\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSt. Joseph the Worker Parish plans to close seven of its eight church buildings in the Catholic parish in Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs.\u201cIt was very surprising. I\u2019m sad because St. John Fisher is a beautiful church, and it was mine for a long time, but I understand,\u201d said Maxine Wilson, who attended St. John Fisher Church in Churchill for 24 years. \u201cThe festival was there. We had a lot of good things. I was in the choir. I loved that.”Eight parishes originally combined to form St. Joseph the Worker Parish in 2020, and the pastoral council began considering closures in 2024. \u201cI understand, pretty much, the finances,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough people, not enough priests, but we\u2019re going to try to make it work.\u201dThe pastoral council reviewed dozens of criteria, including location, condition and attendance.The Rev. Michael Stumpf, the parish\u2019s pastor, announced Thursday that St. Maurice Church in Forest Hills will take on all parishioners.In a statement, the parish said, \u201cUltimately, this decision is about securing a future for mission, allowing us to serve our people and communities with renewed focus and unity.\u201dEach church that is closing will have a final Mass. They said they will remove any sacred items and preserve the buildings as they work to see what happens next.The consolidation will also allow them to renovate the St. Maurice campus.\u201cThat\u2019ll be interesting to see what they do, because St. John Fisher had a lot of beautiful artwork and different things, and St. Anselm in Swissvale had a lot of things,\u201d Wilson said.Stumpf will present the plan to Pittsburgh Bishop Mark Eckman, who will make the final decision. If approved, church closures would start in 2026.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tFOREST HILLS, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
St. Joseph the Worker Parish plans to close seven of its eight church buildings in the Catholic parish in Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very surprising. I\u2019m sad because St. John Fisher is a beautiful church, and it was mine for a long time, but I understand,\u201d said Maxine Wilson, who attended St. John Fisher Church in Churchill for 24 years. \u201cThe festival was there. We had a lot of good things. I was in the choir. I loved that.”<\/p>\n
Eight parishes originally combined to form St. Joseph the Worker Parish in 2020, and the pastoral council began considering closures in 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand, pretty much, the finances,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough people, not enough priests, but we\u2019re going to try to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pastoral council reviewed dozens of criteria, including location, condition and attendance.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Michael Stumpf, the parish\u2019s pastor, announced Thursday that St. Maurice Church in Forest Hills will take on all parishioners.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the parish said, \u201cUltimately, this decision is about securing a future for mission, allowing us to serve our people and communities with renewed focus and unity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each church that is closing will have a final Mass. They said they will remove any sacred items and preserve the buildings as they work to see what happens next.<\/p>\n
The consolidation will also allow them to renovate the St. Maurice campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll be interesting to see what they do, because St. John Fisher had a lot of beautiful artwork and different things, and St. Anselm in Swissvale had a lot of things,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Stumpf will present the plan to Pittsburgh Bishop Mark Eckman, who will make the final decision. If approved, church closures would start in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Joseph the Worker Parish plans to close seven of its eight church buildings in the Catholic parish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10924,10925,10926,10927,10928,10929,10930,73,10931,10932,75,74,10933,10934,10935,10936,10937,10938,10939,2222,10940],"class_list":["post-14409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-braddock","tag-braddock-hills","tag-catholic-church","tag-churchill","tag-forest-hills","tag-good-shepherd-church","tag-madonna-del-costello-church","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-churches-closing","tag-pittsburgh-diocese","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sacred-heart-church","tag-saint-colman-church","tag-saint-john-fisher-church","tag-saint-jude-church","tag-saint-maurice-church","tag-st-joseph-the-worker-parish","tag-swissvale","tag-turtle-creek","tag-wilmerding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}