Lament strong over loss of institutions

Churchgoers learned Saturday that three parishes will merge and a popular grade school will close.

The news stunned the Panther Valley, even if a program of consolidation has been underway for years.

The Diocese of Allentown says it will move ahead and consolidate St. Francis of Assisi parish in Nesquehoning and St. Katharine Drexel parish in Lansford and have them become part of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Summit Hill later this year.

Additionally, Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Lansford, housing 112 students from preschool to eighth grade, will cease to exist this year.

"Can't wait to send my Bishop's Appeal letter back," posted a disgruntled Lansford man on the Times News Facebook page. "Can't believe they expect OUR money to fund more programs in the Lehigh Valley."

A Lansford woman reflected on the loss of the church. "A grand church will slowly become a beautiful memory."

For many, the closing of OLOAA school is hard to accept because the school itself was born out of consolidation many years ago.

The school's heritage is rich, rooted in faith passed down from immigrants who settled in the coal region more than a century ago.

A total of 10 parishes were established, each with a unique ethnic identity and a church-sponsored school.

Consolidations over time culminated with OLOAA as the only remaining Catholic school in the Panther Valley area. It was founded in 1999 from a final merger of Our Lady of the Valley and St. Michael Regional schools.

But times have changed. And locals say they saw it coming.

Late last year it was learned Marian Catholic High School and OLOAA would lose its nuns. Members of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, would leave at the end of the 2015-16 school year, ending a 100-year presence in the area.

Sister Marie Roseanne Bonsini, director of information services for the Immaculata branch of the congregation, said declining membership led to the withdrawal.

Downsizing and consolidation also affected local residents in 2014 when two Tamaqua parishes, SS. Peter and Paul Church and the Church of St. Jerome, formed St. John XXIII, combining two houses of worship that boasted a total of 284 years of service to the community.

In Lansford, the merger of the churches likely will be met by hesitation, doubt and resistance, even heartbreak.

As for the loss of the school, Bishop John Barres admitted the hardship on Sunday, "This decision is most painful because it affects the most precious gifts that have been entrusted to us, our children."

OLOAA enjoyed a solid, respected reputation in nurturing the spiritual, academic, emotional and social growth of young minds.

Parents and others are understandably stunned, finding it hard to accept the reality that a school so integral to the students' identities will be no more.

For the Diocese of Allentown, the merger of churches and closing of a school is a practical and economical decision.

But for parishioners, students and their families, it's a major disruption to familiar, comfortable patterns of worship and education.

It's just too hard to say goodbye.

By Donald R. Serfass | dserfass@tnonline.com