Parishioners feeling betrayed over plan

Angry parishioners at a Dunedin church feel "betrayed" and that their place of worship is quietly being swept from under their feet by what they say is a diocese in disrepair and debt.

The parish priest, however, says many parishioners understood the diocese’s position, despite resistance to change.

As part of a property proposal for its Cathedral and Hill Suburbs Pastoral Area the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin is proposing to sell St Mary’s Church to repay its debts and generate some money to invest in urgent repairs needed at St Joseph’s Cathedral.

The Kaikorai church is in need of major work itself. The parish owes the diocese $47,000, and owes the Mornington parish $45,000.

The proposal says it is no longer possible to maintain the St Mary’s site and suggests turning it into an "attractive land parcel" for a developer to build housing.

But St Mary’s parishioners say selling the church would disintegrate their thriving church community.

Parishioner Susan Kubala, 78, said generations of her family had been members of the parish and she had been attending Mass there for the past 35 years.

"I don’t want to see any church destroyed."

Parish priest Fr Vaughan Leslie was a holy man but he was wrong about this, she said.

She felt uncomfortable about the way the proposal had been presented to the parish.

"This land, the church buildings — they were fundraised for by the parishioners in the area and I think we’ve got more ownership than a few people on a committee somewhere."

Another parishioner said the proposal was "cruel" and would break up the St Mary’s community in order to provide a temporary benefit for the cathedral.

She said the proposal was "very un-Christian" and made poor business sense.

"Priests give good spiritual guidance but not good financial guidance. . .

"I feel betrayed and I’m very angry about it."

The cathedral had been poorly managed in the past and was heavily reliant on other parishes, she said.

St Mary’s had a diverse population of Indian, Filipino and Tongan people who used the parish for cultural masses and required the space.

St Mary’s School also uses the church for Mass on Fridays.

School principal Corinne Guthrie said she was against the proposal and wanted the church, which was an important part of the school’s Catholic culture, to be preserved for pupils.

A few of the pupils had made submissions to keep the church open.

When contacted Fr Leslie said the church had a lot of operational debt and the money coming in was not covering the costs to run the church.

"The demographic has very much changed, too, over the years from when there were a lot more people practising the faith and supporting smaller parishes."

The parish and cathedral only celebrated one Mass each week.

There was capacity at the cathedral to celebrate up to five masses and it could accommodate between 3000 and 4000 parishioners so it made sense to amalgamate the parishes there.

The entire proposal was up for consultation. However, the preservation of the cathedral was irremovable, he said.

Most people drove to church, so distance from the cathedral should not be a problem for the Kaikorai community.

Fr Leslie said a lot of other Catholic schools in the city did not have churches next to them and were still able to celebrate Mass in different parts of the schools so St Mary’s School did not need a church.

He said a number of submissions had been made on the proposal and a finance committee would be getting back to the parishioners with a report some time before Christmas.

Fr Leslie said he had not betrayed its congregation because its financial reports were made public each year and many parishioners understood the position the diocese was in.

"It’s change, and a lot of people are very resistant to change. However we do have to make decisions and sometimes they’re not popular."

mark.john@odt.co.nz