The presentation from our Parish Meeting on April 15th, 2026.

In January 2025, Bishop gave the directive for Most Precious Blood and Queen of Heaven to

merge, or consolidate, into a single parish. This action was in response to the retirement of

Fr. Piccola, and the knowledge that at some point, one pastor would be responsible for all

the parishes north of Broad Street. Bringing MPB and Queen of Heaven together would

make that assignment somewhat easier.

On July 1, 2025, our parishes came together to form Our Lady of Peace Parish.

Bishop also asked us to come to a decision about the future of Our Lady of Grace Church by

July 1, 2026. Since the consolidation, the Pastoral Council and Finance Council have been

going through all the pertinent information and sharing that with in the bulletin, so that all

of our parishioners would be given the same information that we looked at.

It’s been a very tedious and difficult process to come to a decision about a church that has

been “home” to many of us, to our parents and grandparents, some of whom made great

sacrifices. While we are looking a data, financial information, building reports, and

processing with our minds, at the same time we are wrestling with emotions.

Vision 2030 has helped us look at the key factors – what we call priority drivers – that

framed our discussion. We were able to see the challenges we face and realistically consider the resources we have to meet those challenges.

Tonight we are going to walk you through the 4 priority drivers that shaped our conversation

and led to our recommendation…

Parish Life

Finances

Facilities

The first priority driver we will look at is priests.

The Diocese of Scranton encompasses 11 counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The most

recent Census data projects 1,112,166 people in these 11 counties, of which 290,500

identify as Catholic.

Luzerne and Lackawanna counties have the largest populations, with roughly 50% of the

people living in these 2 counties.

Even though the other 9 counties are less populated, it is important for the Church to have

a presence. Many of the priests assigned to rural areas travel long distances between

multiple worship sites in order to bring the sacraments to all Catholics. People in these

areas also have to travel to attend Mass.

Currently there are 102 parishes with 185,767 registered parishioners. During the most

recent October count, our parishes reported a total of 49,067 attending Mass on the

weekends.

The number of diocesan priests has been decreasing for decades.

10 years ago, in 2016, there were 118 active priests in the Diocese of Scranton. This

number is projected to be at 62 in just 4 years.

In the city of Hazleton, we already have one parish without a resident pastor. This parish,

Holy Rosary, is administrated by a Parish Life Coordinator, Dc. Vince Oberto. The recent

parish consolidations are also evidence of a decreased number of priests who can serve as

pastors.

There is a silver lining to the diminishing number of priests. The number of men who have

been accepted into the seminary is on the rise, thanks to the emphasis on vocations in

many of our parishes, including the good work at Our Lady of Peace.

Parish Life is another aspect – or PRIORITY DRIVER - we consider when reviewing all the

information that will help us to determine the future of Our Lady of Grace Church.

The city of Hazleton has been changing. First settled by immigrants from many European

nations, Hazleton is now 63% Hispanic. This change is reflected in the life of our parish, and

the other parishes in Hazleton. Since the inception of the Hispanic community at Queen of

Heaven parish, there are many baptisms, first communions, confirmations and receptions

into full communion recorded in the Hispanic community over the last seven to eight years.

We are going to look at the Parish Life Statistics reported to the Diocese for the year 2025.



In 2025, Queen of Heaven reported 46 baptisms. This is a big number! It’s interesting to

note, however, that nearly all the baptisms were with Spanish-speaking parishioners. It

turns out that only one member of the English-speaking community was baptized.

In the same year, there were 8 First Communions. 4 children from the Spanish-speaking

community, and 4 from the English-speaking community.

17 youth were confirmed. 14 from the Hispanic community and 3 from the Englishspeaking

community.

Funerals are different story. Of the 37 funerals last year, only 1 was from the Hispanic

community. 36 of the 37 people who passed away were English-speaking.

Looking at all these statistics together, it’s probably safe to say that the Hispanic members

of the parish are younger and are bringing their young families to church. Parishioners who

have been at the parish for many years, are growing older, and so are their children. One

group is growing, while the other is getting smaller.

The Hispanic community – in the city and in our parish - continues to grow in both size and

vibrancy - so much so that they have outgrown the space at Our Lady of Grace and are

looking for a new parish home that will better accommodate their needs.

In the coming year, Saints Cyril & Methodius will become their new home, a larger church

with more facilities for faith formation and other community gatherings.

A close look at FINANCES helps us to know whether a parish has the means to move from

maintenance to mission. Every parish should have a ministry budget for formation,

evangelization and ministry to the poor. Many times, fundraising efforts support the work

of ministry in a parish.

Parishes that set aside money for ministry and mission continue to grow and bring in new

people who also contribute financially to the life of the parish. Ministry budgets are good

investments.

