CAMPBELL — St. Lucy and St. Joseph the Provider churches in Campbell have closed as the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown consolidates to one church in the city.

Bishop David J. Bonnar has accepted the recommendation of the pastoral and finance councils of Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Campbell, in determining the St. John the Baptist campus as the parish’s one worship site, effective Sunday.

Parishioners from the two closing churches will have to attend St. John the Baptist for Mass.

Final Masses were held Sunday at both closing churches.

The Diocese announced the closures of St. Lucy and St. Joseph the Provider churches in September, citing recommendations from finance councils and the 2019 pastoral plan of the late Bishop George Murry as reasons for the move.

The plan called for one worship site in Campbell.

“It is imperative that this matter be resolved for the good of the Church and that a Catholic community continues to exist in the City of Campbell. As your bishop, I am committed to Christ the Good Shepherd Parish, however, we have to live in reality and accept the fact that there can be only one worship site,” Bonnar said in September.

The Palermo Banquet Center at St. Lucy’s / Santa Rosa will remain open for the time being, so as to allow for continued fellowship and as a source of potential revenue for the parish.

The recommendation by the parish’s councils to choose St. John the Baptist was communicated to Bonnar in an Aug. 29 letter from the Rev. James Korda.

Korda and the council members were charged with implementing the 2019 Pastoral Plan promulgated by Murry which called for one worship site for Campbell, which had previously been recommended by parish leaders.

Christ the Good Shepherd Parish was created in 2012, out of a merger of four other parishes in Campbell (St. Lucy, St. Joseph the Provider, St. Rosa de Lima Church and St. John the Baptist).

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