Historic Baltimore Church Closes Its Doors
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The high cost of repairs has taken its toll on a historic Catholic church in Fells Point. Saint Michael is closing its doors. The congregation will be combined with another one nearby.
Tim Williams reports.
It is a church with a rich history, one that dates back more than 150 years. But time is running out as the doors of Saint Michael Parish in Fells Point are closing. Money, and wear and tear are the culprits.
"Bittersweet, yeah, but changes are good," said Nelson Morales, parishioner.
The church has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989 and has been home to numerous large groups of immigrants beginning with Germans in the 19th century. Now, a great number of Hispanic parishioners attend.
Morales and his wife are among the bilingual Sunday school and chorus leaders.
"Hopefully, it will bring more of the Spanish community together and to strengthen it," Morales said.
The Baltimore Archdiocese says neither it nor the parish operators can afford the $9 million needed in repairs to the church's many buildings, so St. Michael will be combined with Sacred Heart to create a new multicultural parish in nearby Highlandtown. The congregation sees it as a kind of death and resurrection.
"There's the dying of the old, you know, some just pass," said Morales. "And then we go onto the new, just like when Jesus died and He resurrected and then came the new world and everything got better."
If there is any good to come from the closing, it is that the new congregation will be larger, united and more familiar than before.
"That's what we want," Morales said. "That's what we strive for. Hopefully it will work. In God's hands, everything can be good."
The new combined multicultural parish will begin services this coming Sunday.
