In the past several days I have fielded some questions and concerns about what is happening to the parish property in Schaller along with individuals saying that things have not been communicated or people have been kept in the dark. I have communicated the process to you several times about how things are handled when a parish closes and merges with another. The final Mass in at St. Joseph was on the Solemnity of Christ the King back in November of 2020. That was the last Mass in that church building. As I communicated with you at that time, there is a process for how things are handled in the diocese and that process has been followed and the diocese consulted at every step. After the final Mass there, an inventory of the sacred patrimony (all of the things used for sacred worship) was taken. St. Mary’s parish, as the receiving parish of St. Joseph, Schaller kept some of the items for use at both St. Mary and Sacred Heart. The rest of the contents of liturgical items were taken to the diocesan storage facility in Laurens where they will be used by other Catholic churches in the diocese. Since the stained glass windows are part of the liturgical patrimony of the parish, they are being removed, crated, and stored for safe keeping. Some of these windows could be incorporated into the St. Mary’s campus or used in other church buildings. We simply cannot leave them in an unoccupied building to fall into disrepair. In order to remove the windows in a safe fashion the pews had to be removed first. This was always part of the plan. It is important to understand that all of these things are and have been done in harmony with the policies of pastoral planning for the Diocese of Sioux City. We cannot simply leave a building to sit unused to fall apart in the long shot dream that someday we will have an abundance of priests and people to return to active worship in Schaller. Before the pandemic began we averaged 35 people per week at Sunday Mass and 5 at the daily Mass during the week. That was not sustainable then and certainly not sustainable now with only one priest assigned to St. Mary’s parish. The former rectory, as I have also mentioned numerous times, is nearing the point where it will be listed and sold. We have to be good stewards of the precious few resources that we have and use those in the best way possible to do the work of ministry. Our finance council has been part of this process from the beginning and has representatives from Schaller, Early and Storm Lake.
Change is difficult. To lose a parish to closure as well as the eventual end of a church building is deeply painful but we cannot lose sight of our true mission. The Church does not exist to sustain buildings and properties but the properties and buildings have to support the mission of the Church, when they no longer can do that or be sustained then we must move forward in a different direction. We have to admit that the Church has changed much since St. Joseph was originally established. Our population has shrunk, families are smaller, those who practice their faith are few and we do not have the priest personnel that we once did. This is the reality. As we move into the future we need to focus less on the physical structures of the Church and more on its saving mission in our part of the world.