Staff photo / Bob Coupland The Rev. Christopher Cicero, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Warren, stands near the church that will be among three Warren churches merging July 1 as St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish.

WARREN — Parishioners of three Catholic churches are coming together next month as a new merged parish.

The city’s Blessed Sacrament, SS. Mary and Joseph and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton churches on July 1 will become St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish.

The Rev. Christopher Cicero, pastor of Blessed Sacrament and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, said the three sites will remain open.

“We will have one Catholic parish community with people worshiping at the three churches,” Cicero said. “We will continue to use the three church names after Sister Teresa of Calcutta Parish to signify each name.”

The Diocese of Youngstown announced in early January that parishes would merge. The new names of the parishes were announced last month.

“Many people have said they are grateful to be able to continue to attend Mass at the three churches,” Cicero said. “There is also a spirit of coming together as one community.

“Over the past few years, we have seen Catholics in Warren collaborating more and more such as attending Mass at the various churches in town. There is a sense of trying to truly become one Catholic community in Warren.”

He said there are plans to do service projects and community events together such as picnics and dinners.

St. James and SS. Cyril and Methodius merged to become St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in 2012, and St. Mary and St. John Paul II merged to become SS. Mary and Joseph in 2022.

“The great benefit is we are able to address the needs of the Catholic community as a whole,” Cicero said.

“There will be less fragmentation and less duplication. This will enable us to be more focused on our different missions, such as serving the poor, catechizing the youth or adult faith formation.

“We will be able to do this now instead of trying to do this with three different sets of people and three staff. We will do this for all the people with one staff and utilize the three churches for the ministry.”

The main office will be at Blessed Sacrament, but all three church buildings will remain active.

In addition to Cicero, the Rev. Edward Stafford leads Masses at the three sites.

Cicero said one of the main advantages of the merger is unity.

“If you are a Catholic in Warren, this is your parish,” he said.

Cicero said the three churches have worked together on community events such as dinners, ice cream socials, fundraisers and get-togethers.

A community engagement event is planned at St. James Church at 3 p.m. June 30 in collaboration with the Warren Southeast Side Community Association.

“It will be a fun day at St. James, with a horse-drawn carriage, games and food,” Cicero said.

FORMER CHURCH

SITES SOLD

Cicero said former sites such as SS. Cyril and Methodius, St. John Paul II, St. Pius X and Christ Our King parish buildings have been sold.

“There have always been territorial parishes, but it did not matter in Warren what the ethnic background was,” Cicero said.

He said over the years, a lot has changed for Catholic churches in Warren — as it has in the Diocese as a whole.

Also recently announcing a merged parish name was St. John Paul XXIII in Niles, which is a merger of St. Stephen and Our Lady of Mount Carmel churches. In Youngstown, three churches — St. Columba Cathedral, St. Edward and Holy Apostles — are in the process of merging into one parish.

Cicero said the local Catholic population decreasing over the years and having fewer priests were two reasons to merge churches together. He said Warren once had 75,000 people and there was a need for seven separate churches. Now, with 35,000 people in the city, the need has changed.

“The key to our success with the merger will be Eucharistic devotion and everything flowing from that and leading back to it,” he said.

PARISH MEMBERS

Kathy Matejcic of Howland and a member of St. James Church, said when someone looks at the situation positively there are wonderful people coming together.

“I am sure it can be a challenge for any parishes to merge,” she said. “We will be able to come together with grace and compassion.

“We will each still maintain our church name. When you think about it, we are coming together. The alternative would be if a parish is closing, which would be devastating.”

She said people from each church have their skills and talents individually, which now are being brought together.

“We are building a stronger community made up of strong and talented people. We will have a larger community with more people,” Matejcic said.

Matejcic said she chose to be baptized last year and feels bringing the three churches together will make it more wonderful for her and others.

Michael Biviano of Howland, a member of Blessed Sacrament Church, said he feels the sharing of resources from each parish will make the parish stronger,

“This will help us to thrive as a parish,” he said.

Biviano said he often attends Mass at the other two churches when he is not able to make it to the Mass at Blessed Sacrament.

“Each church has its own strength. Working together will allow us to use our resources together. We are all part of the Warren parish,” Biviano said.

Biviano said his children attend JFK Lower Campus at Blessed Sacrament so he is friends with families from the other churches and also attends functions at the others.

“If we are all coming together for one event or cause it will make it stronger with more people being involved,” Biviano said

Biviano, who is active as a youth minister and participates in other programs, said he has worked with Cicero and will continue to do so since he also has been pastor at St. James.

Dr. Giorgio Vescera of Howland, who attends SS. Mary and Joseph Church, said the merger will create a larger parish family and create more opportunities for parish members to be involved.

He said his children attend JFK Lower Campus and said they also have met families from the other churches.

Vescera said Cicero has been unifying of the church members who are familiar with him.

“His leadership is very important in the merging of the churches. He has made the transition very easy,” he said.

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