St. Joseph's Parish Prevails, Bishop Hicks Won't Appeal His Defeat

JOLIET ? Diocese of Joliet Bishop Ron Hicks will not be appealing his defeat from Vatican City. In September, clergy in Rome overturned Hicks' unpopular decision of closing St. Joseph's Parish in downtown Joliet.

Hicks had until Nov. 9, or 60 days, to decide whether to appeal the Dicastery for Clergy's decision to a higher court in the Vatican. However, he has decided to honor the decision of the Dicastery, parishioners at St. Joseph have learned.

Instead, with St. Joseph's now remaining as a standalone parish, Hicks will now move ahead with a merger of St. Mary Magdalene's, St. Anthony's and St. Bernard's. A meeting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the St. Mary Magdalene gymnasium on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

The churches at St. Anthony's and St. Bernard's were closed permanently this summer.

On Thursday, Joliet Patch interviewed attorney Brody Hale, the Massachusetts lawyer who is considered one of the world's leading law experts on the topic of Roman Catholic Church mergers. Despite never having visited Joliet, Hale was responsible for taking on the plight of St. Joseph's Parish and prevailing on their behalf during the past 10 months to save the parish.

Hale said he's grateful that Bishop Hicks decided not to appeal the Dicastery of Clergy's decision in favor of the parish that keeps the St. Joseph's Catholic Church as its own parish.

The September decision from the Vatican was so strongly worded in favor of the downtown Joliet parish, according to Hale, that Hicks didn't have strong prospects for overturning the decision in an appeal process.

"St. Joseph's is the eighth parish in the United States and the world that had its closure reversed in modern history," Hale explained. "And six of those decisions were this year alone.

"Rome is giving deeper scrutiny to even parishes now. (Still,) it is far harder to overturn a parish closure versus a church closure," Hale noted.

As far as taking on the plight of the St. Joseph's Parish, Hale remarked, "I was cautiously optimistic. Given the level of mistakes that were made when the new parish was created by Bishop Hicks, I knew there was a very tall mountain for them (the Diocese of Joliet) to climb."

As for the September decision that made St. Joseph the eighth parish in North American to prevail, Hale said, "It was a very strong decision, but I felt what was the (biggest mistake) was when the new parish created by Bishop Hicks, St. Joseph's Church was outside of the boundaries of the new parish that Bishop Hicks wanted to create."

Regarding Bishop Hicks, Hale had this to say:

"I'm not gloating or trying to embarrass Bishop Hicks," Hale stressed. "I'm grateful he's decided to end it, letting these good people get back to celebrating the sacraments is a great thing. I believe this parish is truly an integral part of the Diocese of Joliet and the city of Joliet."

In March, Bishop Hicks named Fr. John Hornicak as the parochial administrator for his ill-conceived plan that aimed to close St. Joseph's Parish and make St. Joseph's a secondary worship site, with St. Mary Magdalene on Briggs Street becoming the main worship site.