When St. Hugh, Mater Christi and St. Mary parishes came together as St. Paul VI Parish on June 27, there were tears and mourning, but also laughter, smiles and hope.

The new St. Paul VI Parish was one of two dozen that were officially created July 1 through the Renew My Church process, which seeks to establish vital parish communities. It will have worship sites with regular Masses at Mater Christi in North Riverside and St. Mary in Riverside.

The Mater Christi site is also the home of the new St. Hugh Faith Formation Center, in the former Mater Christi school building, and the Mother of Mothers outdoor shrine. St. Mary School in Riverside will serve as the school for the new parish, and the new Bishop Timothy J. Lyne Pastoral Center is located near St. Mary church and school.

To bring it all together, the parish celebrated the last Mass at St. Hugh in the morning.

Father Robert Marchwiany, pastor of St. Hugh, said his parishioners are grieving, but most understand the need to unite the parishes and close St. Hugh Church.

“It’s been a long several months since the announcement in January,” Marchwiany said. “This is a sad moment, but it’s necessary.”

Marchwiany said he was not sure how many St. Hugh parishioners would stay at St. Paul VI, especially given the instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The parish had several deaths, he said, and more families moved away from the Chicago area.

Still, the congregation filled the church and watched as a portrait and a statue of St. Hugh were carried from the sanctuary.

“I was baptized at St. Hugh in April of 1939 and I never left,” said Arlene Houda, who carried the statue from the church. Houda was among about 100 people at Mater Christi that afternoon to watch the portrait and statue carried into the new faith formation center at Mater Christi. “I had all my sacraments there, I was married there, I buried my grandparents and my parents and my husband from there.”

Three of her four children were married at St. Hugh, Houda said, and some of her fondest memories were watching her three sons serve at the altar together.

Now, she said, she will likely join St. Cletus Parish in La Grange, where her daughter and granddaughters are parishioners, but she plans to stay involved as a special religious education (SPRED) catechist at St. Paul VI.

Elizabeth Kos, who was director of lifelong learning at St. Mary and will head St. Paul VI’s formation program, said she’s excited to be working in a parish that is putting so many resources into formation. St. Paul VI is the only parish she knows of that has a building completely dedicated to it.

“We’re expecting to have classes five days a week,” she said. “Children’s religious education, family religious education, adult formation, SPRED, baptism and marriage formation. … It’s such a blessing to have so much support for our program.”

The formation and religious education leaders have been meeting to plan for the upcoming year, and they are confident that they can work on the logistics so that most families can continue to attend classes the same days, Kos said. What they are focusing on is deciding what they want the faith formation program to be.

“It’s really about vision,” she said. “We’re starting something new, and this is an opportunity we don’t want to let pass by. Unfortunately, everybody is being shaken up, but it’s because everything is shaken up that we can do new things.”

Auxiliary Bishop John Manz, in what was his last official act before he retired July 1 (see page 5), officiated at all three events of what he called “the marathon of St. Paul VI.”

At the dedication of the St. Hugh Faith Formation Center, he called on parishes and the archdiocese to offer more support to religious education programs.

“I’ll say it, it’s one of my complaints that as I’ve seen many Catholic schools close, I haven’t seen more resources going to catechesis,” Bishop Manz said. “This kind of catechesis has to involve adults as well as young people. It’s a type of immersion in what we believe.”

At the dedication of the Bishop Lyne Pastoral Center, Bishop Manz recalled that Bishop Lyne’s first assignment as a priest was as an assistant pastor at St. Mary, Riverside, a post he held for 19 years. Bishop Manz became a pastor the year Bishop Lyne was ordained a bishop.

Bishop Lyne, he said, would tell the people of St. Paul VI Parish to have hope, the hope that Bishop Manz has despite the pain of closing and consolidating parishes and knowing that there are probably a rough few years ahead for the archdiocese.

“The intention of the Renew My Church efforts is to inspire more Catholics,” he said. “My hope is that we have more Catholics who are dedicated and committed to their faith.”

Susan Storcel, originally a parishioner at Mater Christi, participated in the process that brought the three parishes together, and attended the rites intended to unite the new parish.

“I’m grieving with the parishioners from St. Hugh, my new friends,” Storcal said. “But I’m very happy and hopeful about this new parish home. I’ve gotten to know so many people from the other parishes. I think it’s going to be great.”