St. Alphonsus church descendants fulfilling family’s 180-year-old vow
A small group of Butler County residents have spent the past year and a half trying to fulfill a 180-year-old promise.
The group is working to transform the now-closed St. Alphonsus Catholic Church into a community center for Marion Township.
The chain of events began all the way back in 1842, when the Murrin family opened the St. Alphonsus Church in what is now recognized as the village of Murrinsville. As part of the contract to open the church, John Murrin, who donated the land for its use, inserted a stipulation to give the property back to the Murrin family if the church were to close.
Fast-forward to 2019, and St. Alphonsus Church closed its doors for good as the diocese underwent a process of consolidating parishes in response to decreasing mass enrollment.
At the time, the church was part of St. Alphonsus parish along with four other churches — Epiphany Church in Boyers, St. Paschal Church in Washington Township, and St. Louis Church in Clay Township. Only St. Louis exists today, now as part of St. Faustina Parish.
“When the Pittsburgh Diocese began cutting all these little churches out all over the place, that church was one of them. It was on the chopping block,” said Neil Kennedy, a descendant of the Murrin family.
Boyers resident Robert Beran said it was the idea of the surviving Murrin family to turn the church building into a center that would benefit the whole community.
“They want to have this turned over to the community. They have no desire to own a church,” Beran said. “Because they have the roots here, they would prefer something that benefits everybody in this area.”
A six-person board of directors has been formed, including Beran and fellow Murrin family descendant Mary Murrin, with the intent of forming a 501(c)3 nonprofit which would take ownership of and maintain the former church property.
Kennedy, who currently lives in California, isn’t part of the board, but is closely involved in the project from a distance. Beran says Kennedy called him to suggest joining the board in the first place.
“My main goal was just to facilitate it and get it moving,” Kennedy said.
Tom Dorf, president of the board, said the diocese is in the process of transferring the church property over to the nonprofit.
“Right now it’s in the hands of the Diocese of Pittsburgh,” Dorf said. “Hopefully, by the first quarter of this year, it’ll all be transferred over. Basically all the paperwork is done. We’re just waiting on finishing up the 501(c)3 and getting insurance and all the stuff we have to do.”
The property consists of the church building, a social hall, a priest house and a cemetery. Kennedy said, as part of the transfer process, the property will be subdivided so the diocese will keep the cemetery, but the rest of the property will go to the nonprofit group.
Over the past year and a half, the group has made some major improvements to the building, including repairs to the roof of both the church building and the priest house, and restoring electricity to the church and the social hall.
“The roof was leaking in the church building and in the house,” Kennedy said. “And so they got a donation and so were able to repair both roofs. That leak was causing a lot of damage inside the church.”
Another step is figuring out what uses the community center should serve when, or if, the renovation is finished. The stakeholders are seeking out feedback from the community through both flyers and through its Facebook group.
“We’ve sent out some flyers to people to see what the community would like to do,” Dorf said. “We want to know what the community needs.”
“We’re still working on the details of what the community wants,” Beran said. “We’ve solicited input from the community and that’s very important. Ultimately, the decision is going to be up to the board, because we have to decide what’s economically feasible and something that could actually be done.
“We don’t know the exact form that this is going to take, but the idea is to have something that’s going to serve and benefit the community.”
Kennedy said the diocese has been a willing partner in the project.
“The diocese has been very supportive of the whole thing and would like to see the property put to good use for the community,” Kennedy said. “And so they’ve been patient while we've been going through this.”
