Update: Catholic diocese to close 3 churches

[lemonbeam]

OTTAWA — An aging and shifting population is forcing the Ottawa Roman Catholic diocese to close three churches on the city’s east side. The diocese is expected to announce soon the closure of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes-de-Cyrville on Cyrville Road. It will also decide which two of three other churches — Ste-Anne on (St. Patrick Street), St-Charles (on Beechwood Avenue) or Marie-Médiatrice (on Cyr Avenue) will close.

Earlier reports that St-Louis-Marie-de-Montfort on Trojan Avenue will close are incorrect, a spokeswoman for the diocese said Monday morning.

The diocese has been studying potential closings with individual church committees for more than a year.

Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes-de-Cyrville is apparently slated to close later this year.

Priests at the affected churches told parishioners of the closings Sunday, but their prepared statements, read during church services, were short on detail.

George Laplante, 68, has been going to Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes for 41 years and volunteering on its financial committee for the last 15.

“It’s something we saw coming,” he said.

“There are realities of life you can’t get away from. If you have so many people coming in, there’s only so many people keeping that church going,” Laplante, a retired insurance man, said.

“The heating bills aren’t going down, the repair work — our church is fairly old. It’s a big monument to look after,” Laplante said.

The heating bill alone runs up to $14,000 from October to May.

Ste-Anne and St-Charles are important historic cornerstones for francophone communities in Ontario.

Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, considered a spiritual centre for the Cyrville neighbourood on Ottawa’s east side, celebrated mass yesterday morning at 8:30 and 11:30.

The historic church, originally established in 1871, has room for 400 parishioners, but on Sunday, roughly 40 people attended each mass, where they were told about the church’s future.

There was no diocese spokesperson available Sunday to confirm the closing plans officially.

Parishioners at St-Sébastien on Francis Street were told, however, that under proposed parish boundary changes, their church would absorb parishioners from at least one of the closed churches.

Unlike some of the churches,

St-Sébastien has a fairly constant weekend attendance of around 400, but others in the area are apparently drawing fewer than 40 parishioners.

“This whole (Eastview) area used to be almost all French-Canadian and probably 100 per cent of them were Catholic,” said one veteran

St-Sébastien parishioner who asked not to be identified. “Now there are probably 20 different nationalities around here. Come to church and you’ll see a lot of white hair and not many children,” he added

“When I was a kid, you never missed a weekend church service. You just had to be there. Today there are hardly any kids going to church. Families used to have six or seven kids, but not anymore.”

Problems for the Catholic Church on the city’s east side reflect similar difficulties elsewhere in Canada and the United States.

A combination of fewer parishioners, shrinking revenue and aging buildings in need of repair is forcing church hierarchies to make tough, often unpopular, decisions.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

ottawacitizen.com/life/Catholic+diocese+close+churches/2041132/story.html

 

[s4angel]

wow, that is heartbreaking.

 

[stbruno]

This is very sad. Recently in the US, there was a survey that says there is a growing percentage of people who claim no religious affiliation or even faith. That is very sad and it is certainly reflected in the fact of closing churches. We need to pray even more. It seems 3rd world countries have growing numbers of those seeking the faith, but in the secularized 1st world countries, they distance themselves from God, believing that all they have is from their own merit. More reasons to pray!

 

[PadraigPearce]

Sad, but not really surprising. The demographics in that part of town really have shifted, and as large families gave way to small families and a lot of them moved to the suburbs, it was bound to happen. I think the Church in Canada is holding steady for now, but I’m afraid if things stay as they are, there’s going to be a drastic decline in the next 15 to 20 years. As I look around my home parish on a Sunday, I’d say probably 70 or 75 percent are above 60. The younger people who do come are usually immigrants from the Phillipines or South America, and as their children integrate into society they usually imitate society at large and stop going to church. Most other churches I’ve been to in Ottawa are similar. The baby boom generation seems to be the last one that views going to church as an obligation, and when they go to their reward, attendance and sunday collections will go through the floor.