Every time there was a change of priest the rumor would start even before he arrived that the first thing the new priest was going to do was remove the Communion Rail. The rumor would usually continue for awhile after he arrived too. No one knew who started the rumor each time but it would spread rapidly and certainly upset a lot of people each time.
The rumors about St. John's closing started when Father Joe Fink was transferred and we weren't assigned a new pastor immediately. They never stopped completely but like the Communion Rail rumor would pop up mostly whenever we were between pastors.
After Fr. Pingatore left we had a meeting with two priests from the Chancery about our future. It had to be in late 2003 or early 2004. They assured us that there were absolutely no plans to close St. John's but the shortage of priest made finding one for us a problem. They may have been telling the truth at the time but the rumors never stopped about St. John's being on a list for being closed. Eventually we were assigned Fr. Grabner and Fr. Wilson as parochial administrators and then Fr. Welzbacher. But obviously at some point during that period someone decided St. John's would have to be closed. It was all done in secret so I don't know anything about how or when.
It's sad but true that there have been parishioners at St. John's who have worked against the parish from the inside as far back as the time of Father Eggert. One group tried to get him ousted because he wouldn't "modernize" the church. Father Dolan would tell us about anonymous complaints that were made against him to the Archbishop by parishioners. I'm not sure what was going on during Father Fink's tenure but I have my suspicions. There is no doubt in my mind that things were happening behind the scenes after he left. I never understood why if people didn't like St. John's they didn't just go elsewhere. Well St. John's is gone now so I'm sure that made at least a few people happy.
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