John Kearns, the spokesman for the Diocese of Fall River, said the parishes will be looking at ways to share resources in an effort to control expenses and to see if they can revitalize themselves.

Brian Fraga Herald News Staff Reporter @BfragaHN

FALL RIVER - Their parish may be closing, but parishioners of St. Bernadette Church have been invited to join their counterparts from a handful of other Fall River parishes for a special planning meeting next month.

Bishop Edgar da Cunha said parishioners from Good Shepherd, St. Stanislaus, St. Anne and St. Anthony of Padua will meet on June 10 to launch a “strategic planning process” of their own.

“They are pioneering a new way of collaboration in celebrating our faith — breaking down silos from the past and thinking about how we may begin reaching out, not only to one another, but to the world around us, as one welcoming Church, with brothers and sisters on different parish campuses across the city,” da Cunha wrote in his May 24 letter announcing the decision to close St. Bernadette Church.

John Kearns, the spokesman for the Diocese of Fall River, said the parishes will be looking at ways to share resources in an effort to control expenses and to see if they can revitalize themselves.

St. Stanislaus and Good Shepherd Church already share one pastor. Good Shepherd and St. Anne's Church collaborate on a joint religious education program for children in those parishes.

“They’ve all had individual meetings, parish planning teams have been established to look at finances and the results of parishioner surveys, and they’ve all had parish assemblies,” Kearns said. “Now, they’re coming together to figure out ways of sharing. It’s the first of several meetings.”

Along with the other four   named churches in Fall River, St. Bernadette was part of the pilot group of parishes in the city where leadership teams were assembled and meetings were held to review the state of the parishes.

In St. Bernadette’s parish assembly on March 18, parishioners learned about their church’s struggling finances and lagging Mass attendance. On April 29, a few dozen parishioners at St. Anne’s discovered that their iconic church needs $13.5 million for necessary renovations and repairs.

 

Similar parish assemblies have been held at Good Shepherd, St. Stanislaus and St. Anthony of Padua, though Kearns added that nothing should be read into the inclusion of those parishes in the pilot group.

“Not everybody in the pilot groups are struggling,” Kearns said.

Similar pilot groups of parishes in New Bedford, Falmouth and Swansea have already been self-examining their finances and Mass attendance, and possible avenues for collaboration. Eventually, Kearns said every parish in the Diocese of Fall River will go through the same process.

“They will all need planning teams and will make presentations in parish-wide assemblies,” Kearns said. “They’ll look at what they do well, and what they can do better.”

Email Brian Fraga at bfraga@heraldnews.com