Hartford Archdiocese merging New Haven’s eight Catholic churches. Here’s what to expect.

New Haven’s eight Roman Catholic churches will unite as Blessed Michael McGivney Parish on July 1 with the Archdiocese of Hartford making official what has been in the works for 18 months.

Archbishop Leonard Blair’s decree merging the parishes, including their finances and committees, was read at all Masses in New Haven this past weekend.

“In time, what this decree does is effectively subsumes all the parishes, all the corporations into one parish, one corporation, one body of the Christian faithful,” said the Rev. Ryan Lerner, moderator and co-pastor of the new parish.

“But all churches currently will remain open,” he said. “So we’ll be Blessed Michael McGivney Parish at St. Francis Church, at St. Mary’s Church and St. Stanislaus Church.”

McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus at St. Mary Church. He has been beatified and needs a second miracle attributed to him to become a saint. 

A possible reported miracle at St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, McGivney’s last parish, is being investigated by the Vatican, but that would not bring sainthood to McGivney unless someone prayed to him for a miracle.

The other churches in the New Haven citywide parish are St. Aedan and St. Brendan, St. Anthony, St. Joseph, St. Martin de Porres and St. Michael. Lerner’s co-pastors are the Rev. Hector Rangel, who now leads the Spanish-speaking St. Francis, and the Rev. Sebastian Kos of the Polish-language St. Stanislaus.

St. Bernadette Church remains open and is part of a parish with two East Haven churches. 

In his decree, Blair wrote that in December 2021 he had written to New Haven’s Catholics, stating “that the goal of the merger is to bring the priests, churches, ministries, and resources of the city together, uniting them in the hopes of creating a stronger, more vibrant Catholic community and culture. Thus, the Archdiocese (of Hartford) was now to implement a new, united ‘municipal model’ for the city of New Haven.”

The model, in which all churches in a town or city comprise one parish, has been implemented a number of times since the archdiocese reorganized in 2017, reducing the number of parishes from 213 to 127.

There are now 117 churches in the Archdiocese of Hartford serving about 469,000 Catholics in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties. Lerner said there are about 10,000 Catholics in New Haven, though fewer attend Mass regularly. Eight priests will serve the New Haven parish.

“I would say we have … the right number of priests to care for the number of people coming to church right now,” he said. “But is the Mass schedule realistic? Basically, right now we’re in the perfect place. Hopefully it stays that way.”

Lerner said the municipal model is helping to prevent the closing of more churches.

“I think this definitely prevents it from happening for the foreseeable future,” Lerner said. However, future decisions will be made based on three things: resources, especially money, the number of clergy and “how many people are actually practicing the faith, coming to church and contributing to keep these churches and these ministries alive,” he said.

“So if there’s a decline in any one of those things, that obviously will have an impact,” Lerner said. “We had over 20 churches, or 20 parishes, at one time. We’re at eight right now. … I would say there’s no plan to close any churches at this time and this model is a way to prevent that from happening, at least for the short run.”

Lerner said Catholics will notice little difference when they attend church on the weekend of July 1-2.

“You’re going to be dealing with the same person who usually answers the phone,” he said. “Masses and sacraments will be celebrated. Life is going to feel pretty similar. We will most likely reevaluate the Mass schedule in time, but that’s not happening next week.”

The big changes are behind the scenes, Lerner said.

“What will happen is, each of the separate corporations will be dissolved … merging into the St. Mary’s Parish Corp., but that parish is going to receive a new name, Blessed Michael McGivney,” he said. “So in time, all of the resources will be plugged into one, all the finances will be in one bucket.”

All the parish records ultimately will be housed at the rectory at St. Mary, formerly the Dominican priory, where Lerner and two other priests have their official residence. “But it’s going to take a long time for all that stuff to be ironed out,” Lerner said. “The practical implementation of this is going to take some time.”

Lerner, who is also Catholic chaplain at Yale, also stays overnight at St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center when students are on campus, because “as anyone will tell you, university students are nocturnal creatures.”

He said the important task is “trying to build a culture of unity. With things coming together, what big events can we try to bring the New Haven Catholic community together, whether it’s a huge parish picnic in the fall or something liturgical?” 

Lerner said he, the other priests, deacons and lay leaders want people to look at the big picture: “What do you love about your parish that you want to share with the whole city?” 

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.