Priestless Parishes: Been There Before

Across the country, priestless parishes are facing less and less of a rarity. But, as history always shows us, it’s not the first time we’ve been there. In researching the history of the Detroit archdiocese, Professor Leslie Tentler discovered the Birney family papers, a small collection overlooked for many years in the Archdiocese of Detroit Archives. During the 1800’s, the Birney family lived in Bunkerhill, Michigan, a heavily Protestant community that for decades had no resident priest. James Birney was born in Vermont of Irish immigrant parents in 1821. The family moved to Ohio in the 1830’s, and then to Bunkerhill. There he married Bridget, an Irish immigrant, in 1845. They had three children, a son and two daughters. The family lived there until the turn of the century.

There were very few Catholics in Bunkerhill. During the 1860’s, twenty-three families volunteered to help build a Church there. For most of the nineteenth century, it was a mission, served by priests infrequently. Professor Tentler writes that “Mass was at best an occasional event.” Catholic funerals were officiated by laypeople according to the rites of the Church. Catholics maintained their own cemetery. Catechism classes met regularly in a local home.

Despite the challenges they faced, the Birneys were staunch Catholics who handed on a lively faith to a younger generation. In 1858 James, who was away on business, wrote his daughter: “You did not say whether you had Sunday School there or not. I hope that will make no difference with you, but that you will study your catechism at home and be sure not to neglect it.” On one occasion Bridget wrote to James: “You know the children need a great deal of instructions. More than I am capable of giving them… God grant that I may do my duty to my children. It is of more concern to me than anything else I do.” Two of their grandchildren became nuns, and one became a priest.