Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta
From left, Deacon William Bancroft, Msgr. Robert Siffrin and the Rev. Joseph Rudjak, former pastor of SS. Peter & Paul Church on the North Side, leave the altar after celebrating the final Mass at the Covington Street church on Nov. 2. The church of mostly Croatian and Slovenian descendants had its first Mass in 1911 and will merge with St. Edward Church and St. Columba Cathedral and will be known as St. Columba Cathedral Parish. Funerals, weddings and baptisms still will take place at the church, which has been declared a secondary worship site by Bishop David Bonnar.

YOUNGSTOWN — The spiritual histories of generations of families were celebrated at SS. Peter & Paul Church Nov. 2 during the final Sunday Mass at that location.

Appropriately, the date was also All Souls Day, a time of remembrance for family and friends who are no longer with us. Parishioners recalled the numerous baptisms, weddings, festivals and school graduations at the Covington Street church on the city’s North Side.

The first Mass of the newly-created SS. Peter and Paul Church was on July 2, 1911, in a small house on the corner of Covington and Arlington streets. Local Croatian and Slovenian immigrants gathered from Youngstown and nearby towns to worship. The present brick church on Covington Street was dedicated in 1915.

Many of those who attended the last Mass praised their Croatian ancestors who started the church, yet were resigned to its closing.

“Both sides of my family came to this area from Croatia,” said David Ivko of New Middletown. “My dad’s parents came in 1914 and my mother’s parents in 1918. My family were early parishioners.”

Ivko said he understands there is a lack of priests to serve all the parishes in the Youngstown Diocese and the churches who have hired lawyers to fight closure have not been successful. But he still has hope.

“Perhaps, if we get more vocations, we can reopen the church someday,” he said.

It was announced on Oct. 4 that the church, which originally merged with Our Lady of Hungary and St. Stephen of Hungary churches, will combine with St. Edward Church and St. Columba Cathedral to become St. Columba Cathedral Parish. The church was declared a secondary worship site by Bishop David Bonnar, meaning weddings, funerals and baptisms can still take place there, but regular weekend Masses will cease. It also may be used for patron feast day celebrations, and the church hall still will be used.

“The church building will become an oratory,” said the Rev. Joseph Rudjak, a retired priest who was pastor at SS. Peter & Paul for 20 years. “Monsignor (Robert) Siffrin would like to have one Mass a month here.”

Rudjak was a longtime deacon who grew up at St. Casimir Church in the Brier Hill area of Youngstown. That church, which primarily served the city’s Polish population, closed in February of 2012, with many of its parishioners going to SS. Peter & Paul.

Ivko and his wife, Autumn, were married at the church in 2014. Other parishioners discussed the fond memories of their wedding ceremonies there.

Dr. Magdy-Iskander, originally of Egypt, and his wife, Martha Iskander, a nurse, met at work and married at the church in 1986. She went to the school there and recalled fun times at weddings and with family and friends at church gatherings.

Kathy Vogrin became an integral part of the church community as the cantor.

“I have been the cantor for 53 years. I came from North Dakota. In those days, you married at the bride’s church and you transferred to the husband’s church after you married,” she said.

SS. Peter & Paul School opened in 1929 and closed in 1973. Mark Byce, a descendant of Michael S. Byce, one of the founders of the parish, joined the after-Mass breakfast with members of his 1971 eighth-grade graduation class.

Though he enjoyed a reunion with his school classmates, he also realized the finality of the church closing, which he got to share with his siblings.

“Two of my sisters and two of my brothers came to the final Mass. It is sad to witness our very beautiful church and gathering place to celebrate our Croatian heritage close,” he said.

Former parishioners traveled from Akron, Pittsburgh and other areas of the Youngstown Diocese to take part in the last Mass.

Christina Ferenac Gifford and her family came home from Pittsburgh to attend.

“I was married here and my mom grew up in this parish,” she said.

“It is very sad that the church is closing. I told my family that everyone had to come,” said Maryann Golec Ferenac of Warren.

She lived on Covington Street and would walk to the parish school and to the church.

Nancy Vukovich Bleggi of Canfield was in sixth grade when the school closed. She is a descendant of one of the founding members of the parish. Her grandfather, John Vukovic, is on the plaque in the back of the nave.

“I got married here. I taught CCD here for 12 years. My daughter, Courtney, and son, Jordan, were altar servers. I am so sad about the church closing,” she said.

The parish means so much to her family that her first grandchild, Michael, came back to Youngstown from North Carolina to be baptized at SS. Peter and Paul Church.

Fr. Rudjak co-celebrated Mass with Msgr. Siffrin with assistance from Deacon William Bancroft.

During his homily, Siffrin mentioned that the history of the church will not end. “Thousands who have been baptized here go out into the world and live Jesus’ message,” he said.

He also said he asked parishioners of St. Edward and St. Columba Cathedral to pray for them and that they understand what they are going through.