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LAUREL — The Laurel Catholic church will no longer have weekend Mass under an Archdiocese reorganizational plan that will take affect this week.
The Archdiocese of Omaha’s reorganization, called Journey of Faith, began taking shape more than a year ago to address the declining number of priests, falling participation in the faith, and shifting trends in both rural and urban areas.
As a result, about 1,300 Catholic parishioners in the area who regularly attend Mass, may find themselves in a different church at a different time with a different priest this weekend as some of the final, major Journey of Faith changes are being implemented.
The Wayne, Dixon and Laurel Catholic churches have been grouped together. There will be three weekend Masses at Wayne, while Dixon will only have an 8 a.m. Sunday Mass. St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Laurel will no longer hold weekend services.
The other Cedar County churches are also seeing some major changes. The Coleridge, Randolph and Hartington churches have all been grouped together along with four other area churches to make up one parish family. This grouping is now known as the Holy Spirit Catholic Parishes, the name chosen to reflect the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Those churches in the new parish family include St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Randolph; St. Michael in Coleridge; Holy Trinity in Hartington; St. Peter in Newcastle; St. Mary of the Seven Dolors in Osmond; St. Joseph in Ponca; and St. Paul in Plainview.
The Rev. Owen Korte, Hartington, and the Rev. Kevin Vogel, Randolph, will be overseeing the newly formed parish group and will be rotating every week among those churches.
“We can be stronger with the support of each other rather than just being on our own. That’s more of the Biblical kind of model anyway when Jesus sent out the apostles in twos,” Vogel said. “We’re both your priests.”
New Mass times will be Saturdays at 6 p.m. at Holy Trinity, Hartington, and St. Paul, Plainview; Sundays at 8 a.m. at St. Joseph, Ponca, and St. Frances, Randolph; and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. at Holy Trinity, Hartington, and St. Mary’s, Osmond.
There will no longer be weekend Masses at St. Peter, Newcastle, or St. Michael, Coleridge. However, all churches will continue to have some weekday Masses as well as funeral and wedding services.
“No parishes are closing. A lot of people interpret not having a Sunday Mass as the church being closed but that’s not correct. The parishes remain individual parishes,” Vogel said. “It’s just that the locations for Sunday Mass have to be limited based on the number of priests that we have to do them. We can’t be in every location all at once.”
The main office for the Holy Spirit Catholic Parishes will be atHoly Trinity, Hartington, but other church offices will remain open. Some church offices may reduce hours and services over time as necessary as the transition occurs, Vogel said.
While minor adjustments may be made in daily Mass schedules in the future, no other major changes are planned, he said.
Vogel said his familial church in Howells is also ceasing Sunday Mass so he can relate to parishioners who are struggling with those changes.
“It’s parallel with people going through grieving. People’s relationship with God is connected to the place where they go,” Vogel said.
He has visited with many parishioners one-on-one and challenged them to change their perspective.
“The reality is that the faith didn’t change. The truths that God gave to us, none of that changes,” Vogel said. “It’s not as though God has left us, he is still here.”
The Journey of Faith is specific to the Archdiocese of Omaha but the issues that led to the reorganization are spread across the United States, Vogel said, with other Christian church denominations facing similar challenges of lack of clergy and a decrease in church participation.
The Journey of Faith goal is for each parish family to become a “missional community” of outwardly sharing faith with others. It will also be important for parents to look inwardly and evaluate if they are open to God’s vocational calling on their children, Vogel said.
