Kettering man calls for fellow Catholics to scrap church closure plans

Peter Anderson hopes they will flood Bishop David Oakley with letters and emails to prompt a change of heart.

The closure of St Bernadette’s, Rothwell, Holy Trinity, Desborough, and St Nicholas Owen, Burton Latimer, was announced to worshippers on March 1, leaving only St Edward’s, Kettering, open.

Mr Anderson claims the Diocese of Northampton conducted a ‘flawed consultation’ among parishioners saying that closing can only be ratified by the bishop, who has been on leave since before Christmas with no return in sight.

Doubting St Edward’s capacity to accommodate the merged congregations, Mr Anderson said: “I hope all parishioners will flood the bishop with letters calling for him to dismiss these proposals. I hope he reviews the whole consultation process with a critical eye and challenges those who have made the closure recommendation.

“Under Church law he can only close a church for grave reasons. Yet the situation in our parish is manageable and correctable, not grave.

“Under Church law, only bishops can take the hard decision to close any church. The diocesan hierarchy has jumped the gun. They’ve not waited for his final return and approval before setting up a working group to plan the closures.

“I don’t think we’ve been told the whole truth about the state of parish finances. If they were as bad as painted, why have we never had an appeal to contribute extra in Sunday plate collections or fundraising events? Why did it suddenly become a crisis forcing us to close churches?

“We were led to believe it was impossible for the church to attract extra priests to cover for our hard-pressed parish priest. But I have since found out there’s a working party looking to do just that – attract more priests from abroad. And our MP Rosie Wrighting is trying to persuade the Home Office to issue more visas to overseas priests. So it is a position of hope, not doom.

“Not being given the whole truth about these issues means parishioners were consulted under false pretences. If these closures are confirmed we will have several grounds of appeal to Rome.”

The closure plans were revealed at Sunday masses on March 1, following consultation with the 1,000 regular worshippers at the four churches.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Northampton said: “The strong recommendation to emerge from the process is that the parish becomes one community, one body, one church at St Edward’s.

“This will integrate the communities with a strong parish identity, enabling a focus on families and faith formation, and provide a sustainable workload for one priest into the future. These recommendations have been shared with Bishop David for his approval.

“A transition team will be coming together for the next few months to assist this process, particularly focussing on Mass times, addressing possible over-crowding, and helping the outlying communities to feel at home at St Edward’s.

“We will be looking at ways to use the buildings in other ways – i.e. mission-led community centres in those parishes.”

Paula Swift, a Rothwell worshipper, said she is heartbroken by the closure the church in the town.

She added: “I feel heartbroken about the closure of our church and would be happy to help any way I can.

“I moved to Rothwell in March 2021 and discovered my local Catholic church, St Bernadette’s, sited on a small hill with a replica grotto of Lourdes.

“To this day I feel so blessed to be able to attend mass at this church which is so devoted Our Lady of Lourdes. To lose the ability to attend mass at St Bernadettes would be a tragedy beyond measure.”