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July 18, 2024By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
St. Ann Parish in the North Oxford section of Oxford will be merged into St. Roch Parish in Oxford Sept. 1. St. Roch’s campus will be used, and efforts will be made to sell St. Ann’s, according to a decree issued by Bishop McManus.
Father James J. Boulette, pastor of both parishes, who is to remain pastor, announced this decision at Masses July 13 and 14.
The announcement was inserted into the joint parish bulletin, and Father Boulette posted it July 11 on the website oxfordcatholicrenewal.org.
Related: History of St. Ann Church, North Oxford
Parishioners expressed both sorrow and faith.
“It’s a sad day, but I think it’s for the best,” said Gail Cummings, a St. Ann’s parishioner who once belonged to St. Roch’s. “I think St. Roch’s will flourish.”
Janet Chesties, a member of St. Ann’s renewal committee that studied the situation and made a recommendation for the future, said she and her husband have been at the parish 55 years.
“It’s not about the building; it’s not about the priests; it’s about the Eucharist,” she said.
“We’ve seen it coming,” given lower attendance, she said of closing a church. “We kind of figured it would be us.” Several friends already left St. Ann’s for other parishes, she said.
“We’ll be going to St. Roch’s,” she added. “I love Father Jim.” She said they’ve made friends there through the joint Knights of Columbus Council and Light of the World parish retreats and small groups.
Through Light of the World “we already know a lot of the people,” said Joan Gero, a St. Roch’s member for 47 years. She was at St. Ann’s 23 years, “so that is still part of my home.”
“I keep praying, and I know the Holy Spirit’s going to bring us together,” she said, and the Holy Spirit is working with Father Boulette, who has tried to “keep both parishes up to date” with the process.
The announcement, decree, and Father Boulette gave details about the process.
The parish will keep the name St. Roch and use St. Roch’s campus at 332, 334 and 336 Main St.; opportunities to sell St. Ann properties at 652 and 654 Main St. will be explored, and proceeds will be used for maintenance and an endowment.
St. Roch’s will take on St. Ann’s assets, liabilities and sacramental records. Decisions need to be made about what to do with St. Ann’s statues etc. and St. Roch’s Center might be renamed Saint Ann Center, Father Boulette said.
St. Roch’s parishioner Marilyn Kent, once active at St. Ann’s, said she loved the idea of renaming the center.
“I love both churches and I feel a sadness for my neighbors” at St. Ann’s, she said. “I hope that we can incorporate both churches” at St. Roch’s campus. She said St. Ann’s “dedicated parishioners have tried so hard to keep it open” and this change must be difficult for Father Boulette too. But “with prayer, everything’s going to be alright.”
Her fellow parishioner Robert Clouthier said he thinks renaming the center is “a perfect way to keep St. Ann right in front of us” – the parish and its patronness. If the saint herself hadn’t prepared her daughter, the Virgin Mary, to be “totally open to God,” there might not have been a St. Roch, he said.
“If Mary said, ‘No,’ there’d be no Jesus,” and no Church or saints, including St. Roch, he explained. “That really wasn’t going to happen … because God knows what he’s doing,” he added.
Mr. Clouthier served on St. Roch’s renewal committee, which he said involved prayer and discussing practical matters.
Beginning in January, Father Boulette established a renewal committee for each parish. He, his staff and the committees compiled five years of financial reports, parish profiles that examined aspects of parish life, and assessments of the buildings and properties. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each parish were analyzed. This information was publicized on oxfordcatholicrenewal.org.
The average weekly income is $7,900 at St. Roch’s, and $2,800 at St. Ann’s, the decree says. St. Roch has “very little indebtedness to the diocese,” but St. Ann “is on target to be in debt to the diocese by $60,000 as of August 2024.”
Households number 1,120 at St. Roch and 341 at St. Ann, with average weekend Mass attendance counts of 300 and 120, respectively.
In May, the committees gave their rationales to Father Boulette, and in June he presented both confidential rationales to Bishop McManus.
“It was determined that only one parish was sustainable in our region, given the dramatic changes in demographics, the availability of priests, the ability to support trained professional staff, and the financial burden of maintaining multiple parish properties,” the announcement says. It says St. Roch’s has a larger church and parking lot than St. Ann’s and is more handicapped accessible.
“I am very happy here,” said St. Roch’s parishioner Joan Cutroni, who has been in several parishes. “The people here are very nice. I feel bad for the ones that go to St. Ann’s.”
“I went through a spiritual renewal when I came here [about four years ago] and I owe it to Father [Michael] Lavallee,” then St. Ann’s pastor, said Donald Letson. “We never gave up hope” of keeping St. Ann’s open.
“It just makes me very sad,” said Donna Freeland, at St. Ann’s since 1989. “It’s like closing a door on a piece of my heart.” There her children were baptized and had religious education classes, and there she feels connected to her partner, who attended Mass with her before he died, she said.
Looking ahead she said, “God will lead me in the right direction.”
“We will grieve the loss of St. Ann’s, as we should,” Father Boulette said in his homily. But “we ... are the mystical body of Christ,” gathered to worship, and comfort and build one another up.
“We still have the Eucharist” through which Jesus re-creates us, Father Boulette said. Jesus sends us out in community to bring others back to him.
“This is not the end of our story,” he said of the merge; it’s an adjustment for the sake of the Church’s mission.
Father Boulette is to appoint a transition and implementation team.
“We will be looking at how to make a welcoming environment” and “incorporating fundamentally important pieces of St. Ann’s history,” the announcement says. It asks that parishioners give thanks for graces received through their parishes and “together set out on mission to do the work entrusted to us by Jesus Christ.”
