Cardinal Joseph Bernardin introduced a winter of discontent but promised a spring of rebirth on Jan. 21, 1990, when he announced a drastic rescue plan for what he described as a financially crumbling Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.
All the pieces of the plan Bernardin unveiled more than 17 months ago will be in place by midnight Sunday, the deadline for a final consolidation of nine parishes into four. When that happens officially, the final toll will be 51 church and school closings-or 6 percent of the archdiocese`s total. Some 70,000 of its 2.35 million Catholics have been displaced from their parishes. As consolidated parishes, leaner administrative operations and more revenue evolve from closings, cutbacks and increased assessments, there is a readily measurable dollar savings.
Just as tangible, but harder to measure, is the lingering bitterness.
Here now is the summer of reckoning, and how it adds up from some divergent perspectives:
Bernardin, who returns from a trip to Rome this weekend to speak at the dedication of one of the new parishes created from a consolidation that closed another, assessed the fiscal recovery in a recent interview: ”I think we`re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Jack Benware, the archdiocese`s chief financial officer, sees two more years of red ink, but says each year should trim further off the fiscal 1990 net deficit of $8.6 million. Although that shortfall still existed after the first 12 months of cutbacks and closings, it was a significant improvement over the previous year`s $26.8 million deficit.
Rev. Dan Montalbano left as pastor of St. Sebastian`s Parish when it closed last June and was reassigned to St. Veronica, 3300 N. Whipple St. This weekend, he will take a new assignment as pastor of Resurrection Parish, 2840 W. Nelson St., which Bernardin will help dedicate. Resurrection emerges from the consolidation of St. Veronica and St. Francis Xavier, at the latter site. Thus, Montalbano has presided over two church closings in two years. ”Right now,” he conceded, ”I feel tired and psychologically drained from tension.” Rev. Thomas Ventura can testify against the perception that affluent suburban parishes have been idle bystanders amid the painful restructuring. He is pastor of Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity Parish in Winnetka, which paid $125,000 to the archdiocese last year, $50,000 more than the previous year, because Bernardin increased the assessment on parish revenues from 6.5 percent to 10 percent. ”Many of our parishioners appreciate this as a real commitment to parishes and schools in the inner city,” Ventura said. ”But some have an instinctive resentment to downtown.”
Rev. Jack Daley is optimistic about the future of Quigley Preparatory Seminary, 103 E. Chestnut St., where he is rector-principal. ”Give us some time and we can make it work,” Daley said. The high school for boys considering priesthood has risen from the rhetorical ashes of a bitterly contested decision by Bernardin to close Quigley South seminary and open the new school in the Quigley North building. Most negatively affected was black enrollment.
James Cosenza was on the planning commission for consolidating six Chicago Heights parishes and was shocked that its work ended with three being closed, including his parish, St. Rocco. ”Based on our assets, I would have bet my life we wouldn`t be closed,” he still insists, adding, ”In no way will I again support the Chicago archdiocese.” He and his wife, Jeannine, have joined a Catholic church in the Joliet diocese.
John Lulling is similarly embittered by the closing of St. Dionysius Parish in Cicero where he and his parents and grandparents had been members since its first church was built in 1889. He has not joined another church.
”I pumped a lot of my money into that church to save it,” said Lulling, who lost his job when his metallurgical firm employer went into liquidation last August. ”I don`t feel like I want to get involved and contribute to another church because this could happen to any of them.”
Bernardin conceded that ”some people feel hurt and alienated and wonder how much their counsel really counts” after seeing all the pieces of the retrenchment process in place.
Acknowledging that ”some mistakes were made,” such as inadequate consultation with priests and laity, he blamed those mistakes on the critical condition of the archdiocesan budget. ”Our financial problems forced us to speed up the consultative processes in some cases,” he said.
But, he concluded, ”I think we did rather well.”
One of the most controversial closings was Quigley South, 7740 S. Western Ave., whose enrollment was 605, compared with 180 at Quigley North. Further, while 118 blacks constituted about 20 percent of Quigley South`s enrollment in 1989, there were only 15 blacks among the 285 students at the new seminary, about 5 percent of enrollment.
”Obviously, our outreach to the black community was damaged by the closings,” said Daley, the Quigley principal who had been director of recruitment at Quigley South. ”But I know what needs to be done.”
Toward that purpose, he said, a racially-mixed group of 70 Catholic grammar school students is now attending ”Accent Chicago,” a computer-recreation summer program designed to introduce possible applicants to Quigley.
Seventy students graduated from Quigley this year, and the staff hopes to match that number with incoming freshmen. Thus far, 55 are enrolled.
”With this new class, we still haven`t made the inroads we`d like among African-Americans,” Daley said. ”But we`re rebuilding and reuniting the two Quigley communities.” A critical factor, he said, will be making this the school`s permanent site, which Bernardin has not yet confirmed.
Although Quigley`s first-year enrollment of 285 is down 500 from last year`s combined campus enrollment, there has been a lesser effect on graduates going on to Niles College, the next step toward priesthood.
In past years, one in five Quigley graduates, about 40 in the average classes of 200, went on to Niles, said Rev. Greg Sakowicz, the college`s director of community relations. This year, the ratio is nearly one in three, as 23 of the 70 graduates will attend Niles.
At the new Resurrection Parish, Montalbano has hopes and goals, but no false illusions. For the past year, he has lived at the rectory of St. Veronica, which closes this weekend.
”When I came here, there was still hope it would stay open. Even when the decision became clear, there was denial,” he said.
And now, St. Veronica`s parishioners are being asked to join those at St. Francis Xavier, with whom relations soured last year.
”Neighbors became competitors. Friendly rivalry became bitter,”
Montalbano recalled.
Both churches spent about $200,000 for repairs in recent years. As much as they were similar-formerly white congregations becoming 40 percent Hispanic at St. Veronica and 50 percent Hispanic at St. Francis Xavier-they perceived themselves as different. The former was more Mexican, for example, the latter more Puerto Rican; the former in better repair, the latter more spacious.
”There is no magic formula. This is not perfect. But it is a compromise, and nobody is morally superior because of it,” Montalbano said.
The new parish school looks strong, he said, with 330 already enrolled for the fall, compared with last year`s combined enrollment of 400.
”It will take longer to tell how the church fares,” he said. ”By Christmas, we`ll hopefully know.”
Finance officer Benware said the direct savings thus far from closing church and school buildings has been $3.5 million.
And overall, he said, the combined effect of closings, cutbacks, layoffs and increased assessments and contributions since January 1990 was an $18.2 million reduction of the combined net deficit from fiscal 1989 to fiscal 1990. The closings left 105 vacant buildings, he said, of which 70 have either been sold ”or put to other uses by the archdiocese.” Sales have generated $9.9 million, which has been used to reduce bank loans.
Contracts are in various stages of discussion on some other buildings, Benware said, ”but the most desirable properties were sold first, so the rate of sales is now dropping off.”
And the future? ”There are no anticipated clusters of closings,”
Benware said. However, the ongoing planning process and requirement that parishes file annual budgets could bring more closings.
One has already occurred. The chancery announced this month that ”after an extensive, two-year collaborative process in which the parishioners, pastoral staff and the parish council of St. Francis De Paula met regularly to discuss the parish`s future,” the pastor recommended and Bernardin agreed that the church at 7822 S. Dobson Ave. will close at the end of July.
