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Diocese to close two parishes

STEUBENVILLE — Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton of the Diocese of Steubenville will celebrate the final Masses at St. John Vianney Parish in Powhatan Point and Sacred Heart Parish in Neffs the first weekend of October.

The parishes are closing under a deanery pastoral plan approved by Monforton’s successor, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, now bishop of Joliet, Ill., in 2009.

Monforton, who decreed the closings under the plan, will celebrate Mass at St. John Vianney at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 and Sacred Heart at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 7.

The closings come after the July 25 retirement of the Rev. Samuel R. Saparano, former pastor of St. Mary in Shadyside and St. John Vianney.

The deanery plan considered parish reconfigurations within the number of available priests, Mass times and attendance, church seating capacity, fiscal condition of the parishes, condition of the parishes and the physical plant and ministerial collaboration.

The territory of St. John Vianney of Powhatan Point will become part of the territory of St. Mary Parish in Shadyside, while Sacred Heart’s territory will become part of the territory of St. John Parish in Bellaire. The Rev. Dan Heusel will be pastor of St. Mary and St. John parishes effective Oct. 7.

All sacramental records will be transferred from the two closing parishes to the central office that will be established at St. John in Bellaire.

Sacred Heart was built in Neffs in 1905 with its first pastor, the Rev. Valarian Fligier, appointed in 1907, according to the diocese. Ground was purchased in 1908 for a church in Neffs. In 1910, a tornado struck the village and the church at the foot of Dixon Hill Road was destroyed. A school building was built first, serving as church and rectory until 1913, when the current brick church was built on the foundation of the original church. Men of the congregation are credited with construction of the church.

The diocesan history shows the Rev. Francis Trettel was the first resident pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in 1934. The church was built in Powhatan Point in 1937 and was the first church in which the first bishop of Steubenville, Bishop John King Mussio, administered the sacrament of confirmation.

Monforton said, “I am well aware that this will be a difficult time for all of you and I share in your sadness. So that I may be with you in this time, I will be celebrating the final Masses at the two closing parishes.”

“We give thanks to God for the blessings and graces He has bestowed on these parishes over these years, and I think you for the time, talent and treasures, the very tools of missionary discipleship that you have devoted to these parishes,” Monforton continued. “I pray that all may see in this necessary change the opportunity to grow closer to the Lord Jesus.”

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