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May 23, 2025
BY BILL DOYLE | CFP CORRESPONDENT
Bishop McManus announced in a letter shared with parishioners at Masses last weekend that the parishes of St. John the Baptist in East Brookfield, St. Joseph in North Brookfield and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in West Brookfield will merge into one new parish with two churches. As of Wednesday, an official decree had not been signed.
Bishop McManus said in the letter that he accepted recommendations from parish committees and the diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee to merge
the three parishes into one which will worship at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in West Brookfield
and St. Joseph in North Brookfield. The bishop also announced that he is planning to follow the recom- mendations to close St. John the Baptist Church in East Brookfield and St. Mary Church in Brookfield. St. Mary Church is an Oratory which has been part of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish since 2011.“Whenever there’s a church closing, it’s always sad to see that happen,” said Father Joseph D. Rice, who has served as administrator for the three parishes and the oratory for four years, “but the reality is that things couldn’t continue as they were. Me, personally, it was very difficult being the administrator of three separate communities where I’m saying Mass at one church this weekend and I might not see them at the same Mass for another three or four weeks. So it’s really difficult to get to know people like you would if you had just the one church or the two churches.”
Asked why the parishes are merging, he said, “The main reason was the number of available priests.”
Father Rice is currently assisted by Father Donald C. Ouellette, associate pastor, and Father Miguel A. Pagan, who has served as sacramental minister for the last several months.
The new parish will serve six towns, West Brook- field, Brookfield, East Brookfield, North Brookfield, Oakham and New Braintree.
Father Rice said the bishop’s letter was read and distributed to parishioners at Masses at all four churches last weekend.
Notes from the parish committees were posted on the parish websites, but the final decision about the merger wasn’t revealed until last weekend.
“It’s a difficult, emotional thing for some people,” Father Rice said. “They’ve been members of their par- ishes for their whole lives.”
Father Rice said one woman told him she has sat in the same place in the same pew for 52 years.
Since the end of last sum- mer, pastoral planning committees from each of the three parishes met once or twice a month to discuss the future. Eventually, the three parish councils joined the discussion and early this year the councils from all three parishes began meeting together.
The combined councils met with members of the diocesan Pastoral Plan- ning Committee on April 21 to make their final rec- ommendation to Bishop McManus.
In his letter dated May 12, Bishop McManus said in part: “I have received your proposals and have reviewed them with the diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee. It is clear that you recognize the need
to close some buildings
so that you might use the assets to strengthen current ministries and add some lay pastoral staff. It is also clear from your pro- posals that you would like one parish with two wor- ship sites.”Parishioners were asked to forward their sugges- tions for a name for the new parish by June 6 to Father Rice. The sugges- tions will be published the weekend of June 14-15 and then parishioners will vote on what they’d like the new name to be. Their vote will be forwarded to the bishop, who will make the final decision on the new name of the parish, Father Rice said.
St. Mary and Sacred Heart of Jesus merged in 2011 to form Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish.
St. Mary holds one Catho- lic Mass each week and also hosts the Emmanuel Orthodox Church on Sundays.
Father Rice said St. John the Baptist Church opened in 1969 and is the new- est of the churches in the Brookfields.
Rick Wheeler, 70, of North Brookfield has been a parishioner at St. Joseph for 65 years and he’s a member of the parish council.
Mr. Wheeler said St. John the Baptist has the small- est number of parishioners and the smallest capacity, but as the newest church it is the most marketable to be sold.
“They’re naturally dis- appointed,” Mr. Wheeler said of the St. John the Baptist parishioners. “If St. Joseph was the one to be closed, I’d be disappointed. If Sacred Heart was the one to be closed, they’d be disappointed. We all knew going into the meeting that one of us was going
to close and one group of parishioners was going to be disappointed.”
Mr. Wheeler said St. John the Baptist needs a new heating system that is expected to cost $320,000.
“Although the process of change can be painful,” Bishop McManus wrote in his letter, “let us together pray that the goal of devel- oping a strong community of faith to further the mis- sion of Christ’s Church in the Brookfields will be the light that gives us hope.”