Holy Spirit Church in Gardner to close

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Holy Spirit Church at 50 Lovewell St. in Gardner is to close on Oct. 1, according to a Sept. 24 decree from Bishop McManus.

An official closing Mass is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. this Sunday, Sept. 28, Father Victor A. Sierra, pastor of Annunciation Parish, said in a letter emailed to parishioners via Flocknote on Sept. 14 and distributed at Masses.

“From September 29th onward, all regularly scheduled Masses will be celebrated on the Holy Rosary Church campus,” he wrote.

Holy Spirit was established as a mission of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Gardner in 1954 and raised to the status of a parish on Feb. 11, 1955 by Bishop John J. Wright, who dedicated the church building on June 26, 1955.

Holy Spirit and Sacred Heart were merged with the other two Gardner parishes – St. Joseph and Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – on July 1, 2015 to form Annunciation Parish. Holy Rosary Church became the primary worship site and Holy Spirit remained open as a chapel.  

“Our resources are insufficient to maintain both locations,” Father Sierra said in this month’s Flocknote letter to parishioners. “After much prayer, reflection, and consultation, the Diocese has made the difficult decision that Annunciation Parish must consolidate and worship at one location: Holy Rosary Church. This decision comes after a year of careful study, and it is necessary for the long-term sustainability of our parish.”

He said needs at Holy Rosary include repairing a bell tower (estimated at a cost of $800,000 to $1.04 million), putting in two new doors for $20,000 each, repointing the entire building and adding handicap access.

Holy Spirit’s needs include handicap accessibility, construction of new foundations due to humidity caused by frequent flooding of the basement, a roof replacement for an estimated $100,000, and cutting of six trees covering half the roof, at a cost of nearly $2,000 each, Father Sierra said. In addition, the ceiling and walls are in poor condition.

“In total, the needs across our campuses amount to at least two million dollars – a sum we simply do not have,” he wrote. He said Annunciation Parish has $206,347.71 in savings, $104,347.12 in a renovation fund and $105,716.38 in a restricted handicap access fund, which totals less than 25 percent of what is needed.

The decree quotes canon law as saying: “When other grave causes suggest that a church no longer can be used for divine worship, the diocesan bishop, after having heard the presbyteral council, can relegate it to profane but not sordid use with the consent of those who legitimately claim rights for themselves in the church and provided the good of souls suffers no detriment thereby.”  

Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, diocesan judicial vicar/vicar for canonical affairs, said “profane but not sordid” means the church can be used for something secular, like a day care, as long as it is not something unholy.  

He said universal canon law speaks of the claiming of rights because, in some other countries, families have donated churches to dioceses and have certain rights associated with that. In the United States this part of canon law is usually understood to mean that the pastor, as administrator of parish property, has some say in how it is used, he said. The pastor is also responsible for seeing that parishioners’ spiritual and sacramental needs are met.

Father Sierra said in his letter that the decision to close Holy Spirit Church will bring sadness to many. But he urged parishioners to “look beyond the labels of ‘Holy Rosary’ and ‘Holy Spirit,’” which are “part of our history, but ... should never divide us.”  

The people’s identity is in Christ and they are members of his body, one family, one Church, he said. Their unity is rooted in God’s love and the sharing of his body and blood in the Eucharist.  

“I invite you today to renew your commitment to our shared mission – to be witnesses of Christ’s love, to serve one another, and to build up His Church,” Father Sierra wrote.