The Northwest Milwaukee Catholic Parishes Choir performed a Rock ‘N’ Roll Gospel performance earlier this year. (Photos by Greta Taxis)
Rock ’n’ roll light rigs, a five-piece band and a fog machine transformed St. Catherine of Alexandria Church when the Northwest Milwaukee Catholic Parishes Choir took center stage there for a unique concert in March.
The Rock ’N’ Gospel Choral Performance is just one outward sign of many collaborations happening in this evolving Catholic community.
NWMCP is the collaborative Catholic community of St. Bernadette, Our Lady of Good Hope and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Members from the three previously separate parish choirs combined to create the 30-member ensemble that performed earlier this year.
Fr. Greg Greiten, pastor of the three parishes that make up NWMCP, suggests looking to the combined choir as an example of the great potential for these parishes as they slowly continue to work together as one community in more and more ways.
“The choirs are stronger together. When we come together it can lead to something beautiful that we could not have accomplished alone — like this concert. I understand that there will be upsets, but as we take this journey together, we are going to be stronger on the other side,” Fr. Greiten said.
“We wanted to do something different,” said NWMCP Director of Liturgy and Music Mark Mrozek. “Usually the choir stands there and they sing. When you add lights swirling around them, fog, laser beams and things like that — it makes it a little more interesting.”
Choir members were also challenged to learn more difficult pieces, like the 14-minute-long musical composition, “The Creation (A Rock Cantata),” which was written in the 1960s by David Bobrowitz and Steven Porter and is based on the biblical story of Genesis.
Mrozek has lived the evolution of the local parish mergers in a personal and professional way.
He calls St. Bernadette his “home parish,” as he began his musical career there at age 13. In addition to parish liturgy and music direction, Mrozek has worked in professional and community musical theater for 40 years.
Three years ago, Mrozek was hired as the director of liturgy and music for St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Good Hope when the parishes were in the early stages of navigating their new collaboration. At the time, each parish had its own choir with about 10 to 15 members. Mrozek’s first big task was to combine the choirs, but he first brought them together for a picnic to get to know one another.
“Singing is kind of personal, so you want to feel comfortable,” he said.
When St. Catherine of Alexandria parish joined the collaboration a short time later, in November 2022, there wasn’t an opportunity for a casual introduction of the choirs before they combined, so Mrozek spent a lot of time getting to know the St. Catherine’s choir members, and the outgoing director, Diane Skrobis.
“At the time we had about eight people in the choir,” said Nicole Hartley, St. Catherine parishioner and choir member, “and as you might imagine, a lot of people were upset about the changes that were happening.”
St. Catherine, St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Good Hope are among a growing number of parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that have had to combine resources and think creatively in the face of declining membership to evolve.
Helping to shepherd the process of collaboration at NWMCP is Fr. Greiten, who was appointed pastor of St. Bernadette in 2011. Greiten became the shared administrator of both that parish and Our Lady of Good Hope in 2019, with St. Catherine of Alexandria joining the collaboration in 2022.
“Our goal has always been to create a vibrant Catholic presence on the northwest side of Milwaukee,” Greiten said, “And these parish communities have been working hard to do that. I’m very proud of them.”
Changing demographics, families moving and parishioners aging are among the factors that have contributed to the membership decline.
Over the past few years, a strategic planning committee with members from all three parishes has been working with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Missionary Planning and Leadership Office to gather as much information as possible about the day-to-day operations, facilities, ministries and other aspects of parish business practices at the three locations. An independent firm was also hired to evaluate the state of parish properties.
“We got that report and learned we have extensive deferred maintenance and expenses that need to happen,” Greiten said. “The question now is, which roof do you repair? We are starting to realize we can’t keep all three properties open anymore and we need to face those difficult questions with facts.”
One of the people doing just that is George Quisno, a parishioner at Our Lady of Good Hope. Besides singing baritone in the choir, Quisno serves on the Pastoral Council, Finance Council and is a member of the steering committee guiding the collaboration.
“It was just a matter of time if we didn’t make some changes that we’d have to close the parishes. But these discussions are allowing us to map a road for the future. Yes, we may have to close some buildings, but the parish is not the buildings; it’s the community — it’s the people.”
Quisno has been a member of Our Lady of Good Hope for over 2 decades — and many of his fellow choir members are also long-term members of their respective parishes.
A 47-year member, Hartley had some initial hesitation when the St. Catherine’s choir joined with Our Lady of Good Hope and St. Bernadette’s combined choir.
“I wasn’t going to come join the big choir,” the retired teacher said. “But I prayed about it, and I thought, ‘This is silly. I really like being in the choir, and it doesn’t matter where I am doing it.’”
As one might expect, combining the choirs, like combining any parishes, has presented both challenges and opportunities. Establishing a rehearsal location and Mass schedule — where the choir would sing on which Sunday, were some of the early logistical issues.
Another challenge the choir faced was mobility, with about 30 to 40 percent of the membership having some sort of physical limitations or using a walker.
This was also part of the reason Mrozek opted for the “light show” at the most recent concert.
“Many of our choir members cannot stand for long periods of time, so we are limited in what we could do in terms of ‘choreography,’” he said. “Plus, most of my choir members have never been in a show with a five-piece band — horns, drums, piano — and lights, so it was a neat new experience for us all to have together.”
Gail Schwalbach, who has been a parishioner of St. Bernadette for 67 years and choir member since the late 1990s, was delighted by the concert. “Mark is fun and so talented,” she said.
The concert also brought some new visitors to the parishes — specifically, children of choir members.
“My children and their families came to the Christmas and spring concerts,” Hartley said.
Unifying the choirs and the liturgies has helped to create a consistent Mass experience for parishioners of all the parishes, Mrozek said. Now parishioners, like the choir, will often “travel” and attend Mass at any of the three parishes.
“What I’m seeing is the three different churches are becoming one big community,” Mrozek said. “You can go to any Mass on the weekend and see people from all three churches there. You can go to a church event like bingo or the fish fry, and you’ll see volunteers from all three churches there.”
Most of the staff is now shared, Mrozek said, and the committees — such as pastoral council, prayer and worship, human concerns and others — have combined, with each parish represented.
“We’ve basically become one church — one community — in three buildings. It’s a process, but it’s moving along fairly well,” he said.
But some difficult decisions for the parish community still lie ahead. Two more parishes are slated to join the collaboration — Blessed Savior and St. Margaret Mary — and the utilization rate of worship spaces on any given Sunday at all five overall is about 16 percent, Greiten said.
“It’s just the current reality of where we are. We realize these are beloved places and that each church carries such significance to people because they’ve been baptized, confirmed or married there. At the same time, we need to address deeper issues — we have too much space and not enough parishioners, so we don’t have the funds to care for all of the buildings anymore,” Greiten said.
For those in other parishes going through this process, St. Catherine’s parishioner Hartley said all you can do is pray.
“If your faith is important to you, you can build community in other spaces,” she said. “Does it really matter where you celebrate the Eucharist?”
Quisno, Our Lady of Good Hope parishioner, shared a similar sentiment.
“The parish is not the buildings,” he said. “It’s the community — it’s the people. It doesn’t matter what worship space you meet at; it’s the spirit of camaraderie and outreach to your surrounding communities.”
