The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says the decision to close St. Nicholas Church on the North Side is final, but members of the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation hope to change some minds when they meet with diocesan officials on Friday.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Patricia Magdic, of McKeesport, expresses her frustration on the steps of St. Nicholas Church on its final day, crying, "If Pope John Paul came here and saw this church and its little kids dressed up, he would not close it." Click photo for larger image.

The onion-domed church, with its outdoor grotto, is not only an artistic treasure, but has great historic and cultural meaning to Croatians because it was the first Croatian Roman Catholic church in America.

"We want to put forward a plan for growth, to inject ideas for how we can have the church survive," said Robert Sladack, of Reserve, co-chairman and trustee for the foundation and a lifelong member of St. Nicholas.

"That will be difficult to do now that the diocese has announced that the church is closing," he said.

The foundation has an ambitious plan for growing the church's membership, cutting operating costs for insurance and utilities, and establishing special funds for the preservation of artifacts and relics at both the East Ohio Street church and St. Nicholas in Millvale. Both churches comprise St. Nicholas parish, an ethnic Croatian parish created in 1994.

The plan proposes creating a library and gift shop of Croatian books and artifacts, capitalizing on the church's tourist value, promoting its ethnic celebrations, and establishing a nonprofit corporation to repair and restore parish buildings.

The core of the plan is not an attempt to turn St. Nicholas into a cultural center, but to reopen it as an operating parish church that would provide weekly Croatian Mass with Croatian music and songs.

"That will not happen," the Rev. Ron Lengwin, diocesan spokesman, said yesterday. "The funds aren't there to support the church on an on-going basis."

On Sunday, the diocese announced that the church would close yesterday because of on-going costs and maintenance problems, including a leaky boiler emitting dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. The decision seemed abrupt, coming just days before Friday's meeting, but closing St. Nicholas has been in the offing for years.

Yesterday, the official closing date, was mostly quiet.

At about noon, a very angry Patricia Magdic, of McKeesport, showed up at the locked church with a sign that read: "Day of Infamy. Jesus Weeps." For about 15 minutes, she stood on East Ohio Street waving the sign, while condemning the diocese for its decision to close the church that was "a historic treasure of my ancestors."

"If Pope John Paul came here and saw this church, and the little children all dressed up, he would not close it," said Magdic, who said she was of Croatian descent but would not provide additional information about herself.

Preservation Pittsburgh issued a news release offering its support to members of St. Nicholas who want to "save this important part of Pittsburgh's religious, cultural and architectural history."

Longtime parishioners are mourning the decision to close St. Nicholas.

"We call it the cathedral from heaven," said Elsie Yuratovich, a lifelong member who lives up the block on East Ohio Street and often takes visitors on tours of her church.

"Interest in St. Nicholas is so overwhelming," she said, adding that people who visit "say this church must never never be closed."