Holy Rosary, Transitioning Again:
a Plea for the Future of our Parish

My parish of Holy Rosary has been going through a rough year. I’ve restrained myself from speaking too much about it, although I did have numerous posts on the inciting incident: the sudden collapse and then death of our pastor Father Michael Wagner last year.

Following Father’s death, we had a string of supply priests last summer. The best of these was Father Francis Xavier Kikomeko, who made an indelible impression on the people of the parish. He was amazing. Solid, orthodox, and joyful.

Our current pastoral team of Deacon Fish and Father Bourke came aboard in July of last year. They were our fourth pastors in as many years. Deacon Fish is a rock-solid administrator, and he certainly lit fires where fires needed to be lit. He is our pastor, and we love him. But it’s no secret that he did not understand, nor approve of, the liturgical bent of our parish. Much of what we had spent the past six years adding was stripped away in just a few months. Attendance at the parish, already in decline when Father Wagner died, fell further.

And then, in October, while Francine and I were in Spain on Camino, part of the vaulted ceiling over the church choir loft collapsed. Before the beginning of Advent, we were forced out of the church and into the school auditorium.

Now, I understand that this was a safety issue. But months passed with no explanation and seemingly no effort to get us back into the church building or get repairs started. We we told to be patient, sit tight, and not to engage in any fundraising, even as our anxiety to help, to do something – anything – for our beloved parish church built to a crescendo.

In fact, there was no information communicated to the parish at all until the local press began picking up the story.

Suddenly, everything was a hive of activity. Officials from the Archdiocesan Chancery began meeting with our Pastoral / Finance Council. The Council was eager to begin raising funds, but the answer always came back “no”.

Then we were given an ultimatum. In the words of Deacon Fish, “We’ve been given 4 weeks to show that we want to exist and want to continue as a parish community. Starting next weekend, we have to meet our expenses with our giving, $7000 per weekend.” (source)

We rose to this challenge, met it, and exceeded it with the help of our parishioners and our community.

Shortly thereafter, Archbishop Sartain wrote a letter to the parish. In it, he was comforting but realistic. It read in part:

Holy Rosary Parish is unique historically, liturgically and in other ways, and naturally you love your church building and parish community. At the same time, your parish is confronted with what many other parishes have experienced, a dramatically changing demographic in the area it serves. These are simply the realities of our day, based on shifting economic and sociological conditions. These factors may also be why the regular income of the parish does not make ends meet and has not done so for a long time.
 
Going forward, archdiocesan staff will continue meeting weekly with Deacon Jim Fish. Deacon Jim will in turn meet with the finance and parish councils on a regular basis. These discussions will allow parish leadership the opportunity to thoroughly review the data regarding the condition of the building, explore options and assess any and all groups who are offering financial support for the church building. …

In the meantime, I want to assure you of my prayers and support. I know that these months have been incredibly difficult and an emotionally charged time for you. It is very apparent to me that you are deeply concerned, and so am I.

(source)

This week and weekend we celebrated the anniversary of Father Wagner’s death. We sang Vespers from the Office of the Dead at our sister parish of Visitation. We had small receptions after the weekend Masses so that people could remember and reminisce. We even had some photos and Mass cards from Father’s ordination that folks could take home.

Also this weekend, Father Bourke and Deacon Fish announced the new clerical assignments, effective July 1. This fell as a hammer-blow to our still grieving community.

Father Bourke has been assigned as Pastor to our no-longer-sister parish of Visitation.

Deacon Fish has been assigned as Pastoral Coordinator of Our Lady Queen of Heaven parish in Spanaway, while continuing to be our Pastoral Coordinator as well. This church is a 20-minute drive from Holy Rosary, with Mass times overlapping ours.

No priest was assigned to Holy Rosary. The Vicar for Clergy Office will be supplying priests to Holy Rosary, leaving us in very much the same situation we had last summer after Father Wagner’s death.

What does this mean?

Does this mean that the Archdiocese has already given up on keeping our parish family together? Or is this just a “holding pattern” until a decision about our future is made? Or are they waiting for the inevitable shuffling of priests following the summer ordinations? Is there some other card that they’re waiting to play?

We don’t know, and nobody can tell us.

The parish community is understandably devastated. We have been walking together in grief for a year now, grief for our pastor Father Wagner, grief at the closing of our beautiful church, grief at the loss of much of our liturgical richness. I know many parishioners have felt abandoned and shepherdless. This will not help the situation.

