If I had the opportunity to speak with Father Donald MacGillivary, I have quite a few questions for him as the director of pastoral planning for the Diocese of Antigonish.
His abrupt proposal for closure of churches here on Isle Madame is not sitting well with me or with many of the parishioners. Yes, we are a senior population and our numbers are declining, but some of our churches are indeed viable.
I feel we are being euthanized, put aside before our natural time. So would ask him:
• Why do two other clusters of churches in Richmond Deanery have three churches with one priest and Isle Madame only one-and-a-half churches with one priest? Is there an ulterior motive, like eventually closing all our churches on Isle Madame because there will not be enough people supporting the one church left and it will be forced to close?
• Why do we have only four weeks to deal with this blow when other areas had years?
• If we have approximately 2,500 people on this island (not all of whom attend church regularly) with one priest at present serving four churches on Isle Madame, why bring us down to one-and-a-half churches with one priest?
• Why close St. Hyacinth Parish? It is still viable in every sense of the word as you yourself define viable?
• Why leave us with one church, which is the farthest away from most of the parishioners on Isle Madame? If you are going to leave one church why not a central one, Our Lady of the Assumption in Arichat?
• Have you ever spent any time here on Isle Madame to try to understand us, our needs, our hopes and our aspirations?
• Why close Our Lady of the Assumption? It is one of the oldest churches in Eastern Canada. It was once the Cathedral church for the Diocese of Antigonish, which began in Arichat, and was the precursor of St. Francis Xavier University. Why leave it to fill with mold and fall to ruin?
• Why did you change the proposal on the floor at the last meeting of the representatives from each parish in the deanery – to close Immaculate Conception and convert it into the Pastoral Center, and keep the other three churches open? Why did you decide without the input of the parish representatives to completely close St. Hyacinth Parish, Immaculate Conception Parish and close Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in the winter? Why would you not brook any discussion from the chosen representatives who had no opportunity to deliberate this latest proposal?
D’Escousse, Richmond County