Friends –

Two weeks ago, the Parish Council and the Finance Councils of Saint Denis and Saint Margaret Mary Parishes voted to recommend a merger of the two parishes.

This recommendation came after more than a year of consideration by the councils, and after an eight week consultation period with parishioners.

If this recommendation is accepted by the Cardinal, it will mean that we will become one single parish.  However we will still have two churches, each with their own name.  Saint Denis Church will still be Saint Denis Church, and Saint Margaret Mary Church will still be Saint Margaret Mary Church.  But we will be one parish.

There have been many communications about the details of what a merger means and what the process looks like – see the side bar for more details.

For now, I just want to say that this is the moment for us to reengage our core mission – making disciples.  Our parishes exist to carry out the great commission given to the Church by the Lord at the moment of his Ascension – go and make disciples of all the nations.  Now it is the moment for us to be asking how to make disciples, planning for how to make disciples, putting our energy and our resources behind the task of making disciples.  We are a missionary Church, and we must be a missionary Parish.

This task takes energy and commitment and intentionality, but most of all it takes prayer and prayer and more prayer.  We have the great gift of two beautiful churches.  We have the great gift of a community filled with faithful disciples.  We have the great gift of the Sacraments of the Church.  We can do this. 

If the bishop approves and this merger goes forward, its success will not be measured in an easier task of administration, or in more seamless programming and pastoral care, or even in the great sign value that a unified people present to a fractured world.  It will be measured in our love – love for the Lord, love for one another, love for the world, love for the poor.  And love is a desire of good for the beloved.  And Jesus is the greatest good.

May God bless you abundantly, dear friends. 

In Christ,

Father Paul 
 

I want to begin by stressing an important point.  What we are considering is a merger of the legal and canonical entities of Saint Denis and Saint Margaret Mary Parishes.  We are not talking about closing either church, or either rectory, or selling property, or anything like that.  That is not what a merger is.

I think I can make this most clear by describing the way the parishes were in, say, 2018, and then describing the way the parishes are now, and then describing the way the parishes would be if the two parishes merged.

Let me start by making a distinction between a Parish and a Church.  A parish is an entity, under both civil law and church law.  A church is a building sanctified for divine worship.  Right now we have two parishes and two churches – Saint Margaret Mary Parish has Saint Margaret Mary Church and Saint Denis Parish has Saint Denis Church.

Back in 2018, Saint Denis Parish had a pastor – Father Burke.  Saint Margaret Mary Parish also had a pastor – Father Cullen.  Each parish had a staff.  Each parish had a church.  Each parish had a bank account.  Each parish had a parish council, and a parish finance council.  Each parish ran a religious education program, and had Masses and other sacraments.  The two parishes seldom did anything together.

In August of 2021, the two parishes became a Collaborative, which is what we are today.  One team of pastors, Father Blaney and myself, served both parishes.  We combined the parish staffs, and each parish paid a portion of the salaries of that staff.  When Father Bill was assigned with us, he was assigned to both parishes.  The priests lived in two rectories, and the parishes started doing many things together.  Eventually we combined the religious education programs.  We combined the parish councils, but each parish had its own parish finance council (although we usually met with both councils at the same time).  Each parish had its own bank account – Saint Denis at Rockland Trust, and Saint Margaret Mary at Needham Bank.  All of the accounting was kept separate.  If you put money in the collection at Saint Denis, it went into Saint Denis’ bank account (unless it was in a Saint Margaret Mary envelope).  If you put money in the Saint Margaret Mary collection, it went into the Saint Margaret Mary bank account (unless it was in a Saint Denis envelope).  Each parish had its own Federal Employer ID Number.  Each parish paid its own expenses for building insurance and maintenance and snow removal and landscaping.

We maintained the identity of two separate parishes, but other than financially, many things began mixing.  Many people started going to the Mass that was most convenient to them rather than just the Mass at their parish – this was especially true of the 8:00AM Sunday Mass at Saint Denis and the 5:00PM Sunday Mass at Saint Margaret Mary.

So how would a merged parish look different from this?  If the two parishes were to merge, we would become one entity, under both civil law and Church law.  Rather than being two Parishes with two churches, we would become one Parish with two churches. We would continue to have one pastor and one staff.  We would continue to have two churches and two rectories, and we would continue to use both churches and both rectories.  The merged parish would have  a new name – probably a Saint’s name – but each church building would keep its name.  You would continue to go to church at Saint Margaret Mary Church or Saint Denis Church, but you would be a part of, say, Saint Dominic Parish (if we chose the name Saint Dominic as our new parish name).  There would be one common bank account, one common set of books, one annual collection, one finance council.  Since our staffs are already combined, I do not foresee any staff reduction associated with a merger.

Why would we do such a thing?  I would suggest three reasons, in order of increasing importance.

First, and least important, it will be far easier to administer.  Many hours each week are spent tracking the finances of the two parishes separately.  We have a relatively small staff, and we can’t afford to do lots of extra work.

Second, we would be stronger financially.  We could begin thinking of ourselves with our combined resources as one entity.  Our finances would be combined, and together we would be a strong parish, with an annual offertory well in excess of half a million dollars, and a very strong grand annual collection.

Third, and most importantly in my opinion, in an age when disunity and division reign in an increasingly fractured society, we would be a prophetic sign of unity and concord. Our different histories need not divide us.  We are stronger as one people.

Let me stress again – if the parishes merge, we will still have two churches – one called Saint Denis and one called Saint Margaret Mary.  We will still have two rectories, and we will continue to use both.  We will still have two pieces of property, and we are not looking to downsize in any way.