West Allis Parish Closes Peacefully; St. Mary Help of Christians Once Served Slovenian Congregation

By ALAN J. BORSUK

West Allis – This is the way the church closed, not with a bang but with a quiet procession of dozens of current and former members to the front of St. Mary Help of Christians Church, where they reverently kissed the altar.

With “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” the last song of the 103- year-old church’s choir. Glory, glory, hallelujah.

With Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba evoking memories of all of life’s passages, from baptisms to funerals, marked in the sanctuary of the Catholic church, and with his entreaty to deal with the church’s closing in a positive frame of mind.

With a last speech to the congregation in Slovenian, the language that was native to the people who founded the church in 1904. Not that more than a handful in the current congregation could understand what was being said. The Slovenian identity of the church pretty much passed years ago.

With roses and resignation.

At the end of Mass on Sunday, the roses that had decorated the altar were offered to congregants. Russell Behling of West Allis presented one to his wife of 59 years, Yvonne. But he was not inclined to be over-emotional about the closing of St. Mary Help of Christians, which he and his wife had attended for many years.

“No matter which church I go to, I pray the same way,” he said. “It’s just something that happens. I don’t think the transition will bother me any.”

Started in 1904

With snapshots, some from news photographers, some from congregants with cameras, and – what would the people who started the church in 1904 make of this? – some from young people holding up cell phones.

With many lingering in the sanctuary after the Mass ended, talking with friends or just going slow about leaving.

The congregation at the 9 a.m. Mass was around 250, nearly filling the church. That was about five times the typical recent Sunday morning, some members said.

Of course, dwindling attendance was a key to the closing of the church, on S. 61st St., north of National Ave. The neighborhood had changed. The ethnic identity of the church had changed. The parish school closed more than a decade ago.

The closing is part of a consolidation of Catholic parishes in West Allis and part of broader changes in the church. Sklba told the congregation that he had previously presided over the closing of the church he attended as a child in Racine, among other closing ceremonies he had performed. This is an issue much bigger than a few parishes in West Allis.

But it’s also an issue as personal as your own life story.

A reunion, of sorts

Barbara Pye of West Allis grew up in the parish. She went to elementary school there and she remembers coming to church on Saturday for penance sessions and then going to movies at the then- nearby Paradise theater. She and her husband got married during the period 40 years ago when the original church was being replaced with the current building on the same site, so they got married at his parish, nearby St. Rita’s, and they go to St. Rita’s now.

But she was there Sunday morning for what she called “kind of a little reunion.” Some of the nuns who were her teachers were there, as well as others she knew since childhood. She described being there as “maybe closure for childhood memories from here.”

“It’s the end of an era,” she said.

But the church no longer had enough support. “It’s time to move on,” she said.

And that’s just what it appeared the people were doing.

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