Cathedral locking its doors between Masses in response to crime

Following vandalism at a diocesan church and ministry, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is locking its doors between Masses.

The June 11 theft of an icon from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and the theft and vandalism of two statues from the Guadalupe Clinic days later prompted the decision to lock the cathedral doors, said Amy Pavlacka, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

After the two incidents, which occurred at around the time of Riverfest, Wichita vicar general Father David Lies communicated with priests in the diocese so they could be vigilant about visitors to their respective churches.

“When these incidents occur, we do like to let these people know so they can exercise a little more awareness of who is coming and going,” Lies said. “Each pastor can then determine how best to respond to his location.”

Lies said the diocese understands the importance of keeping churches accessible during the day for parishioners to pray, but that it is up to the priests in charge of each church to weigh that importance against security concerns.

Only the doors to the church portion of the cathedral, 430 N. Broadway, will be locked between Masses, Pavlacka said. The other parts of the cathedral – including the office and gathering space – will remain accessible, she said.

The church space will open 30 minutes before the cathedral’s 8 a.m. weekday Mass and an hour before its noon weekday Mass and all its weekend services.

Father Adam Keiter, the cathedral’s rector, could not be reached for comment.

Pavlacka said the hope is to be able to reopen the worship space between Masses once the cathedral has established new security measures. She said Keiter is looking into installing a camera system.

The cathedral is not the only church in the diocese locking its doors – the theft from St. Joseph, 145 S. Millwood, prompted the church to begin closing between services. Though the icon – a painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – was returned just over a week later after it was found at a Wichita antiques shop, the church has continued to lock its doors.

“We hope to be able to leave the doors unlocked at some point,” said Mike McDaneld, pastoral assistant at St. Joseph. “But until we come up with a system that satisfies our fears, we’ll continue to keep doors locked between services.”

St. Joseph is not entirely closed off when its doors are locked, McDaneld said. Parishioners who want to pray in the church between Masses can knock on the parish office doors during the office’s open hours to be let in, he said.

“We’ve known for quite a while that we were one of the few churches that just left the doors unlocked and allowed people to go in and out really without any kind of control,” McDaneld said. “We were aware of the risk we were taking in continuing to allow that, although we recognized the importance of continuing to allow people a place to stop and pray.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2016 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Cathedral locking its doors between Masses in response to crime."