St. Joseph's Parish Fights To Exist, Vatican City Will Decide (2024)

Community Corner

In a historic event, the 133-year-old St. Joseph's parish is trying to overturn the decision by the Diocese of Joliet Bishop Ron Hicks.

Posted Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 11:38 am CT|Updated Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 8:56 pm CT

As a secondary church, St. Joseph's Church is guaranteed only two masses per year: one on the patron saint feast day, March 19, and one on the date of church dedication, Oct. 15.

There could be no priests assigned to the rectory, which is right next to the church that many Catholics consider as the most magnificent and beautiful church in Joliet. It opened around 1900.

St. Joseph's Parish Brought Babe Ruth To Joliet

Despite the bishop's gloomy outlook for St. Joseph parish, hundreds of parishoners are not resigned to blindly accepting its fate. They are on a mission that could be made into a real-life modern day "Blues Brothers" movie: to convince Vatican City, Rome, to stop Bishop Hicks from closing down their parish and potentially gobbling all their parish's precious financial assets, plus their prized landholdings spread across the city of Joliet, including the beloved St. Joseph's Park.

Eighty-four years ago, Monsignor Matthias Butala built St. Joseph’s Park to share his love of baseball with Joliet's youth, and Joliet's mighty monsignor brought the legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth to Joliet for the baseball field's dedication game, June 20, 1940.

To this day, St. Joe's Park remains the gathering place for the community's weekend summer festivals with Polka bands, bingo games, cold draft beers, sizzling Italian sausages and bratwurst, plus ethnic delicacies like strudel and potica.

"I Think We Have A Chance, But It's Still Up In The Air"

Now, as February draws to a close, St. Joseph's parish is not counting down the days until their church's demise. On Friday, St. Joseph's parishioners were making history again. The parish is filing its appeal to Washington, D.C., and that appeal will be delivered to Vatican City in Rome.

Will the Roman Catholic Church rule in favor of Bishop Hicks or will the hundreds of parishioners from St. Joseph's prevail?

Mary Petrella and Michael Vidmar are spearheading efforts to overturn the Diocese of Joliet's decision to shut down St. Joseph's parish and fold it into a new parish along with three smaller struggling east-side parishes: St. Anthony's, St. Bernard's and St. Mary Magdalene's.

St. Mary Magdalene, located along Briggs Street on Joliet's far east side, was chosen by Bishop Hicks to be the parish seat, even though St. Joseph's is a much more financially stable and vibrant parish. Overall, the Diocese of Joliet hopes to reduce the number of parishes in the Joliet Deanery from 16 parishes to 7 parishes.

"Let those three parishes merge and let us stand alone," Petrella reasoned.

St. Joseph's Parish Is Regional Destination For Catholics

During Thursday's interview, Joliet Patch asked Petrella and Vidmar about their prospects of overturning Bishop Hicks' decision to shut down St. Joseph parish for good.

Would leaders of the Catholic Church in Rome go against Hicks, who is now in his fourth year in his appointment as the Diocese of Joliet bishop?

"I think we have a chance, but it's still up in the air," Vidmar answered. "You never know."

"Let us be the standalone parish that we have been for the last 133 years," Petrella spoke up. "I think we have done a fantastic job the last 133 years."

St. Joseph's Parish is different from many of Joliet's older ethnic neighborhood parishes. Even though it's in downtown Joliet, St. Joe's draws most of its parishioners from the entire region. Many of its parish families travel 20 minutes, some longer, to get to daily or weekend Mass.

"Please Pray For Us, This Could Happen To Your Parish"

St. Joseph Parish has 840 families, and most live on the west side of Joliet and in Shorewood and Crest Hill. In addition, St. Joseph is considered a financially independent and a strong parish; an anchor in downtown Joliet for 133 years.

Parishioners stress they have always funded their building renovations and land purchases, rather than rely on funds from the Diocese of Joliet.

During Thursday's interview, Petrella implored people — regardless of whether they are Catholics or not — "to please pray for us. If you have ever been in our church, you know how it's beautiful," she remarked. "And it's maintained by dedicated parishioners.

