From the MyWebTimes: Small church many called home

Stefan and Teresa Pazur came to Streator (IL) with their family from Poland 27 years ago.

Since the first day they set foot in the United States, St. Casimir Church on Livingston Street has been their home.

“I didn’t know anybody,” Stefan said. “I didn’t know anything about Streator. I didn’t speak English. My family didn’t speak English.”

The smallest of Streator’s four Catholic churches made them feel at home because of its rich Polish heritage.

In 1916, a group of families of Polish descent requested the formation of St. Casimir’s parish. The parish purchased a church from the Beulah Baptist congregation at the corner of Livingston and Illinois streets.

The wooden Russian Orthodox Catholic Church was a gift from Czar Alexander III of Russia for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At the conclusions of the exposition, the building was dismantled, shipped to Streator and reassembled. It was used by a Russian Orthodox congregation until the baptists [sic] purchased it.

St. Casimir’s first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Eve in 1916. Dedication ceremonies were in April 1917 with Bishop E.N. Dunne. The Rev. Mieczyslaus T. Szalewski was the organizer and first pastor of St. Casimir Church.

Shortly afterward, an addition to the church provided two classrooms for parish children to attend school. The Franciscan Sisters ran the school until it was discontinued in 1931.

In 1962, the Rev. Marion Switka was appointed to the parish. He realized there was a need for extensive renovation or a new building.

The old building was razed and a new building, which currently stands, was constructed.

Parishioner Diane Safarcyk Crawford recalls the construction.

“It was sad to see the old church go, but it was no longer functional,” said Safarcyk, who played organ during high school for $1 a Mass. “I remember them raising the steeples and cleaning up after the carpenters.”

During construction of the new building, Masses on Sundays and holy days were in the Polish National Hall across the street and weekday Masses in the basement of the rectory.

Finally, the first Mass at the new church was celebrated on Christmas Eve in 1964. The Rev. George Dzuryo conducted the blessing and consecration of the altar.

The new edifice is of ultramodern pie-fold architecture.

The altar is made of gray granite, slightly tapered from top to bottom, and rests on a base of gray granite forms that create crosses encircling the altar. The altar signifies the firm, solid foundation of the Catholic faith.

Services were suspended in 2004 due to the Rev. Monsignor Jerome Ham’s health. Parishioners conducted a weekly Divine Mercy Novena on Wednesdays.

The church will now be closed to consolidate into St. Michael the Archangel, along with St. Anthony, St. Stephen and Immaculate Conception churches.

“It’s sad,” said Grace Gura, whose husband Ed has a strong Polish heritage. “My husband helped building it. Our daughter was the first one christened in the new church and we were the last ones married in the old one.”

Another Parish where the people honored and kept the presence of Christ, even in the absence of a priest. Sad that they could loose what they had built. Ownership by the laity goes a long way to stopping such closures — part of why the PNCC exists, and why many former Roman Catholics are approaching us after their parishes are closed against their will.