Now, it seems, that we will continue walking this difficult path for a little while longer, trusting only in the Lord. He must love us very much to give us such crosses to bear!

The parishioners still share that fierce will to save our parish and our parish church. The Council has presented their case to the Chancery.

And after all, our parish has a long history of rising to seemingly impossible challenges.

Our parish was founded by a group of families who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. They purchased the land themselves. They built a wooden church on the site themselves. And when the bishop had no priests to send them, they imported an entire community of Benedictine monks.

When that original, rickety hand-built wooden church was eventually condemned, the parish celebrated the sacraments in the school auditorium for almost a decade while they raised money to build the beautiful brick and stone church we have today. We are in exactly the same situation that the parish faced in 1912. The church building must be restored, and Mass is being celebrated in the school auditorium. How were we able to persevere in that situation for nine years?

Because there was hope. Because there was a plan to build a new and beautiful church. People knew what they were working for, and they spent a decade raising money, even while they continued celebrating the sacraments and bringing the Gospel to the people of downtown and central Tacoma.

We will rise to the occasion as this parish has so many times before. We must, of course, begin every good work in the Lord, as Saint Benedict reminds us in his Holy Rule. We must pray together for the future of our parish and the restoration of our parish church, but we should always be mindful of the words of Saint Augustine: “Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you”. This exhortation rings through the history of the church. The Benedictines simplified it as the motto of their Order: Ora et Labora – pray and work. Saint Ignatius of Loyola adopted it as his personal motto, and we must adopt it as our own.

So what is the plan? What is the work we must do?

We must have a capital campaign. I know the Archdiocese of Seattle will not allow any new capital campaigns at this time, but this is clearly an extraordinary circumstance. We have been trying to start a capital campaign for the restoration of the church since at least 2011, and the endless succession of new leadership has continually derailed it. It is a matter of justice to make the exception now.

If the objection remains a financial one, it is a simple matter to structure the campaign so that the first chunk is earmarked for the money we already owe the archdiocese. If nothing else, it is a way to guarantee that Holy Rosary parish will meet its obligation under the archdiocesan campaign. If we are closed, obviously we won’t be able to meet our obligations. From a financial point of view, the archdiocese has nothing to lose and everything to gain by approving this campaign.

The positive effect on the morale of the parish would be immediate. Hope would be restored.

So, given that this is a relatively poor parish community, is it even possible to raise the $7 to 10 million required for the full restoration of the church and the upgrading of the other buildings on the campus? I believe that it is.

Properly conceived and executed, this campaign could easily go viral. It could be conducted as a national campaign to save one of the most beautiful churches in the Northwest. Holy Rosary church is an extremely traditional Neo Gothic basilica design, and much of the interior beauty remains intact, although certainly in need of restoration.

There is a growing appetite in the United States and across the Catholic world for the restoration or construction of these sorts of churches.

One only needs to look at the construction of the new Romanesque style church of Holy Rosary in Greenville, South Carolina. This, too, was an ambitious plan to build something beautiful for the Lord. It fired the imagination of Catholics all over the country, and this little parish was able to raise the millions of dollars required from large and small donations from all over the country. This is not an isolated example.

The nearby Archdiocese of Portland Oregon has built six new churches in the last five years. New monastic churches in the grand traditional styles are rising in places as diverse as rural Oklahoma and Montana. People love to support the construction or restoration of these beautiful places of worship.

Even locally, there is no person that I have talked to about the situation at Holy Rosary – whether they are a parishioner, a non-parishioner, or even a non-Catholic – who has not asked me how they can help. A Protestant friend of mine even called it “Tacoma’s cathedral”. Holy Rosary Church is an icon of Tacoma. It towers above Interstate 5 as the most visible expression of the Catholic Church in the entire city.

Tacomans – even non-Catholic Tacomans – feel a certain pride and ownership of this building. The support will be there.

There was a time – and it wasn’t so long ago – that folks from four counties came to daily Mass at Holy Rosary.

While we may not be flush with money as a parish, there are plenty of people in the parish who can leverage their skills for this campaign. Many of them have already volunteered their time on this effort. We have a multi-million dollar grant writer, as well as architects, engineers, and contractors among our parishioners. I myself have made my living in writing and marketing for the past 20 years. And there are folks here who have personal connections to some of the most distinguished sacred architects working in the United States today.

To the leadership of the Archdiocese of Seattle, and most especially to our Archbishops and Bishops, I raise the cry:

With God’s help, we can do this. We can restore our beautiful church. Please let us try.