Griswold Parish Merges With Neighboring Parish
by Diocese of Des Moines | November 25, 2025
When Our Lady of Grace Parish in Griswold closed Nov. 10, its parishioners were invited to become part of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in nearby Atlantic or one of the other nearby parishes.
“This is a painful moment, particularly and especially for the parishioners of Our Lady of Grace,” said the pastor, Father Trevor Chicoine.
Bishop William Joensen will be at Our Lady of Grace in rural Cass County on Sunday, Dec. 7 to celebrate the vigil Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and honor the history and legacy of the parish.
Our Lady of Grace Parish, comprised of 37 registered and active families, faced serious financial, structural, and pastoral challenges in recent years. Last summer, Bishop Joensen asked for a thorough review of the parish’s viability.
Led by Father David Fleming, the Diocese’s vicar general, an examination of the parish looked at resources available to carry out the mission of helping people to know and love God. Through engagements with parish leadership, this examination looked at worship, evangelization, leadership, the parish’s mission and ministries, faith formation, service, stewardship, and how the community of faith met the spiritual, personal, and social needs of each other.
In a meeting with parishioners to review the findings, the people of Our Lady of Grace told Bishop Joensen they didn’t want a prolonged process in decision making or in closing, if that was the conclusion. Bishop wanted to respect that request.
Sharing the decision was hard for lifelong parishioners to hear and hard for the pastor to share.
“It’s been the toughest thing I’ve done since I buried my own father,” said Father Chicoine.
He invited parishioners of Our Lady of Grace to become part of any of the other four parishes in the area: Ss. Peter and Paul in Atlantic, St. Timothy in Reno, St. Mary in Anita, or St. Mary in Red Oak.
And he invited parishioners of those three parishes to understand the pain Our Lady of Grace parishioners are experiencing and welcome them not just into the pews but into the broader life of the parishes.
In the late 1800s, a priest who served parishes in Corning and Red Oak would visit and celebrate Mass in someone’s home for nearby residents. Shortly after the turn of the century, it was decided to build a small church named St. Mary’s, a mission of St. Mary Parish in Red Oak. Its first church was built in 1911, though the parish was formally erected in 1918. The present church was dedicated in 1956.