WINONA, Minn. – The 110-year-old St. Casimir church on Winona’s West End will shut down as a Catholic place of worship. The Diocese vicar general, William Thompson of Rochester, confirmed the decision at a meeting with St. Casimir lay leaders. The closing was the second announcement of a further constriction of the Catholic brick-and-mortar presence in Winona. On Wednesday the vicar had confirmed that St. John on the East End would be closed. The two closings leave only three Catholic churches in Winona — the Sacred Heart cathedral, the basilica of St. Stan’s ,and St Mary’s. Unaffected is the gorgeous Saint Mary’s of the Angels chapel, a favorite wedding venue, on the former College of St. Teresa.
Upward-aspiring Poles
Polish Kashubian immigrants settled on Winona’s East End in rhe latter 1800s. Second-generation and third-generation Kashubians gravitated out of their forbearers’ ghetto to the relatively upscale West End where Germans dominated. The Kashubians signaled their presence by building St. Casimir church on West Broadway Street. smack dab in the middle of the German neighborhood. The city remained polarized, however, with a largely Catholic East End and a largely Lutheran West End. Through inevitable intermarriage and a gradual decline in ethnic and religious identities, there has evolved an accommodation and assimilation.
Winona religiosity
The 2020 U.S. Census found Catholics remained dominant among Winna City who declared a religious preference. Leading Christian affiliations: Catholic, 12,000. and Lutherans, 9,900. The County’s total popuation:49,700.
St. Casimir. At 626 West Broadway Street. Built 1915. Image: Steve Lunde
Sell or raze?
Thompson said a decision whether to raze or sell the St. John and St. Casimir buildings requires Vatican approval. Neither church is architecturally significant. Neither was protection afforded by status on the National Register of Historic Places nor is near the downtown Historic District. With earlier closed churches the Diocese has looked for buyers. Sacred statuary and stained glass is removed. The Diocese insists that buyers not use the structures for immoral purposes. Some churches are torn down but with adjoining cemeteries remaining in place. As an example is the rural church off Highway 43 near Wilson. In-town Winona Catholics chose to bury their dead in a single cemetery – Saint Mary’s near the current Minnesota State College Southeast campus on Homer Road.