By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Richard Hotopp of Dent stands on the steps of the old St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in South Fairmont on Queen City Ave on Fri April 30, 2004. He was a long time Parishioners of the Church that is now closed. (Ernest Coleman photo)

SOUTH FAIRMOUNT - As he stood beneath the domed ceiling of St. Bonaventure Church last June, Richard Hotopp thought for a moment he just might get through the day without crying.

But then he paused to take in the sights. He marveled at the image of the Last Supper painted on the ceiling. He watched the priest pray over the marble altar. He listened as music from the big pipe organ filled the church.

And he realized this would be the last time he set foot in the church of his childhood, the place where he'd gone to school, fallen in love and baptized his children.

His wife, Elaine, gripped his arm tighter. They both began to cry.

"This," she told him, "is worse than a funeral."

As the Hotopps learned that day at St. Bonaventure in South Fairmount, closing a parish is much like a death in the family. The process is emotional, often agonizing. It breaks a bond with parishioners that took generations to build.

But such closures are about to become more common.

With only about 205 diocesan priests and 224 parishes, there simply aren't enough priests. The archdiocese already has closed 24 parishes since 1985.

But it's never as simple as adding up the numbers and notifying parishioners. It can be an ordeal.

Parishes like St. Bonaventure once were the heart of their communities, bringing together immigrant families through their schools, basketball leagues, bingo games, festivals and Sunday mass.

Even when those families moved to the suburbs, as many did in the 1960s and '70s, emotional ties to the parish remained strong.

Hotopp, 76, knows that better than most. Born and raised in South Fairmount, he attended school at St. Bonaventure along with hundreds of other German and Italian immigrants.

As a kid, life revolved around church. Hotopp played basketball in the church gym, bowled in the alley under the school and, in high school, courted his future wife.

"It was a big part of all our lives," Hotopp says of St. Bonaventure.

And it remained so for decades, even after he and his wife moved to Bridgetown years ago.

Although it was obvious for years that attendance was dwindling, Hotopp and other long-time parishioners had hoped to stave off the inevitable. Father Edwin Gearhart, St. Bonaventure's last pastor, says he tried for more than a year to figure out a way to save the church.

"We couldn't raise the money to pay our bills," he says. Hotopp, whose wife died a few months after their final visit to St. Bonaventure, understands why the church closed. But it doesn't ease the loss.

"Good old St. Bonnie's," he says. "It was a big part of our life."

Who decides which

parishes will close?The Archdiocese of Cincinnati will move more quickly in coming years to close or merge parishes.

Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk says church officials are trying to come up with a formula to determine which parishes are viable and which are not.

He says two questions are key:

• Is the parish "ministerially complete," i.e., does it have a pastor on site and provide services beyond Mass on Sunday?

• Is the parish financially sound and self-sufficient?

If the answer to either question is no, the parish may be in trouble. In the past, struggling parishes could hold on for years with help from the archdiocese. But as the priest shortage worsens, the archdiocese no longer has that luxury, Pilarczyk says. Seventy-six of 224 parishes already share a pastor.