Archdiocese: Merging 4 Port Richmond parishes
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday that it will consolidate four Port Richmond parishes over the next 18 months. In June, Our Lady Help of Christians parish, at Allegheny Avenue and Gaul Sts., will merge into Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish at Allegheny and Belgrade St.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday that it will consolidate four Port Richmond parishes over the next 18 months.
In June, Our Lady Help of Christians parish, at Allegheny Avenue and Gaul Sts., will merge into Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish at Allegheny and Belgrade St.
By June of 2017, Nativity will enter into a partnership with Mother of Divine Grace parish, at E. Thompson and E. Monmouth Sts. and St. George parish at 2700 E. Venango Ave.
Under the partnership arrangement, each parish will remain open but all will be served by one pastor, one staff, and one pastoral council. The parishes will, however, maintain their own finances and retain their finance councils.
The four belong to the archdiocese's pastoral planning area 570.
St. Adalbert's parish, the other member of that group, will remain a free-standing parish, the archdiocese said.
The restructuring, which Archbishop Charles J. Chaput reviewed as part of the archdiocese's ongoing "pastoral planning initiative," does not immediately affect the schools of the affected parishes. But the parishes "will continue to assess the viability of their schools at the local level," the archdiocese said.
The affected parishes had been in consolidation talks since October, 2014, but in March reported they were unable to reach an agreement.
The archdiocesan strategic planning committee then studied their needs and presented them with two restructuring options and invited them to choose one.
There are 219 parishes, and 44 pastoral planning areas, in the five-county archdiocese.
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