CINCINNATI — Mark Pettus wasn’t born a Catholic. He converted after marrying one. And yet he has knowledge about the church that few Catholics possess. He knows how to navigate its bureaucracy.
“I write letters to the bishop all the time,” said Pettus, a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus in McCartysville, Ohio.
Spurred into action by Beacons of Light, a massive restructuring plan that aims to consolidate 208 parishes into 57 parish families in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Pettus has spent the last year learning as much as he can about how to stop it.
“After reading all of the information about what this plan was and going to the Archdiocese’s website, I thought, ‘This is just wrong.’” Pettus said. “And if nobody else is going to do it, then I guess I’m the one who’s supposed to do it. I signed up.”
Parishioners all over the 19-county Archdiocese have signed mandates naming Pettus as their procurator, which is similar to granting him a power of attorney, “to initiate petitions for the cessation of the Beacons of Light initiative.”
His advocacy group, Save Our Parishes, has been working with Canon Lawyer Philip Gray to oppose parish restructuring decisions near his home in Sydney, Ohio. And he’s trying to encourage similar activism in other parts of the Archdiocese.
“Once the parish no longer exists then they can do anything they want with the church,” Pettus said. “If you get a group together and you want to have a meeting, I’ll be more than happy to come down to your first meeting to try to explain to people what exactly it means and what they need to do.”
Archdiocese says parish merger decrees explain ‘just cause’
The WCPO 9 I-Team began looking into the Beacons of Light initiative after local Catholics raised concerns about initial decisions to merge seven parishes and close four schools. Two of the parish mergers led to the permanent closure of two churches, St. Matthias in Forest Park and St. Margaret of Cortona in Madisonville, which is now for sale along with more than five acres alongside a popular bike path.
Four of the six closures happened in diverse neighborhoods with poverty rates above the state average of 13.4%. The justification for three school closures — St. Martin in Cheviot, St. Joseph in the West End and St. Anthony of Padua in Dayton — has been challenged as inaccurate by parishioners.
“Schools in the Archdiocese proudly serve a widely diverse population from all economic backgrounds. The diversity and poverty rates of students are not factors in the decision to close a school,” Archdiocese spokeswoman Jennifer Schack wrote in an email response to the I-Team’s questions. “Local leadership including the pastor, parish council, finance council, with the consultation of the Catholic Schools office, makes the decision to close a school. In each case of a school closure, care is taken to ensure that all of the children served by the Catholic school continue to have access to a quality Catholic education. All three school closures that you listed above have quality Catholic schools nearby.”
The Archdiocese declined to schedule interviews for this story and did not answer questions about how its restructuring decisions can be appealed.
Any decrees relative to a modification of a parish … include just cause determined by the parish themselves,” Schack wrote. “Pastors and parishioners, working together and after extensive consultation, may propose modification of parishes by merger or amalgamation. Canon law requires that such a modification may only take place after the proposal has been presented to the Presbyteral Council and the members have been consulted by the diocesan bishop.”
‘Parishioners are more savvy these days’
Church restructuring cases are not easy to win, but parishioners can improve their odds by doing some upfront research, said Kelly O’Donnell, a canon lawyer from California with 35 years of experience.
“Some of these cases are very complex,” O’Donnell said. “Parishioners are more savvy these days and with social media, they start preparing early.”
By contrast, O’Donnell has seen cases where church officials made basic mistakes in decrees, using faulty “just cause” reasons for closures, or failing to verify that it owned the land beneath the church it wanted to close. In one case, it turned out the deed included a donor restriction.
“If the parish ever closes the school, that land reverts back to my family,” O’Donnell said. “It happens.”
O’Donnell urges parishioners to write notes on checks if their gifts are for specific things like a new roof. Those checks could later be used to prove the church overstated what it cost to repair the roof or ensure the money is not merged into a general fund for a new parish family.
“The financials really tell a big story,” O’Donnell said. “When I send a case, I have all the documents that I know they can’t renege on. They can’t convince (a Vatican court), ‘Here, I have quotes (on) what it’s going to cost to fix’ (when) I have the financials from the bank.”
The same canon lawyer who is working with Archdiocese of Cincinnati parishioners, Gray, is also helping St. Louis Catholics to protest their parish mergers.
In St. Louis this month, parishioners used demographic data to win a Vatican court ruling that unraveled a parish merger from last May. The Dicastery of the Clergy disagreed with demographic projections from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Instead, it deemed St. Robert parish “large enough to be a viable community,” according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Pettus said parishioners should start now to collect the documents they’ll need to file an appeal because canon law requires appeals to be filed within 10 days of a merger decision.
“Five to ten years of financial information,” Pettus said. “How many baptisms and sacraments in past 10 years? How many vocations have come from your parish? What do you do with evangelization?”
Pettus said Gray has developed a 9-page “parish packet” that explains how parishioners can organize to oppose parish mergers. Among its advice is to “establish a financial foundation or trust fund for your parish. It’s a common understanding that if you control the money you control the situation.”
With so many details to track, the work can be cumbersome — even for a team of parishioners.
“I’ll be honest, it’s been a little difficult,” Pettus said. “You can’t do it all yourself. You need to have a group. And then the group needs to divide up this parish packet information. Maybe two people figure out all the financial stuff. Somebody else looks up all the vocations. So, it’s a team effort.”
Although it’s early in the game, Pettus and Gray have already notched a win. The Dicastery agreed to consider Gray’s appeal contesting the merger of four parishes into St. Henry Catholic Parish in Mercer County.
The four parishes — St. Aloysius, St. Bernard, St. Francis and St. Wendelin — have shared the same pastor with St. Henry since 2004, according to an amalgamation, or merger decree issued by the Chancery of the Cincinnati archdiocese on Oct. 1, 2023. The document proposed “uniting the parishes” to reduce “administrative burdens on clergy and staff” while promoting “greater unity among the faithful.”
Pettus declined to provide a copy of the St. Henry appeal. But he said a shortage of priests cannot be used to justify a merger, under canon law.
“Once they accept the appeal, the decree is on hold,” Pettus said. “They can’t make any canonical changes to those churches until the appeal is decided.”
How to find a procurator
Pettus invites any parishioner who is interested in opposing parish mergers and building closures to contact him at procuratordoc@gmail.com. He also invites them to sign a mandate appointing him as their representative for challenging parish restructuring on their behalf.
Sample mandates can be found here: https://saveourparishes.org/mandates-decrees-appeals-1 [saveourparishes.org]
Anyone 14 years or older can sign a mandate, but the document must be witnessed by two people 18 or older. Once signed, Pettus asks parishioners to write on the back the name of their parish and an email address where he can reach them. Then mail the document to the address on the mandate.
Gray’s parish packet said parishioners fighting a merger should “get as parishioners to sign a mandate as possible.” They should also find a procurator who has time and availability to do the job.
“Because appeal processes only allow a short amount of time between receiving a decision and appealing, the procurator must be reliable in sharing with the core
Group letters and documents received within 24 hours of receiving them,” the packet said.
Pettus estimated he now spends between 20 and 50 hours a week on his procurator duties for the 20 parishes that signed mandates naming him as their representative. But he’s confident he can add more parishes.
“I signed up for this and will work as hard as needed until it's done,” he said.
