Parishioners from St. Mary of the Visitation and St. Patrick parishes in Ottumwa listen during a meeting Feb. 3 about a future merger of the two congregations into one. The meeting was held at St. Patrick Church.
By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger
OTTUMWA — Ed Wilson, who grew up in St. Mary of the Visitation Parish, remembers discussions about a possible merger of Ottumwa’s three parishes dating back to the 1980s when he began serving on St. Mary’s Parish Council. Members of St. Mary, St. Patrick and Sacred Heart parishes were not ready to become one faith community then.
However, developments in recent years paved the way to move toward a merger July 1 of the two remaining Ottumwa parishes — St. Mary (400 registered families and around 30 families not registered) and St. Patrick (270 registered families). The parishes’ councils are discerning a name for their new parish with input from parishioners, the next step on the road to becoming one faith community.
Bishop Dennis Walsh, who served as pastor of multiple parishes in the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, and was involved in parish mergers, met with parishioners and their leaders Feb. 3 at St. Patrick Church to encourage their move forward. The gathering included leaders from the parishes and Seton Catholic School community, the pastor, Father Joseph Sia (who also leads St. Mary Magdalen Parish-Bloomfield), and Dan Ebener, diocesan director of parish planning.
Running multiple parishes “might look easy,” the bishop said, joking that his mother used to say he only had to work one day a week. “I had three parishes before I became bishop. It’s tough. It’s tough to go to three finance council meetings. It’s tough to go to three parish council meetings.” Keeping everyone happy is work.
Building a parish community isn’t easy, either. Bishop Walsh shared a personal anecdote to make his point. His 89-year-old mom said she thinks she could do drywall after seeing it done so many times on HGTV, her favorite TV program. It might look easy, but in practice, it can be challenging. “You don’t want my mother to do your drywall,” the bishop joked.
Building community
“There’s a lot of good things we do as a Catholic community when we put our work and our efforts, our ministries, our talents (together) … for the good of building up the Ottumwa Catholic community,” Bishop Walsh said. “So thank you, Father Sia, for your leadership in this process of leading us to this point.”
Bishop Walsh emphasized that he would not make decisions regarding Mass schedules or other details that the parishes’ leadership can decide with Father Sia, including the name change. “I’m not going to substitute my own name. It’s not going to be St. Denis,” he said kiddingly.
In his presentation, Father Sia, explained the value and practicalities of a merger. “We are already 75-80% there,” he said, referring to consolidation already in place, such as sharing a parish office, secretary, religious education director, bulletin, some organizations and a recently hired director of evangelization.
The Mass schedule also changed in July 2023, when the two parishes went from having two pastors to one with the arrival of Father Sia. Robert LaPoint, president of St. Patrick Parish Council, said he now attends Mass at St. Patrick and St. Mary, which exposes him to a broader faith community. With the merger, “We’ll become a bigger community that will include more people,” LaPoint said.
Benefits of merging
“I see the importance of bringing the parishes together and having a common vision for the Catholic community in Ottumwa. We are one Catholic Church, one mission,” Father Sia said. “Our mission has been given to us by Jesus Christ, to go out and share the Good News.”
Merging is advantageous administratively, reducing the number of meetings and paperwork, which allows himself and Father Ben Snyder, parochial vicar, to do ministry work. Merging also streamlines records and bookkeeping/accounting, focuses resources and creates synergy, Father Sia said.
LaPoint expressed gratitude for parishioners’ receptiveness during the Feb. 3 meeting. They listened and recognized that the merger is the path forward, he said. Some people at the meeting expressed concern about what would happen with each parish’s money, “but that was pretty well covered.”
“It will be one parish corporately and it will be one parish canonically,” Bishop Walsh said during the Feb. 3 meeting. “So under Church law (assets) will be under one parish. Under civil law, it will be one parish.” The combined assets will pay for staff and salaries, among other parish obligations. “You’ll be gaining from that … You become one community.” Separate endowments for upkeep of the church buildings would be permissible, he said. “As a pastor and a bishop, I strongly encourage endowments. …It’s a way to preserve the whole history of legacy.”
“I haven’t heard pushback from anyone,” said Kathy Wilson, president of St. Mary’s Family Service League (formerly the Altar and Rosary Society) and wife of Ed Wilson, the parish council president. Among the advantages of merging, the couple says, is the younger age of the Hispanic Catholic community, bringing more youths into the mix of parishioners. Merging also broadens the pool of volunteers for organizations.
Grieving and gaining
The two church buildings will continue to serve as worship sites and retain their names, but Father Sia acknowledged in the March 16 parishes’ bulletin that choosing a new parish name is an emotional concern. The parish councils’ members chose three final names at a joint meeting Feb. 18: St. Nicholas (the original name of the first Catholic Church in Ottumwa), St. Joseph (in honor of the former Catholic hospital in Ottumwa) and St. John Paul II. “I invite you to pray for the discernment of God’s voice in guiding our Parish Council in arriving at a name that will inspire the Catholic community of Ottumwa to ‘leave everything behind, follow Jesus, and become fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19),” Father Sia said.
A Catholic asks a question of Father Joseph Sia during a meeting Feb. 3 at St. Patrick Church in Ottumwa.
After parishioners share their choices, the parish councils’ members will vote on the new name during a joint meeting after Father Sia returns home from the Philippines. He was there to be with family after his mother’s death Feb. 28.
The next step after selecting a parish name involves Father Sia writing a letter to Bishop Walsh to receive his formal approval at the Diocesan Presbyteral Council meeting in May. “Then the hard work continues, wherein we will need to look at all the details involved in this merger,” he said. Those details include addressing canonical legalities, state requirements, establishing a new corporation, combining bank accounts and investment accounts, undergoing a full audit and creating a new parish council, finance council and appointing lay directors.
“I know these will be painful discussions,” Bishop Walsh told the gathering Feb. 3. “We always go from a place of grieving. But I ask you to think about what you will be gaining.”
“I feel like we can become one big Catholic community,” said Ana De La Torre, the parishes’ director of religious education. She said the Hispanic Catholic community is very happy about the merger. “It will help not only the pastor, but also for us to share our culture, what we believe and how we celebrate our Hispanic events.”
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