Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, SVD, announced this week plans to merge St. Mary Parish with Sacred Heart Parish in Port Arthur.
Bishop Guillory met with members of St. Mary Parish on March 14, to discuss the declining viability of the parish and to hear the concerns and responses of the people.
Bishop Guillory said, "The population in Port Arthur has declined, which affected the number of parishioners at St. Mary. The parish was stuggling just to cover operations, and the cost to repair the buildings was high before the hurricane, but after Rita, it became astronomical."
"What make a parish viable are the ministries," Bishop Guillory said.
If all the money goes to the upkeep and repair of the buildings, then the ministries to the parishioners suffer.
"Personally, I know it is very painful for the people of St. Mary," Bishop Guillory said, acknowledging the wonderful memories of baptisms, weddings, and even funerals, in the church.
"This is something I feel deeply myself," he said. "As a good steward, I feel this is the best way to go."
Bishop Guillory added that all sacramental records and assets from St. Mary will go to Sacred Heart.
Before Hurricane Rita rolled through Southeast Texas on September 24, 2005, the roof structure of St. Mary Church had to be braced. The foundation of the church building was failing and there were cracks.
The hurricane ripped off portions of the roof. Ceiling tiles have fallen down and the carpeting has had to be pulled out. Since the storm, severe termite damage was found around the altar area.
Bishop Guillory and Missionary of St. Paul Father Charles Atuah, pastor of St. Mary and Sacred Heart, are planning a transitional ritual on April 23, 2006.
History
St. Mary Parish was established January 1, 1903, with the original church building dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in September. Forty families called this parish theirs.
Irish-born Father E.A. Kelly, who later pastored Beaumont's St. Anthony Parish, was the first pastor.
Father Kelly celebrated Mass on the second floor of Haver's store in downtown. Spindletop was still only two years old, and the Cajun immigration from Louisiana had not yet begun.
The frame building, facing Sixth Street, served until the present church building was constructed in 1922. The parish began being called St. Mary about that time.
St. Mary had the distinction of having only two pastors from 1912 to 1970 -- Father A.G. Grattan, a native of Canada, and Msgr. H.A. Drouilhet, a native of Galveston.
Father Grattan's hitching post still stands in front of the church and has been kept in his memory. It is reported that he once rode his horse through a local Ku Klux Klan meeting, though no eyewitness could be found to substantiate the story.
He was named pastor in 1912 and served until 1940. A school was opened in 1914 with the Dominican Sisters of Houston as staff.
Msgr. Drouilhet, named administrator of the parish in 1940 and pastor in 1941, was always available to visitors and usually the first to answer the phone. This is amazing considering that he was also a diocesan consultor, vicar general of the diocese, and diocesan director of the Boy Scouts. He was one of the first priests in the radio ministry -- leading a public rosary from St. Mary Church for a number of years.
St. Mary had a 12-grade school from the 1930s till Bishop Christopher E. Byrne established a single Catholic high school by combining the high schools of St. Mary and St. James parishes. Even then, a high school campus remained on St. Mary property till 1965, when the school building on Texas 73 and Ninth Avenue was constructed.
The grade school remained open until 1987 when falling enrollment forced it to close.
The stained glass windows of the church building depict the 15 decades of the Rosary.
The double front doors have pictures of: