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Can people become closer to God while looking up at Maxo Vanka's murals or climbing marble steps on their knees?
The Pittsburgh Roman Catholic Diocese believes they can - if they know where to find them.
On Saturday, Bishop David A. Zubik announced that five churches in the Strip District, North Side, Polish Hill and Millvale will be combined into a Shrines of Pittsburgh grouping that will highlight their unique collections, history and experiences.
The shrine churches are: St. Patrick and St. Stanislaus Kostka, both in the Strip District; St. Anthony Chapel in Troy Hill, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Polish Hill and St. Nicholas in Millvale. Beginning July 1, the churches will be removed from their current parish groupings and managed by a clergy team led by the Rev. Nicholas S. Vaskov, 36, who is now the diocese's executive director of communications.
"There is so much opportunity to promote them as places of pilgrimage and prayer," he said Sunday. "We want to share these gifts, these treasures."
Father Vaskov said Catholics and others who come to visit one shrine often aren't aware of others, even though they're close by.
St. Anthony Chapel on the North Side, whose collection of 5,000 bone fragments and other relics of Catholic saints is second only to the Vatican's, is less than 2 miles from St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, where Vanka's murals depict the horror of war and the struggles of Croatians...