BIDDEFORD — Due to a declining population of parishioners and a decrease in collections, three of the five year-round churches in the Roman Catholic Good Shepherd Parish will be closing.
The news was announced to parishioners from the pulpit by Monsignor Rene Mathieu during masses over the past weekend.
Notre Dame de Lourdes Church of Saco and St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Biddeford will be closing at the end of the year, according to Mathieu. St. Andre Church in Biddeford will close by Dec. 31, 2010.
St. Joseph’s Church in Biddeford and Most Holy Trinity Church in Saco will remain open. St. Brendan’s Chapel in Biddeford Pool, which is only open during the summer, will also remain open.
The likelihood that church buildings would eventually be closed had been discussed as early as 2006, said Mathieu, as part of a buildings proposal for Cluster 25. In addition to Biddeford and Saco, Cluster 25 also includes Old Orchard Beach and Lyman.
Other aspects of that initial report, which included expanding and winterizing St. Luke’s in Old Orchard Beach and possibly building a new church in Biddeford, are not feasible, said Mathieu.
The announcement this weekend that closings were imminent “was like announcing the impending funeral of someone you love,” he said.
Many parishioners were saddened by the announcement that these churches, where several generations of their families had worshipped, would have to close their doors.
“It’s very sad that we’ve come to this,” said Helen Fortier, the music director for the parish and music teacher at Biddeford’s St. James School.
Mathieu said that maintaining the large buildings has become too expensive. “It was a choice between the building and the ministry,” he said. “Everyone knows we have to use our money better.”
The parish ended its fiscal year on June 30 with a $48,000 deficit. The projected deficit for the next fiscal year is $170,000.
In addition, weekly contributions, which are the primary support for parish operations, have been dropping at a rate of about 10 percent per year while expenses continue to rise, said Mathieu.
The decision to reduce building costs “before we cut costs related to our parish ministries such as formation, education, worship, social justice and so forth” was made with the unanimous support of the parish Finance Council and its Pastoral Council, said Mathieu.
“These are economic decisions that have to be made,” said Police Chief Roger Beaupre, who is on the Good Shepherd Parish Pastoral Council. “To sustain the existing churches, others unfortunately have to be cut out of the mix.
“It’s discouraging on one end,” said Beaupre, who was baptized and married at St. Andre Church, one of churches scheduled to close, “but we have to accept the reality.”
For economic reasons, the state has been forced to consolidate schools and the city has had to consolidate departments, said Beaupre.
“Why would churches be exempt?” he asked.
Good Shepherd Parish staff member Paula Moses said according to data collected from the Catholic churches in Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach there have been more than twice as many burials than baptisms this year. While Old Orchard Beach is not yet part of Good Shepherd Parish, it is proposed that the town join the parish by July 2010.
This year, there have been more than 200 burials, said Moses, and in the first six months of 2009 there were only 52 baptisms. The number of baptisms has decreased significantly in the last 15 years, from 304 in 1995 to 168 in 2008.
The number of marriages in area churches has also declined, said Moses. In 2005 there were 139 weddings. This year the number is 34.
A decline in the number of men entering the priesthood is another part of the problem. Although years ago each of the churches had several priests to serve their parishioners, today only three permanent priests travel from church to church to serve the Good Shepherd Parish.
“It doesn’t allow us a lot of time to stay in one place and get to know the people. That’s painful to us,” said Mathieu. After the closures, there will be only two churches to travel between.
Declining parish populations isn’t unique to the Biddeford-Saco area, but is happening throughout the state, said Sue Bernard, the spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.
Since the effort by the diocese to clusters churches began in 2005, said Bernard, all 29 clusters in the state have looked at their properties to determine “which ones have outlived their usefulness.”
A proposal to close two of five churches in the Lewiston’s Prince of Peach Parish in October was also announced this weekend.
Although saddened by the closures, Fortier is also hopeful for the future of the Good Shepherd Parish.
In 1992, because of declining enrollment and financial necessity, the three parochial schools of Biddeford’s three permanent churches were closed, said Fortier, and St. James School was formed. She said that school has been successful and has brought together families from the three churches.
Fortier said she is hopeful something similar will happen for Good Shepherd Parish and that, “like a phoenix rising, we can build a new community.”
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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