Parishes change, belief stays constant

In the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood where Carla Caple has lived since birth, maintaining a faith life has been like a game of musical chairs.

One Catholic parish closes and Caple moves to another. Then that church shuts down and she moves on to the next.

Through each closing or merging of a parish and school, Caple has enrolled her children in someplace new and gone to Mass with a new group of congregants.

But her faith has remained strong, whatever the parish. And despite the revolving door of parishes, Caple has stayed involved with her congregation.

"The church has always been a part of my life, because I was raised in the church," she said. "I was taught that you can't just call on God in the time of . You have to constantly do it, and I pray every day."

Now a parishioner at St. Cyprian Church, Caple said her faith has carried her through some dark days.

"The church has helped me in dealing with everything in my life," she said. "It's always been there to help."

That was especially true when, at 34, the former certified nursing assistant was diagnosed with a torn heart valve and underwent surgery. Weeks later, she suffered a stroke.

"There was nothing I could do about it." Caple said of her illnesses. "I turned it over" to God.

Caple, now 38, shared her experience with her fellow parishioners for the first time in April on Good Friday, she said. In a service about the "Seven Last Words of Christ," which Christians believe were spoken by Jesus before his death on the cross, Caple talked about the seventh word in a presentation to parishioners, she said.

"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" is a phrase from Luke 23:46 considered the seventh "last word."

"You know how you go to church, and you think what they're saying has nothing to do with you?" Caple said during a recent interview. "Well -."

Caple's faith tradition has roots that go back generations. Her mother and grandmother, born Catholic Philadelphians, worshipped at St. Rita's in South Philadelphia before moving to Transfiguration of Our Lord parish at 56th Street and Cedar Avenue.

Caple grew up in Transfiguration and attended its school. She went on to middle school at Most Blessed Sacrament at 56th and Chester Avenue, then West Catholic High School in 1989, soon after the separate girls' and boys' schools were combined.

Eventually, she began her career as a nursing assistant, supporting a family that had grown to include daughter Aliah, now 19, and son Kenneth Washington Jr., 10.

Both youngsters attended Catholic schools in the neighborhood, including Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament parish at 63d and Callowhill Streets, where Caple attended services before joining St. Cyprian.

In 2011, Caple was at her job in a nursing facility when her chest began to hurt. After two weeks of medical appointments and tests, doctors discovered the tear in Caple's heart valve. She was told she needed surgery immediately.

So serious was her condition that she was advised to complete an advanced directive. Her doctor asked for instructions about her choice of a funeral home and her child custody wishes.

"There was no guarantee that I was going to wake up off that table," Caple said.

"It was like I was in a twilight zone. I couldn't question God, but I had questions," she said. "I couldn't believe what was happening, but it was happening."

Her faith sustained her. Just as Jesus on the cross put his fate in the hands of his father, she said, she recited the Lord's Prayer before she was wheeled into the operating room.

Doctors cracked open her chest and repaired the heart valve, but her recovery was complicated a month later. Caple was at home resting when she suddenly got cold and felt tingling in her right arm, which later went numb.

A nurse coincidentally visiting that day told Caple that she was having - or had - a stroke.

"We called 911 and the ambulance came," Caple said.

Since then, Caple's life has included a seemingly never-ending series of checkups, tests, and physical therapy.

"I can't walk up the steps without panting, and some days my hands and arms hurt," Caple said.

She had to stop working and go on disability.

Daughter Aliah was scared.

"I never thought anything like that could happen. It made me appreciate my mom a whole lot more," Aliah Caple said.

Her mother never mentioned her illness to fellow parishioners at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.

"My kids were there, and I didn't want them to be bombarded with questions," Caple said.

Then in 2012, the school closed while Kenneth was a student, and the parish closed a year later. Kenneth enrolled at St. Francis Cabrini Regional School, the former St. Donato's, at 65th Street and Callowhill.

"He was heartbroken," Caple said. "He loved that school."

Caple had felt the same when the archdiocese, in 2000, closed Transfiguration, the parish where she grew up. Caple returned to St. Cyprian at Cobbs Creek Parkway and Cedar Avenue, which she previously attended when Transfiguration closed and merged with what became St. Cyprian.

At St. Cyprian, Caple serves on the liturgical and hospitality committees, and as a Eucharistic minister. Her church life has been a sustaining force in giving her the spiritual strength to cope.

"At first I was upset," Caple said thinking of the church she calls "Transy" and the wave of West and Southwest Philadelphia church closings that followed.

Since 2010, the archdiocese has reorganized and reduced the number of parishes in the five-county area from 266 to 219. The dizzying changes are part a national trend that started in the Midwest in the 1970s, affecting most major dioceses.

"It seemed like it was just the inner city, but then [the closings] started spreading to the suburbs," she said.

Caple's children ultimately wound up in non-Catholic schools: Kenneth at a public school and Aliah in a cyber high school.

But the Catholic Church remains the family's spiritual home. On Good Friday, Caple talked about her medical struggles from the pulpit, saying she chose the theme of the seventh word - trust in the face of fear - because it fit her experience, particularly coping with illness.

"I was laying on the gurney and thinking, I can't take all of this [worry] with me," Caple said. "I'm letting go of it and turning it over."

kholmes@phillynews.com 610-313-8211