After more than eight decades of service to the Detroit community, the historic St. Christopher's Catholic Church, renamed Saint Juan Diego Parish in 2019, held its poignant final Mass on Sunday. With attendance having dwindled, sometimes to less than 20 parishioners, the church was facing unsustainable financial challenges. According to WXYZ, the pastor at St. Christopher/St. Juan Diego Parish, Father Noel Emmanuel Cornelio lamented, "We're down to sometimes less than 20, 15 people."
The closing of St. Christopher's comes despite an ongoing two-year effort by the Archdiocese of Detroit to evaluate and potentially consolidate Catholic parishes throughout metro Detroit. The decision to close St. Christopher's is independent of this larger initiative. As Detroit local Tom Stoltz told ClickOnDetroit, "For me, it’s like watching a loved one die slowly, and there’s nothing you can do."
Sentiments of sadness, mingled with cherished memories, were shared among those who had seen the church as a cornerstone of their lives. Dee Dee Kostrzewa, a 1978 graduate of the church's elementary school, remarked in an interview with ClickOnDetroit, "Once you’re here with those memories, you can’t get look at pictures, but you can’t feel the energy anymore." Many parishioners who had not set foot in the church since grade school came together one final time to reflect and say goodbye.
Sunday's final Mass honored both the church's beginning with a song in Polish and its more recent history as a Spanish-language community. The church's pastor, Rev. Noel Emmanuel Cornelio, offered a message of resilience from the pulpit. "For the church will not be only stone and wood; the church will be flesh and spirit," he said, the Detroit Free Press reported. "What was formed here will not be able to be closed, because it will be already sent into the world."