"If you have never been inside, you are welcome to come to our Masses and please, be aware, that this could happen to your parish."

Church Located On International Route 66 Tourism Corridor

After years of struggles, Joliet's downtown city center has had numerous success stories over the past five to six years, including the addition of the fancy CUT 158 Chophouse plus renovations to the Two Rialto Square Building that features 20 luxury loft apartments on the fifth and sixth floors.

And last year, the Joliet Area Historical Museum acquired the lease for the world's original Dairy Queen ice cream shop. The original Dairy Queen, opened in downtown Joliet, is right across the street from St. Joseph's Church.

The museum plans to have it reopened as a world-wide Historic Route 66 tourist destination in time for the 100-year anniversary of Route 66 in 2026.

This month, Gov. JB Pritzker allocated more than $1.2 million for the Joliet area to promote and enhance its Route 66 international tourism destinations.

Bishop Hicks Gives St. Joe's A Two-Sentence Rejection Letter

"If you have a historic Route 66, you need a parish in downtown Joliet where the tourists will come," Petrella explained. "If this parish closes, we are the only downtown Catholic parish. It's the first steel and stone building in the city."

Petrella said that downtown Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre is ranked No. 1 on Route 66 tourism destinations as must see places to visit in Joliet and St. Joseph Catholic Church is also on the list, ranking at No. 15.

Prior to the parish's decision to unite and take their fight to stay alive all the way to Vatican City Rome, Bishop Hicks wrote a two-sentence-long letter to the parish, stating, "I have determined to Reject your request to amend or revoke my decree of 25 January 2024."

Diocese Tells St. Joe's Parish 'This Is Something To Embrace'

Moreover, Maureen Harton, who answers to the bishop as the director of implementation, issued a two-page letter imploring members of St. Joseph's parish to be obedient to Bishop Hicks and the Diocese of Joliet.

Harton acknowledged that members of St. Joseph 's may have felt deceived over the past several months regarding the fate of their parish.

"The Targeted Restructuring Committee was not aware of the technicality regarding territorial boundaries and as the director, I accept responsibility and apologize for this oversight and the confusion it has caused. There was no intent to deceive," she claimed.

Harton's letter informs St. Joseph's parishioners, "Try to look beyond St. Joseph Parish and see the bigger picture. God is leading the Diocese in a new direction, and He is challenging us to work together with our brothers and sisters in Christ to build up his Kingdom here in Joliet. This is not something to lament. This is something to embrace."

Harton's two-page letter is contained at the very bottom of Joliet Patch's article.

Joliet Patch reached out to the diocese on Friday morning seeking comment from Hicks regarding parishioners' appeal to Rome. Director of communications Michelle Dellinger responded by email providing the Diocese of Joliet's frequently asked questions document available on its website for "Targeted Restructuring of Parishes and Schools."

'Miraculous Mary Medals' Are Being Handed Out

Petrella and Vidmar — and hundreds of other Catholics at St.Joseph's parish — don't agree with Harton's message at all.

"They had to close parishes because of the number of priests, reduced attendance at Masses ... and because of a financial responsibility of keeping up with the reduced number of Catholics. But we have more sacraments here statistically, we have more attending daily mass, again, we're financially sound and our buildings are maintained, so all the reasons for reducing parishes in the Diocese of Joliet, we don't meet," Petrella explained.

Now, the waiting game begins. Petrella and the congregation wait for Rome's decision. They are not sure whether it will take several weeks, several months, or more than a year.

As for Petrella, she is a devout Catholic, who strongly believes in the power of prayer. She is handing out little golden Miraculous Mary medals, in honor of the Mother of Jesus. People with the medal are urged to pray to Mary for two weeks and their prayers will be answered.

During Thursday's interview, Petrella gave a Miraculous Mary medal to Joliet Patch's editor, in hopes that he would write a good story.

Previous Joliet Patch coverage:

St. Joe's Parish To Battle Bishop Hicks In Rome 'To Right This Wrong'

5 Joliet Catholic Churches Are Closing Forever: Bishop Hicks