Parishes that are healthy financially are able to cover all their bills, while setting aside

money for repairs or capital improvements.

Offertory at Queen of Heaven has been on the decline since 2022, which is especially

concerning as costs have increased with inflation. In fact, at the end of 2025, the offertory

collection was below pre-Covid amounts.

The merger with Most Precious Blood, whose collection is increasing, helps to offset the

decline at Queen of Heaven. But this is not enough.

Our Lady of Peace Parish cannot meet expenses based on the collection alone. Thankfully,

fundraising adds to the income of the parish. The hard work of those who contribute to our

fundraisers are the only reason we broke even for the first 9 months since the

consolidation. It will remain to be seen whether the parish will end the fiscal year at break

even or if we will have to dip into our reserves just to make our expenses.

This leaves very little margin for unexpected expenses or repairs that need to be made to

any of our 5 buildings and our cemetery. We can hardly cover the bills we have.

FACILITIES

Facilities are often a very large expense for parishes, particularly for consolidated parishes.

With an eye on the future, and taking into account the importance of sustainability for

years to come, a close look at the parish facilities is essential.

Maintaining aging buildings is costly. While many of our churches are magnificent and

historic structures, they often put a rather large burden on a parish.

Tonight we will look at the costs associated with Our Lady of Grace Church, and what that

means for our parish.

Just like the homes we live in, our church “homes” cost money to operate. Our parish

spends around $1300 each week just to keep the doors of Our Lady of Grace Church open.

These costs include utilities, insurance, and the janitorial staff and other contracted

services like snow removal.

As part of our discernment, we wanted an accurate idea of what it would cost to mitigate

the ongoing issues with the church. The data from 2012, which indicated $2 million, was

outdated.

In 2023, Quandel Energy Solutions conducted a Facility Needs Assessment of Most Precious

Blood Church. Last year, Quandel Energy Solutions was contracted to provide an objective,

outside expert Facility Needs Assessment of all the buildings at Queen of Heaven Parish.

Our Lady of Grace Church came in at $3,620,200. This is the cost of eliminating the

problems that have continued to plague the church for many years and restoring the

cosmetic issues that continue to happen despite renovations. We were not looking for

short-term solutions and are operating under the understanding that the Diocese will not

approve temporary fixes.

Factoring in some work that had been completed already at Most Precious Blood, the

amount to maintain that church over a 10 year period comes in at $454,000.

Queen of Heaven rectory requires very little work, only estimated at $78,000.

We are looking at an estimated $3,620,200 in repairs over the next 10 years. The immediate

need – over the next 3 years – is $2,486,700. This independent study details repairing coping

stones, parapet wall and finials, upgrading flashing, replacing caulking, repointing where

necessary, and replacing the cupola, among other repairs.

The immediate need – over the next 3 years – is $2,486,700. This independent study details

repairing coping stones, parapet wall and finials, upgrading flashing, replacing caulking,

repointing where necessary, and replacing the cupola, among other repairs.

As we stated earlier, Bishop Bambera has requested that we review all the Priority Drivers

and make a recommendation for the future of Our Lady of Grace Church. The information

presented here tonight has been communicated to the parish at large through the bulletin

over the last several months. In every step of the process, we strove for transparency and

honest, open communication so that each parishioner would have the opportunity to

thoughtfully consider the information, as we have done.

Decisions like these are never easy, especially in regard to a church that has been like home

to many of us.

In looking at all the challenges to the present and future stability of our parish, and

considering each of the 4 priority drivers – priests, people, finance, and facilities – we

recommend the closure of Our Lady of Grace Church. We understand that this is difficult

for many of us to accept, and that the closure of the church will be a great loss to many of

us. At the same time, we know how important it is for Our Lady of Peace Parish to have the

best chance of fulfilling the Mission, and that means being realistic about the challenges,

and being open to change. We believe the future of Our Lady of Peace depends on being

good stewards of the resources we have in order to maintain the Catholic presence here in

our community.

Let’s talk about the next steps.

Fr. Generose will write a letter to Bishop Bambera, expressing the desire to relegate Our

Lady of Grace Church.

If Bishop Bambera agrees with this action, he will bring the relegation before the

Presbyteral Council on May 15. The priests on the Council, who represent all the deaneries

in the diocese, will hear about the proposed consolidation. They will ask questions if they

need any clarification. A vote will be taken and recorded, and then the Bishop will accept

their recommendation.

A formal decree – which is an official legal document – will be issued, which will be

published for the public. The decree includes the date of relegation. The church will remain

open until August 2, 2026, at which time a closing Mass will be celebrated.