All 4 Evanston Catholic Churches To Remain Open As Parishes Consolidate

EVANSTON, IL — The four Catholic churches, three schools and one campus ministry in Evanston will remain open with the area consolidates into two parishes this summer, Chicago Archdiocese officials announced.

Starting in July, St. Athanasius and St. Joan of Arc will combine into a single parish with one pastor but two worship sites. At the same time, St. Mary and St. Nicholas parishes will also unify, Auxiliary Bishop Mark Bartosic said Saturday.

St. Athanasius and St. Nicholas will function as the parish churches for purposes of sacramental records. All four churches will continue holding regular mass and keep their names, but the pair of consolidated parishes will get new ones. The Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University will be unchanged.

"Our rationale for the decision: Uniting the parishes as indicated will allow developing cohesive pastoral and evangelization plans for each of their parish territories," Bartosic said. "It will build on existing relationships between the parishes, and it will help address realities of the declining number of pastors available to staff parishes and provide a structure to most effectively build full parish staffs to support ministry in the area."

Rev. Kenneth Anderson, currently pastor of St. Joan of Arc in Skevenston, will assume leadership of the combined parish. St. Athanasius will be the parish school, while the Academy at St. John of Arc will keep its structure as a tenant with an independent governing board.

Meetings to develop a recommendation for the new pastor of the united St. Mary-St. Nicholas parish get underway Saturday, church officials said. Pope John XXIII School will be its parish school.

Related: Highwood, Highland Park Parishes To Unite, Keep Holding 2 Masses

Bartosic explained the parishes' ability to raise money to cover anticipated future expenses contributed to the recommendation by the "Renew My Church" consolidation commission to keep all four Evanston area churches open.

"Long-term capital needs are a concern of the renew my church commission. However, the current financial strength of the parishes, along with the expected timing attached in any of the capital needs — between five and seven years — provided confidence to the commission, since this timeline provides an opportunity for fundraising," he said. "This resulted in the recommendation for all the churches to remain open with ongoing review by parish leadership along with myself and my vicariate team."

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Fr. Jason Maleva, liaison for Cardinal Blase Cupich, said during Saturday's announcement that the pastors of the combined parishes will take a few months to review how many employees to keep on the payroll and determine their best teams moving forward.

"There will be some economies of scale with the staffing, for sure, some percentage," Maleva said. "But that's something that, as the bishop said, he will keep an eye on in an ongoing basis as we continue into the future."