BALTIMORE — On Tuesday, they arrived by the busload.
"We managed to fill three whole buses with parishioners to come here," Henry Debaugh, an Our Lady of Victory parishioner, told WMAR.
Debaugh's parish could shutter and merge with St. Agnes Church in Catonsville, part of a larger plan to consolidate Catholic churches in and around Baltimore.
READ MORE: Archdiocese of Baltimore proposes mass church closures as part of Citywide merger plan
"It would be really upsetting, because our faith community basically would be blown apart," Debaugh said.
Considerable crowds converged on the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on Charles St. in Baltimore in the early evening Tuesday. Under the Archdiocese of Baltimore's 'Seek the City to Come' plan, the cathedral itself would end up being the linchpin of three other local parishes in the consolidations.
News cameras were not allowed to be on when the meeting started; folks prayed and spoke publicly to tell church leaders why their parishes should not close.
"This is difficult, it's heart-wrenching, but we're at a pivotal moment in the city church, we need to do this," said Bruce Lewandowski, vicar for Baltimore City and an architect of the plan.
Lewandowski said declining church attendance and deferred maintenance costs got the church to this point. If a property is sold, he said, those resources would follow the new parish.
"I'd say [the plan[ changes 20, 30 times a day," Lewandowski added, "We're getting all kinds of suggestions. Some good, some really good, and they make us go back to the table and say wait a minute, we really need to look at what we're doing here, reconsider the proposals."
Even still, there's a palpable anxiety among churchgoers wondering where they'll spend their future Sundays.
"It doesn't make sense to us, if we're self-sufficient and not dependent on the Archdiocese, why they would consider our parish for closure," said Maria Nemcek, a St. Clement Mary Hofbauer parishioner.
Tuesday night was the last session for in-person feedback, but Lewandowski said churchgoers can still send in feedback.
"We're not a parish, we're a family. In the true sense of the word, we're a family," said Barbara Bell, a St. Clement Mary Hofbauer parishioner.
A final plan from the archdiocese is expected in June.
