CLINTON, Iowa—
During tough times businesses do it, so do school districts, but now all across the country neighborhood churches are leaving their corners to consolidate.As the crowd poured out of the new Prince of Peace Church in Clinton on Sunday, many are happy about their new place of worship.
"It's wonderful. I think it's the best thing they did in a long time. It needed to be done, not everyone agrees with it, but it needed to be done," says Jack Wenzel, church member.
The new church combines 5 parishes that were consolidated in the 90's, but worshipped in separate buildings until now. Though some parishioners say they miss their old church, they agree being under one roof has its advantages.
"I'll miss our old churches because I loved them, but yes, probably, because of the economy and how much things cost. We'll have one church to support," says Theresa Barr, church member.
The new church is energy efficient and means only one utility bill for the Clinton Diocese. Pieces of each of the 5 churches members left have been incorporated into the new church design.
"As we come into our new space, this becomes our home where we celebrate the sacraments so there's a mix of sadness as well as great, great joy," says Father Thomas Hennen.
Father Hennen says the consolidation will not only help save money in this tough economy...but it also helps with another problem in the Catholic Church...fewer priests.
"We're working on that. We want there to be more priests but we want to be realistic and recognize while there may be fewer, they may be some ways we can accommodate for some of those shortages," says Father Hennen.
The number of priests in the United States began falling in the 1970's. It went from more than 32,000 to barely 28,000 last year.
Father Hennen says when he sees the number of children at Mass, he sees a bright future for the Clinton Diocese. Parishioners who say they think the church is losing young people, hope this new church can turn things around.
