Greene County parishes to merge into one effective July 1
Five Greene County parishes will merge to form a single parish effective July 1, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Saturday.
The St. Matthias Parish will bring together the parishes of St. Ann in Waynesburg; St. Hugh in Carmichaels; St. Ignatius of Antioch in Bobtown; Our Lady of Consolation, which covers Rice’s Landing, Nemacolin and Crucible; and St. Thomas, which encompasses Clarksville and Jefferson.
Parishes on Pittsburgh’s North Side, in its Beechview and Brookline neighborhoods, in Castle Shannon, Mt. Lebanon and New Castle are undergoing similar mergers. The diocese announced last year it was seeking to reorganize 188 parishes into 57.
No churches will be closing as a result of the mergers.
“This has not been a simple task,” Bishop David Zubik said in a letter to parishioners. However, he said the merged parishes would allow “for more effective ministry by addressing serious financial problems, sharing resources and allowing the clergy to focus on the spiritual work for which they were ordained.”
In recent years, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been restructuring in the face of declining attendance and financial woes at churches throughout the diocese, which includes Washington, Greene, Beaver, Allegheny, Butler and Lawrence counties. In 2017, five parishes in southeastern Washington County merged to form the St. Katharine Drexel Parish. Four churches within the parish closed in March.
Also on Saturday, the diocese anounced a grouping of four parishes made up five churches near downtown Pittsburgh that have historical and spiritual significance. The Shrines of Pittsburgh Grouping includes St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, which houses the murals of artist Maxo Vanko, and St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Strip District, which was visited in 1969 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, nine years before Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II.