Pittsburgh diocese merges two parishes into one, dropping total to 60

Two Catholic churches will be combined into a new parish in 2024, diocesan officials announced Saturday.

The Saint Maria Goretti and Our Lady of the Angels parishes will become the Saint Pio of Pietrelchina Parish on Jan. 1, Bishop David Zubik said. The new parish will serve the Bloomfield, Garfield and Lawrenceville neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.

Zubik, in a prepared statement, said the merger was requested by the priest-administrator of the grouped parishes “after extensive consultation with parishioners.” Zubik also consulted with the diocesan Priest Council and Vicars General before approving the request.

“Your priests and deacons have worked diligently in service to you and to God throughout this process, and I am deeply grateful for their care and leadership,” said Zubik, in a letter to parishioners. “I am equally grateful to each of you for your collaborative efforts. In and through your work together you have positioned your new parish to be a beacon of evangelization and mission in Pittsburgh.”

The merger will bring the number of diocesan parishes from 61 to 60. In 2020, there were 152 parishes, which were trimmed to 106 by similar parish mergers, diocesan records show.

Saint Pio of Pietrelchina, the namesake of the new parish, was an Italian Capuchin Franciscan canonized June 16, 2002 by Pope John Paul II, who was the pontiff who appointed Zubik to the Pittsburgh diocese. Pope John Paul II had written to “Padre Pio” in 1962, when the pope was archbishop of Poland, to pray for a woman with throat cancer.

The canonization ceremony of Saint Pio, the 45th of Pope John Paul II’s tenure, was attended by more than 300,000 people in blistering heat in St. Peter’s Square.