Holy Trinity church, at 501 Park St. on the city’s North Side, held its final Sunday mass on Feb. 14. (Brian Hayden)
After a lifetime of attending Holy Trinity church on the city’s North Side, Diane Moro must find a new house of worship.
“It’s like losing a limb. It’s like losing a part of you when this happens,” Moro, 56, said. Moro, her grandmother, mother, and daughter all grew up on the street behind Holy Trinity. After 119 years, the church celebrated its final mass on Feb. 14.
Holy Trinity is one of six Catholic churches in the city of Syracuse, and dozens more in the region, that have closed, or are scheduled to close or merge, since the Diocese of Syracuse announced its reorganization plans in 2007. The Diocese has closed churches in response to dwindling funds, a shrinking number of parishioners and a shortage of priests to serve them.
The closings leave the Diocese with several dilemmas. It is struggling to find ways to re-use the former houses of worship, some of which are over 100 years old and located in declining neighborhoods. Only a few of the sites have found new life so far. Our Lady Of Solace on the city’s East Side, for example, has been resurrected as classrooms and office space for Hillside Learning Center. In addition, the Diocese is facing pressure from the city to begin paying taxes for once-exempt churches no longer in use.
The other four Catholic churches in the city that have or will be closed by the Diocese, and their 2009 assessment values are:
- St. Andrew the Apostle, in the Outer Comstock neighborhood, which closed in 2009. It’s assessed value is $551,100. A Pentecostal denomination, Victory Temple Fellowship church, is trying to close on a $450,000 sale to move into the space by July.
- St. Stephen’s, on the West Side, which closed in 2007. It’s assessed at $335,200.
- St. Peter’s, on the North Side, which closed in 2008. It’s assessed at $1,083,000.
- St. John the Evangelist, on the North Side, which is scheduled to merge into the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on June 30. It’s assessed at $677,000.
The Rev. James P. Lang, Diocesan vicar for parishes, describes the favored goal for each closed church is a new life with another religious purpose. That, he said, would show respect for those who used to worship there. To prepare the closed churches for secular uses, the Diocese removes the tabernacle, altar stone and other religious objects in a “de-sanctification” process before the church goes on the market.
“Churches have got a sort of sacred nature,” Lang said. “We try to protect the use of any church.”
The Diocese is open to suggestions for secular uses, Lang said. Many of the closed churches on the market are in struggling neighborhoods, making them a tough sell. “If these were healthy areas, we wouldn’t be closing the churches there,” he said.
The Diocese has been disappointed by some of the offers for former churches. For example, another religious organization offered to buy one city church for 40 percent of its appraised value, Lang said. The Diocese turned the offer down. Sometimes, Lang said, “People who want to buy it want to buy it as a steal.”
One reason the Diocese doesn’t want to sell at bargain prices , Lang said, is because Canon law requires that the assets and liabilities of the closed church go to support the displaced parishioners’ new parish. The Diocese gives these funds to the new, merged congregation, he said.
One successful transition to new secular ownership of a closed church occurred in January, when Hillside Children’s Center bought the Our Lady of Solace church, school and convent on Salt Springs Road for $550,000. Hillside Children’s Center is a nonprofit organization that provides academic support to struggling students. It had rented rooms in Our Lady of Solace’s school since 2008. It now plans to use the church as office space.
“There is no reason to shy away from finding productive uses for former houses of worship,” Paul Perrotto, Hillside’s chief financial officer, said in an e-mail interview. Hillside, he said, is glad it bought the church. “We would do it again,” he said.
But the remaining empty churches are creating headaches for the Diocese and city officials. Matthew Rayo, 1st district councilman, has three churches in his district that have been or will be closed by the Diocese. They are St. John the Evangelist, Holy Trinity and St. Peter’s.
But, Rayo said, he was not aware of any city initiative to re-develop the properties. “Unless someone reopens these buildings as a church, it’s tough to find people that will buy up and use the property,” Rayo said. “These are very distinctly church buildings.”
Paul Driscoll, deputy commissioner of Syracuse’s department of community development, did not respond to several requests for information about city’s potential role in re-developing the church sites.
The city is now trying to tax the Diocese for those sites it is no longer using. That’s provoked some criticism from church groups, said David Clifford, deputy commissioner of assessment. “They don’t want to pay taxes,” Clifford said. “That’s not what they budget for.”
Clifford declined to estimate the amount of money collected by taxing the church properties. Adding the properties to the tax roll, he said , will reduce the burden on other taxpaying properties. Those churches still functioning in the city will remain exempt.
“We don’t want to take away anyone’s exemption who is deserving of it,” Clifford said.
For Diane Moro formerly of Holy Trinity Church, tax exemptions are the least of her worries. She is troubled about the future of her lifelong spiritual home. She doesn’t want to see her childhood church used for anything else. But while it sits empty and unused, she said, she’s concerned that vandalism and time will take its toll.
“It is beautiful,” Moro said. “It is disgusting to think that it will go to shambles.”
(Brian Hayden is a senior newspaper journalism major.)
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