Parishioners, visitors celebrate reopening of iconic Detroit church

DETROIT — Having attended Mass at St. Josaphat Church since its opening in 1889, the Wisniewski family had cause to celebrate when the historic Detroit church reopened its doors Sept. 13, following 10 months of closure due to a badly damaged steeple.

“My mom’s mother grew up behind the church. I’m fourth generation,” said Dean Wisniewski after the official reopening Mass at 5:30 that afternoon. The Mass, celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Francis R. Reiss, was attended by longtime parishioners and visitors alike.

“I’m so grateful; it’s an answer to our prayers,” said Dean Wisniewski’s mother, Rita Wisniewski, who attended the Mass with her son.

St. Josaphat Church, one of three belonging to Mother of Divine Mercy Parish, was closed by the city of Detroit in late 2013 following a severe Nov. 17 windstorm, which had curved the 200-foot Gothic Revival structure.

Slate had been torn off by the powerful storm as well, and the steeple had become detached from its base, causing it to actually sway in the windstorm.
Kevin Piotrowski, president of Mother of Divine Mercy’s parish council, told The Michigan Catholic in an interview the week before the reopening that the “structural integrity of the steeple was compromised.”

“We had to move into an emergency phase to do something to ensure that the steeple would not fall or come down from the building,” Piotrowski said.

He said Cass Sheet Metal was brought to the site two days later, and with help of a crane, began stabilizing the steeple.

Parish sends S.O.S.

The parish had “no idea even what it would cost” to either remove the steeple and “cap” the roof, or, actually repair the steeple, Piotrowski explained; safety was the priority. The parish began its “SOS – Save Our Steeples” initiative, hoping for donations and support from the community, without knowing how much insurance would cover the steeple repairs.

Piotrowski said Erik Majcher of Robert Darvas Associates in Ann Arbor worked with Cass Sheet Metal to “get the steeple on stable footing.” He said guidance was also given by Frank MacDonnell of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s buildings department.

After the emergency work was done, “it had holes, it was still bent, but it was secure,” said Piotrowski, adding that “the next thing was to determine ‘what are we going to do?’”

“We, through (Majcher), put out a request for a proposal for the repair and restoration of the steeple, or the dismantling of the steeple,” said Piotrowski.

This process began in early January 2014, and by the end of the month, “there were six or seven different contractors who had submitted proposals for the work,” he explained.

By this point, Piotrowski said, individuals and groups had been contributing to the SOS fund, and “we felt confident” that using the donations and insurance, “we thought we could get enough money to do this job.”

“We chose Detroit Cornice and Slate Company, Inc.; they are a company that has been in business for about 125 years, and have done a lot of work for the Archdiocese of Detroit on lots of different churches,” he said. “They specialize in historic properties … plus we had a very good engineer on the job who devised a plan to rebuild and strengthen the steeple.”

Reconstructing the steeple

Detroit Cornice and Slate began the job in the freezing temperatures of February.

Most of the beginning work was inside the steeple — which Piotrowski described as “like a big cone; for the most part hollow” — as engineers established floors and steel cable cross bracing reaching across the interior.

Piotrowski told The Michigan Catholic that when the steeple was established 114 years ago, there were no building codes, and therefore, “that steeple is stronger today than the day it was built.”

As the weather improved in March and April, “people started seeing work on the exterior.”

“Slate was removed, taken down to the wood; (they then added) a whole new skin of wood, protective covering and all the new slate,” Piotrowski explained. He said the work continued through the summer, and the final tasks were accomplished at the end of August.

Other non-structural tasks included painting around the bell tower, new pigeon screening, and masonry work for the bricks damaged from the steeple’s force of sliding back and forth in the windstorm.

A final touch was repairing the cross at the top of the steeple: “It had holes; it had rusted away — it’s actually hollow — (but) it was re-metaled and re-gilded,” said Piotrowski, adding that “it’s bright and shiny now, especially when the sun’s out.”

With approval from the city, St. Josaphat was finally ready to reopen this month.

Continuing help

Piotrowski said the parish had received “almost $100,000 from Save Our Steeples,” but the parish continues to ask for support. Repairs are needed for Mother of Divine Mercy’s two other churches, Sweetest Heart of Mary and St. Joseph, both in Detroit.

“Insurance is still ongoing; (we are) not sure if we’ve got the final payment yet,” he said. “This job also really ate into the parish’s savings account. We have so many other projects that we have to do — not the least of which is repair the steeples at Sweetest Heart of Mary, and there are two of them.”

Piotrowski said the repairs needed for the two other churches “require a huge amount of resources, more than we have. SOS is not just for St. Josaphat; it is also for Sweetest Heart and to repair the limestone buttresses at St. Joseph Church.”

“These are all very expensive projects, in the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more,” he said. “We’re still getting estimates.”

Open at last

But for the weekend of Sept. 13, the faithful at St. Josaphat were able to breathe easy again as they attended Mass in their church.

Cynthia Falska and Patrick Tinney of Eastpointe were married in St. Josaphat Church 21 years ago, and said everyone had worked hard “because we have a church family here, and people you see every week.” They were grateful to attend Mass during the past 10 months at Sweetest Heart, but it wasn’t the same: “We’d be at different Masses” and unable to catch all of their church friends.

Ed and Kathy McCallum, who described themselves as “literally neighborhood parishioners” living in Brush Park, Detroit, are “so thankful to be able to see people again.”

“We were attracted (to St. Josaphat) based on the church, but also the really friendly people,” said Ed McCallum.

Marlene Reed of Northville, who with her husband, Francis, were visiting St. Josaphat for the reopening, reflected that it is “impossible to build a church like this today.”

“There’s a comfort level in an old church,” she said.

Christopher Din of Berkley, who also serves as sacristan at the church, said he is happy to return to St. Josaphat. He had been drawn to the church because of its celebration of the Tridentine Mass, which had been one of the liturgies offered at St. Josaphat’s for the past 10 years.

He said that “driving on 75, seeing that skyline,” he is glad St. Josaphat’s steeple, indicating “a Catholic church in the city of Detroit” will continue to be a sign for passersby.