Green Bay Catholic Bishop David Ricken has issued a new decree related to the future use of Manitowoc’s oldest catholic church.
St. Boniface at South 10th and Marshall Streets has not been used for regularly scheduled masses in 18 years, following the merger of 6 parishes into St. Francis of Assisi Parish on July 1st, 2005.
The decree, effective January 14th, reduces St. Boniface to “profane, but not sordid use.”
Justine Lodl, Communications Director for the Green Bay Diocese, explains, in layman’s terms, the path forward.
“So what the decree really does is it gives permission for the parish to move forward with their planning, with their recommendations that they have been working on for years,” she explained. “The fact that the parish (site) hasn’t been used since 2005 when there was the consolidation, this just gives some formality or structure around the parish to move forward.”
The bishop said, as part of his decree, that the site is no longer necessary for the care of souls in the community and it continues to be a fiscal burden with the building and artifacts in danger of decay and damage.
Pastor Doug LeCaptain of St. Francis of Assisi said in the church bulletin this month that as recently as last year, there was hope an agreement with a group of interested parishioners could be reached for them to restore and use the church.
He said, “Sadly, there is no mutual agreement to restore or reopen St. Boniface.”
Father LeCaptain added, “SFA Parish is committed to eliminating future expenses at the site while caring for the needs of its people at the other (Waldo, Marshall and Grand) worship sites.”
Any aggrieved responses to Bishop Ricken from parishioners need to be received by this Friday, January 27th.
