Pastor hopes to see new life come from merger of parishes

By Sean Gallagher

Father Sean Danda has seen the paschal mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection in the recent merger of the former Holy Guardian Angels Parish in Cedar Grove with St. Michael Parish in Brookville.

The pastor of St. Michael and the final pastor of Holy Guardian Angels has witnessed it in the suffering of the now former parish in Cedar Grove, which closed on Dec. 1, a step taken as a result of the Connected in the Spirit planning process that occurred during the past two years in the Batesville Deanery.

“This closure is like the death of a very close family member,” Father Danda said. “It’s like mom or dad, or grandma or grandpa passing away.”

And just as when a close relative dies and the remaining family members mourn the loss of their loved one, Father Danda said that parishioners of Holy Guardian Angels have told him that they are concerned that they won’t see their fellow parishioners worshipping next to them at Mass as they used to do.

“That’s the hardest part, that thought that all of these people might not be there,” he said. “They might not be seeing them Sunday in and Sunday out.

“They’ve kind of grown through this. Their faith is more than just the buildings. It’s the people of God, the community that’s formed.”

Losing that community has been especially difficult for Maria Chesnut, 40, because so many of the relatives in her extended family were members of Holy Guardian Angels. Some, including her father, are having difficulty coping with the closure.

“He actually has gone to Mass only one time since this has been going on, which has been devastating [to me],” Chesnut said. “He’s been an active Catholic his whole life.”

With two young sons, Chesnut wanted to take a different approach to this difficult situation.

“I don’t want my kids to see anger …” she said. “I want them to think positively about the Church. Instead of being angry or completely devastated by this, I thought that the best thing to do was just follow our faith. And that’s what we’ve done.”

One way that she has helped them do this is to enroll them in St. Michael School. She also volunteered as a lector at the parish.

“It helps us know there is something greater,” Chesnut said. “We don’t have to be devastated by this loss because six miles up the road there’s a wonderful church and community that we can be a member of, just by getting ourselves out there.”

Melody Smith is another former member of Holy Guardian Angels Parish. She doesn’t have the deep family roots in the parish like Chesnut, having been a member there only for the past 10 years after having formerly been a St. Michael parishioner.

But she, along with Chesnut, is serving on a team of St. Michael parishioners and former Holy Guardian Angels parishioners that is working to implement the merger smoothly.

“It’s going to open up dialogue between people that may know each other by sight, but don’t know each other personally,” said Smith. “I hope what comes of this is the interaction to build a stronger community.”

Through these and other efforts, Father Danda hopes to witness the resurrection part of the paschal mystery in this merger. In fact, he views St. Michael after having merged with Holy Guardian Angels as being a new parish, just like when a family is substantially changed when it welcomes a new person into its home.

“Any family that receives a new child into it becomes a new family in a lot of ways,” he said. “Everybody has to change and adapt to that new baby. Not just mom and dad, but the other brothers and sisters.”

One of the ways that the longtime members of St. Michael Parish are adapting to help welcome their new fellow parishioners is through a new weekend Mass schedule.

Father Danda thought it was important that there be a time for Mass at St. Michael that was close to the time for Mass on Sunday morning at Holy Guardian Angels.

“Holy Guardian Angels parishioners are used to a mid-morning Mass,” he said. “So I really felt that that was important to keep that at the new parish.”

Smith hopes that the hospitality efforts at St. Michael and building a new community there will help former Holy Guardian Angels parishioners feel at home in Brookville.

“Overall, I just hope that families can accept change and allow their hearts to be open to make a new faith community—or at least give it a try,” Smith said. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”

At the same time, there are some former members of Holy Guardian Angels that have filed an appeal with the Vatican that seeks to overturn the decision to close their parish.

One of the people making such an appeal is a member of the implementation team. That person asked Father Danda if being on the team was hypocritical.

“I said, ‘No, you’re not. I understand that, in your heart, you want to do everything you can to keep your parish. But you also see the need to be there for people and that your faith needs to continue to grow,’ ” Father Danda said.

Whatever ultimately happens with the appeal, Father Danda is committed to helping the new community at St. Michael move forward in faith so that they can share that faith with others.

“We should be a parish that is constantly renewing itself, not being comfortable with the status quo,” he said. “Conversion is all about leaving behind the status quo and trying to become better disciples, disciples who love God, who love neighbor and who seek new disciples, who invite new people into the community.

“The community should always be growing and looking to the needs of the people that are coming into that community so that they can grow as well into the disciples that Jesus is calling them to be.”
 

(To learn more about the merger of Holy Guardian Angels Parish in Cedar Grove with St. Michael Parish in Brookville, including viewing the decree stating the reasons for this change, log on to www.archindy.org/connected.) †