Hello everyone,
There are two rumors about St. John's that have been circulating like crazy for the the past two weeks. One is that the property has been sold to Muslims and the church will be converted to a mosque and the other that the church has been completely emptied of all furnishings. When the rumors first surfaced a few weeks ago I asked Father Byron at St. Pascal's about them and here is the reply I received on May 14th:
In other news:
"I'm not surprised at the rumors, since there's been a fair amount of activity on site at St. John's this week, and that will probably continue.
I can tell you that there is not any sale of the property yet, although our broker is giving me/us reasons to be hopeful that there may be something close to being finalized. I haven't personally met any prospective buyer, and I probably shouldn't comment on any of that until/unless we actually see an agreement and some earnest money in hand. Neither of that has yet happened.
As for furnishings, I put out a notice to pastors of the Archdiocese last week (with the knowledge and approval of the Chancery), and I was quite surprised by the hefty response that I got. We had multiple requests for most of the furnishings. The communion rail is still in place as of today, but it looks as though it will go to All Saints Church in NE Minneapolis. The priest was out to look at it last week. All altars are still in place as of today, but the Church of St. Pius V in Cannon Falls has indicated a wish to receive them, as well as the vast majority of the pews. They were in to inspect things this morning. As for the confessionals, again both are still there as of now, but Fr. Baer has requested one and Fr. Dufner at Epiphany in Coon Rapids has specifically requested the one with the fan that Fr. Welzbacher used. I have not yet had direct discussion with either of those two pastors, so it is yet possible that that may not happen.
That's about what I know for now. Hope it helps."
That was 12 days ago. Things could have changed since then. For now, Father Byron's statement should be taken at face value. We can speculate all we want but without more information it is simply that - speculation. The only activity I've personally seen at St. John's was a dumpster in the parking lot being used to remove junk from the school. That was two weeks ago. Before that the St. Paul Police Dept. was holding training exercises in the school building. I haven't seen anything since.
I've been hearing the Muslim story since last fall. I know who told me. The person said he got it directly from a Muslim group that he said was looking at the property. Obviously there was no sale at the time. Since then whenever I've heard the rumor it has been second-, third- or even fourth-hand information. If anyone has some more definitive information as to the source of the story, I'd be interested in hearing it. When St. John's is sold I'm sure St. Pascal's and/or the Archdiocese will put out an official announcement. All we can do is wait and see.
Greg Cosimini
COMMENT
May 26, 2014
THANK YOU SO MUCH ONCE AGAIN GREG FOR YOUR CONSTANT THOUGHTFULNESS OF ST JOHN'S
PERISHIONERS YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND HAPPY TO HEAR ST JOHN'S
PARISH PROPERTY (CHURCH FIXTINGS) IS IN "WANT" BY OTHER PARISHS OUR JOY WITH IT CAN BE
CARRIED FORTH TO OTHERS - HOW SPECIAL IS THAT????
ONE MORE QUESTON - YOU NEVER MENTION THE BEAUTIFUL ALTAR - WILL/CAN ANYTHING BE DONE
WITH THAT? I FOREVER MISS THAT WHEN I ATTEND OTHER CHURCHS. IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL TO
SEE IT IN IT'S PROPER PLACE IN ANOTHER CATHOLIC CHURCH AGAIN. I'VE NEVER HEARD FOR SURE
WHAT WAS/IS SUPPOSE TO HAPPEN TO IT, THERFORE MY QUESTION.
THANK YOU AGAIN, GOD BLESS & HAVE A NICE WEEK WITH SUPPOSEDLY NICE WEATHER.
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