St. Bernadette Church prepares for final Mass

Bishop Edgar da Cunha, who approved a recommendation in May to close the struggling parish, will celebrate the closing Mass.

FALL RIVER - The final Mass at St. Bernadette Church, the Flint parish formed from a merger of two churches in 2012, will be held this Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Bishop Edgar da Cunha, who approved a recommendation in May to close the struggling parish, will celebrate the closing Mass.

“A lot of people are teary-eyed. We’re doing our best to help people and guide people to new parishes… The church will live on. We’ll move forward,” said David Rose, a member of St. Bernadette’s finance committee.

Rose, who was also on the committee that studied the parish’s finances and recommended its closing, said the final Mass will feature several lectors, Eucharistic ministers and other parishioners who wanted to be involved.

“There are a lot of people who love their church, who are going to miss their church and want to be a part of it,” Rose said.

The decision to close St. Bernadette was made in the midst of a major reorganization effort underway in the Diocese of Fall River. Da Cunha said earlier this year that the “strategic planning process” would probably result in some parish closings and mergers.

“I want you to know that I do not take this difficult decision lightly. My heart carries the weight of your sadness in this loss too,” da Cunha wrote in a letter to St. Bernadette parishioners in late May.

St. Bernadette was created from the merger of Notre Dame and Immaculate Conception churches. Da Cunha said he met with the parish’s former administrator last December to discuss the various challenges facing St. Bernadette.

The possibility of St. Bernadette’s closing came to light during a parish “listening session,” facilitated by diocesan officials, in mid-March, where parishioners examined the challenges they were up against.

St. Bernadette had almost $3 million in debt, needed capital improvements that could have cost up to $1.5 million, operating expenses that increase every year and lagging Mass attendance. In 2017, operating expenses increased by 21 percent from the year before while the parish’s annual fell by ten percent.

“It is the culmination of these many challenges that brings us to where we are today - having to make the most difficult of decisions, to move toward closing St. Bernadette,” da Cunha said in his letter.

Rose compared the closing of St. Bernadette to a death where people will have to mourn in their own way. He said the parish leadership team has not only been helping struggling parishioners to cope, but has also been collaborating with other parishes in the city to ensure that its various ministries continue.

"Really, the church has to change its focus and not think of itself as these singular entities, but to think of itself as a Fall River Catholic Church," Rose said, adding that the local faith community will endure.

"The beautiful thing about the church is that it lives on," Rose said. "The Eucharist lives on and the Gospel lives on."

Email Brian Fraga at bfraga@heraldnews.com