Thanks, Ike: From Five Parishes To One On Galveston & Bolivar
Categories: Hurricane Ike
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Gone are the parishes of St. Patrick, Holy Rosary, Sacred Heart, St. Peter the Apostle and Our Mother of Mercy. In their place will be a single parish, yet unnamed. (Probably not a front-runner for the new name: St. Isaac Jogues, a/k/a "St. Ike's."
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said in a press release that the consolidation was the best way to serve the 3,000 homes that had been registered in the various parishes pre-Ike.
"Our proposal is for the creation of a single parish, which will have responsibility for the integration of the entire community into a single worship family," he said, "and for the evaluation and disposition of the church buildings and other assets of the former parishes."
Fr. John Bok, head of St. Patrick's, is expected to lead the new parish.
Choosing a new name is still likely a ways off, a diocesan official tells Hair Balls. The process of abandoning church buildings is a long one.
A chart attached to the release indicates that the new Galveston parish will be about the same size, in terms of households served, as other parishes in the archdiocese.
The biggest, of course, is Houston's Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which serves 3,040 households; the new Galveston parish, post-Ike, is expected to serve 2,589.
Still, a lot of history goes down the tubes when a parish closes: First Communions, weddings, funerals. Just one more reason to call Ike a bastard.
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