aren't sure where the money will come from to maintain the structure.
"I'd hate to see the church turned into something else," Riley says. He cited the example of a church in Fairfax that was closed and later converted into a grocery store.
Francis "Andy" Andrews says he wonders what will happen to the money that's been bequeathed to St. Anthony's by deceased parishioners when the time comes that it is no longer a functioning church.
According to the Rev. John McDermott, the diocesan chancellor, such funds stay with the parish as long as it stays open. He says once a church is closed, the bishop has the final say on what happens to the money, in consultation with parish members.
Andrews says he wants to hear more.
"Some of that money should be used for insurance and keeping the place open," Andrews says. "We don't want to lose everything."
Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Pastoral plan for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington Parish reconfigurations for selected Vermont deaneries. The realignments will take effect only when/if pastoral care cannot be provided by a priest: ADDISON
Vergennes and Bristol will share a pastor BURLINGTON
St. Mark, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph Co-Cathedral will be joined and served by two priests
UVM Catholic Center, St. Anthony and Christ the King will be joined and served by two priests CALEDONIA
St. Johnsbury, Lyndonville and Danville will be served with a pastor and associate. Gilman and Lunenburg will be closed. The Mass schedule will be closed
Eden will be closed CAPITAL
Montpelier and Northfield will be joined
Marshfield will be closed
Graniteville and Williamstown will be joined
East Barre will be considered later
Barre will be served by two priests who will provide emergency coverage
Randolph, Bethel and Rochester will be joined
Norwich will become a mission of White River Junction FRANKLIN/GRAND ISLE
Either Montgomery or East Berkshire will be closed
St. Albans and Fairfield will be joined
Enosburg and Sheldon will be joined
East Fairfield will be closed
Franklin will be closed
Georgia will become a mission of St. Albans and will be served by two priests
Fairfax and Milton will share a pastor
North Hero will be closed ORLEANS
Newport, Derby Line and West Charleston will be served by two priests
North Troy, Troy and Lowell will share a pastor WINOOSKI
Winooski's St. Francis Xavier and St. Stephen will share a pastor
Colchester and Essex Center will share a pastor
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