St. Clement Catholic Church, which opened roughly a century ago, is facing an “existential threat” in the form of a pending $150,000 boiler replacement and other needed repairs. (St. Clement)
St. Clement Catholic Church has stood on the corner of 24th Avenue and Jackson Street in Northeast Minneapolis since 1913.
When it opened its doors to parishioners, Central Avenue, a block to the east, was dominated by its new electric streetcars, a relatively recent conversion that had signaled the end of the cities’ reliance on horse-drawn cars.
The Basilica of St. Mary would finish construction and open its doors in downtown Minneapolis a year later. While the Basilica is currently embarking on a $45 million renovation that will address interior and exterior repairs and upgrades, the story at St. Clement is different.
Financial “threats”
A recently broadcast local news story alerted its viewers to the precarious situation for the neighborhood landmark. In it, Church trustee Aaron Stockton was quoted referring to the church’s aging boiler and its replacement price tag of $150,000, calling it an “existential threat” to the church’s future. The boiler has required numerous repairs over the years, but in February, contractors repairing the appliance had something new to say.
“We were told that the boiler shouldn’t be turned back on again for this fall,” said Holy Cross Church Business Administrator John Gendreau.
St. Clement is part of a “multi-campus” parish configuration that resulted from a 2013 merger between Holy Cross, St. Hedwig, St. Clement and St. Anthony of Padua churches. St. Anthony would subsequently be purchased and taken over by Catholic Eldercare.
“We’ve been kicking this can down the road for so long,” Gendreau said, referring to the issues with the boiler. But he added it’s important that people realize that replacing the boiler isn’t the only financial consideration facing the parish community.
Gendreau asked, “Do we want to spend the money for a brand-new system … into a building where the walls are literally crumbling?”
He also listed other concerns, like the church kitchen, bathrooms and electrical system.
“We’ve been setting up a lot of appointments with different contractors to come in” to give them a clearer understanding of the actual bottom line, he said.
It’s not “just about numbers”
For Mark McGarry, facilities manager, it’s the windows. “The one thing that … everyone talks about is the stained glass … I’ve never seen stained glass like this before,” McGarry said on a recent tour of the church. “I grew up Catholic and I’ve been in quite a few churches … You don’t see anything like it… It’s just incredibly expressive.”
McGarry was previously a housing contractor who worked “on older houses for the most part.” Now, he oversees the three catholic churches that comprise the Holy Cross parish community, all built in the first half of the 20th century. St. Clement is the oldest of the three.
Gendreau, too, has difficulty reducing it all to numbers. He told a story of his first days working for the community. “I’ve been around Catholic churches my entire life. I’ve never seen a community like this one,” he said. He described his attendance at a potluck luncheon after mass at St. Clement. “I was expecting the … typical Catholic thing where, okay, you’ve got 80, 90 people up at Mass … so maybe 20 of them will go to the potluck … It was a beautiful summer day (and) I saw (only) three people leave.”
The original boiler at St. Clement. (Andrew Lake)
Archdiocese capital campaign
At the start of 2025, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis launched an ongoing capital campaign called “Lord, Renew Your Church.” The campaign includes an objective to strengthen parishes by using portions of raised funds for local priorities.
Father Joseph Bambenek, associate director of the Office for the Renewal of Structures, said that the multi-campus Holy Cross parish leadership “is thoughtfully discerning what participation in the campaign will look like as they prepare to take part in a future campaign wave.”
The archdiocese-wide campaign, which launched in January 2025, is comprised of four successive six-month long fundraising “waves.” Each parish is included in one of the four waves. Holy Cross Parish is in the final wave, culminating in June of 2027.
Questions and hopes
Noting that there are “rules that we have to follow,” Gendreau admitted that he is still working to understand what avenues to raise funds at St. Clement may be available within or outside of the ongoing Archdiocese campaign. There’s also the fact that the parish community is still gathering information on the costs of the work needed at St. Clement and that information will all be part of its “discernment” this summer.
“We really are trying to do everything we can even possibly think of to try and figure out a way to save (St.) Clement,” Gendreau said.