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Staff report
WARREN -- The merged parish of St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish will lose one of its church sites early next year.
The Rev. Christopher Cicero and parish council have recommended the closure of St. James Church on Burton Street SE as part of the Diocese of Youngstown pastoral plan. The other two parish sites are Blessed Sacrament on Reeves Road in Howland and St. Mary Church on Seneca Avenue in downtown Warren.
Cicero presented the closure plan at a meeting in late July at Blessed Sacrament Parish that was attended by 300 people. The plan was recommended by Cicero for the future of the parish after consultation with the parish pastoral council and finance council.
St. James Church will be closed in January and sold.
He cited the changing demographics of the city -- and diocese as a whole -- as the reason for the decision. He said more people attend St. Mary and Blessed Sacrament and live closer to those parishes than they do to St. James, which is near Warren JFK's upper campus. The lower campus is housed at Blessed Sacrament.
The plan states that the parishioners of St Teresa of Calcutta can be best served with fewer, more centralized church buildings. The remaining two parishes will help increase parish unity, he said.
"We can still effectively minister to our congregations with two locations,'' Cicero said.
He said St. Vincent de Paul is also in the process of acquiring the St. James rectory for a future clothing and food distribution site. The agency now is located on Niles Road.
Cicero said St. Teresa of Calcutta has seen 200 new families become part of the parish in the past year, but St. James has seen declining attendance.
A Youngstown Diocese spokesman said this is only a proposal submitted to the Diocese, and has not gone through the process for approval by the Dicoesan Presbyterial Council. The spokesman said at this time, any closure that is being recommended will depend on a decision from Bishop David Bonnar and the Diocesan Presbyterial Council who will meet in September.
St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish has 2,445 active parishioners served by two priests at the three church locations. Cicero said that he and the congregation will wait on a decision from the Diocese before deciding when a final Mass will take place and when St. James and its contents are sold.
If the proposal is approved, plans are to close St. James but also do renovations at St. Mary and Blessed Sacrament.
According to the plan, the St. James rectory would be sold to the St. Vincent de Paul Society this year, followed next year by the sale of the church and social hall known as White Hall.
St. James Church's sacred items such as statues, Stations of the Cross and altar would be transferred to the Blessed Sacrament and St. Mary sites.
The closure plan also states that while St. James has more space inside for high attendances at Masses of between 800 and 1,000, it has limited parking and a limited size church hall. The plan also states that work needs to be done inside the church, including flooring and air conditioning, so it is best to close the site.
After St.James is closed, St. Mary will have work done that includes replacing flooring and installing pews from St. James and installing statues from St. James. That work will be done in 2027.
At Blessed Sacrament, the plan states Holy Family Hall would be renovated into a parish center. The parish offices would be rebuilt as part of the parish center project. The parish center would include offices, Holy Family Hall, restrooms, an adoration chapel and north parking lot. That work will begin this year.
According to data in the closure plan, St. Teresa of Calcutta has five weekend Masses at the three churches. The average weekend Mass attendance is 1,116 -- with 220 on Saturdays and 264 on Sundays at Blessed Sacrament, 167 on Saturdays and 220 on Sundays at St. Mary and 245 at St. James on Sundays.