Originally published at National Catholic Register
Parishioners in a small Wisconsin city have launched a GoFundMe as part of an effort to save a nearly 150-year-old church from permanent closure.
Advocates for St. Boniface Church in Manitowoc are hoping to raise $8,000 to bankroll an appeal at the Vatican to stop the Diocese of Green Bay from shuttering the church. The parish itself dates to the 1850s while the current building was constructed in 1886.
St. Boniface as it appeared in the 1880s. Credit: Photo courtesy of John Maurer
The diocese ordered the parish to merge with several others in 2005, with the last regularly scheduled Mass taking place there that year and the most recent Mass taking place in 2013.
Bishop David Ricken issued a decree last year ordering that the 137-year-old building be relegated to “profane but not sordid use,” meaning it can be sold and used for nonreligious purposes so long as they are not immoral or offensive to the Catholic faith.
The bishop said in the decree that the building had not regularly been used since 2005 and was “no longer necessary for the care of souls in the community.” He also cited the building’s physical decline and the accompanying financial burden, as well as a decline of Catholics
