A group of Cape Broyle Catholics is asking potential buyers of their church to keep their distance as they try to save the Immaculate Conception in the community on Newfoundland’s south coast.
“This opportunity to buy the church is completely new to us and we are doing everything we can. But we’re absolutely confident that we can, given the timing, we can support and buy this church and pay for it,” Wayne Kenny, a member of the South Shore Community Church Committee, told CBC News this week.
The church is one of dozens of properties on the southern Avalon Peninsula and Burin Peninsula owned by the Episcopal Corporation of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John that are being sold to raise money for victims of abuse.
It is the second phase of a historic bankruptcy process as the archdiocese tries to collect millions in compensation for survivors of abuse by Christian Brothers and other clergy members.
An earlier phase saw 43 properties in the St. John area, including the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, sold off, a process that raised more than $20 million.
Last month, the province’s Supreme Court approved a plan to sell another 70 properties outside St. John’s. And on Monday, six South Shore churches were listed by real estate agent Michelle Mitchum, with the Cape Broyle church asking $189,800.
The Cape Broyle church was put up for sale on the same day the community began a weeklong celebration of the year “Come Home,” so for those with a deep connection to the church, casting a cloud of uncertainty and disappointment over the festivities.
Cape Broyle Church of the Immaculate Conception was consecrated in 1947 and was built and maintained over the years by members of the Catholic Church. Now, like every property in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John, the church is for sale. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
The booklet Come Home Year, for example, includes old photographs of Cape Broyle men digging the foundations of the church in the mid-1940s. The church opened in 47 and for decades was a focal point of the community as newborns were baptized, couples were married, and those who built and maintained the church passed on.
The church’s relevance in the community has declined over the years as the community ages and the younger generation turns away from their Christian faith. But when it became real this week that their church could be sold and repurposed by a new owner, it came as a shock to people like Wayne Kenny and other members of a committee that maintains the church.
They placed posters in the windows and at the entrance of the church, declaring loud and clear their dedication to the church and their intentions to raise the money needed to purchase a building they had already sacrificed so much to build.
“The community built this place, supported it in good faith, assuming the church entrusted it to us,” Kenney said.
But the church is owned by the Episcopal Corporation and must be sold.
The church committee has very few funds and their numbers are small. But they believe they can find the money to buy the Immaculate Conception. To buy some time, they took to social media this week with a message for potential buyers:
“We ask all other parties who would like to make an offer to purchase the church to refrain from doing so,” the church committee wrote on its Facebook page.
It’s new territory for the church committee, Kenney said, but they’re not backing down.
“It’s a big undertaking, but we’re ready to do it. We have dedicated people here and I think we could probably fill this church again if people knew these are the people who are running it,” he said.
Five members of the commission gathered at the church Monday, and their frustration with the archdiocese and Archbishop Pete Hund quickly surfaced.
Hawkins used his artistic abilities to depict the significance of the Immaculate Conception church. She painted an image of the church on bulbs and sold them during the Year of Return celebrations in the South Shore area this week. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
Kenny said questions to the archdiocese are being answered by a lawyer and they are angry that the archbishop was not more available.
“We are the flock of this church. And that’s disrespectful,” he said, adding, “I think it’s time for the Shepherd to come out and speak to His lost sheep.”
In Cape Broyle, it is also not forgotten that a priest, a known abuser, was sent to the community in the 1980s. The fallout from that scandal turned many people away from the church, Kenney said.
“If the church were to respect the people and take these priests and instead of sending them to another parish, respect the people of those parishes and take care of their business, this church would be full,” he said.
But the church is not full – far from it. And there is no clear plan for the commission to raise the tens of thousands of dollars needed to buy their church and sustain it over the long term.
However, Kenny says he believes people will step up.
“I know they would support their church; maintaining her sanctified state so they can attend mass,” he said.
Archbishop Hund declined all CBC interview requests, but acknowledged in statements that this is a troubling time for Catholics.
But that’s not much comfort to Kenney and other Cape Broyle Catholics who face an uncertain future for their faith — and pray it’s a future that includes their beloved church.
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