St. Joe's Parish To Battle Bishop Hicks In Rome 'To Right This Wrong'

JOLIET, IL — Hundreds of Catholics from Joliet's St. Joseph's Parish are banding together to fight Diocese of Joliet Bishop Ron Hicks in his attempt to seize control of the parish's financial assets and its land and have the parish downgraded to a secondary worship site.

Under the plan of Bishop Hicks, St. Mary Magdalene would gain control of all assets and operations of St. Joseph, despite St. Joseph being located outside of the territorial boundaries of the new parish.

"St Joseph Joliet Parish will become combined with St Mary Magdalene as part of their parish. Please, tell me the logic behind that one ... The Joliet diocese has been trying to get their hands on St. Joes cemetery and park for as long as I can remember—it looks like this is how they plan on achieving their goal. Watch, they’re going to tear down the park, the hall and baseball fields so they can sell more plots and plant more Catholics. Monsignor Butala kept the park and cemetery out of the dioceses hands for so many years and did it for a reason, their greed and their lies," one member of St. Joseph Parish posted on his Facebook page in late January.

On Friday morning, leaders of St. Joe's parish issued a news release surrounding their displeasure with Hicks, who got around to visiting St. Joe's for Mass in late 2023 after being appointed the new Joliet bishop back in the summer of 2020.

"St. Joseph Parish has no debt, holds a modest real estate portfolio with well-maintained facilities, provides numerous ministries for the parish and to the community, and has more money in the bank than all of the three other parishes combined," Friday's news release declared.

"However, all of St. Joseph’s assets are to be transferred to St. Mary Magdalene. Parishioners are keenly aware that the only way the new parish can survive is with St. Joseph’s assets. St. Joseph needs to be the parish seat or a stand-alone parish."

The suggested headline sent out in Friday's press release was "St. Joseph Joliet Parishioners Blindsided by Bishop Ronald A. Hicks Decision."

As part of the Joliet Diocese’s Targeted Restructuring Plan, Bishop Hicks announced his decision to decrease the number of Joliet/Crest Hill parishes from 16 to 7.

"To the surprise of parishioners, the historic St. Joseph Parish of Joliet was not spared," St. Joseph's parishioners said in the release. "In parish listening sessions provided by the Joliet Diocese to St. Joseph parishioners, four scenarios were presented regarding consolidation and/or reconfiguration of the parishes of St. Joseph, St. Anthony, St. Bernard, and St. Mary Magdalene, all located on the eastside of Joliet.

"In each of these four scenarios, St. Joseph Parish would either remain a stand-alone parish or become the parish seat of a newly created parish consisting of St. Joseph, St. Anthony, St. Bernard, and St. Mary Magdalene. As a result of this information, parishioners believed the parish was secure since they trusted the information the Diocese provided. However, parishioners now feel misled.

"On January 25, 2024, parishioners were blindsided to learn that St. Joseph Parish Joliet would not be a stand-alone parish nor the parish seat in a consolidation. St. Joseph is to be downgraded to the status of a secondary worship site of the newly created parish in which St. Mary Magdalene will serve as the parish seat. The new parish consists of St. Anthony and St. Bernard, both to be closed, and St. Joseph and St. Mary Magdalene. St. Joseph parishioners are in an uproar."

According to the parish, "being a secondary church in a newly created parish, St. Joseph Church loses rights. One of the main rights lost is the number of masses St. Joseph Church is guaranteed to provide in a year. As a secondary church, St. Joseph is guaranteed only two masses per year: one on the patron saint feast day, March 19, and one on the date of church dedication, October 15.

"While the Diocese is not eliminating weekly mass at St. Joseph Church at this time, that could change at any moment and the general public has no idea about this. At any time in the future, the number of masses could be decimated, and St. Joseph would have no recourse ... the threat of potential church closure in the future is reality."

The parishioners announced that they have filed an appeal with Bishop Hicks to amend or reconsider his decree regarding St. Joseph Parish. Although Bishop Hicks rejected the parishioners’ appeal in a two sentence rejection dated Feb. 9, "Parishioners are determined more than ever to right this wrong and are now submitting an appeal to the Dicastery for the Clergy in Rome," they announced.