Report: Wyandotte Catholic Churches to Close

Changes are expected to be on the horizon for Catholic parishes in Wyandotte in light of recommendations presented to Archbishop Allen Vigneron on Wednesday.

A report from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council will be reviewed by the archbishop, who is expected to release an archdiocesan-wide plan in February.

This comes in light of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s proposed realignment of 270 parishes across six counties in southeast Michigan.

It is recommended that , and develop a two-phase merger plan where St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph would merge in 2012 and operate solely out of St. Joseph. By 2013, the new St. Joseph parish would consider merging with St. Patrick to create a new parish.

St. Joseph addressed the issue on the parish’s Facebook page: “We ask for your prayers to deliver us and the parishioners of St. Elizabeth's from the terrible situation they and we have been put into. There will be more meetings … into the future to hopefully make it possible for St. E's to continue on their road to a merger with St. Joe's. This is not St. E's nor our fault. Let us pray for deliverance from our obstacles.”

The pastoral council also recommends that and merge within three to five years. It wasn't announced which parish would remain open.

“Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Stanislaus Kostka should begin in early 2012 to develop plans to merge upon the retirement or reassignment of the pastor if a replacement is not available, or when one of the parishes begins to experience a net operating deficit, but no later than June 2016,” the recommendation reads. “The merger plan should be submitted by June 2013.”

The regionwide plan calls for nine parishes to close within five years across southeast Michigan. In addition, 60 parishes are proposed to merge down to 21, resulting in 39 fewer parishes.