Withholding information on St. Joseph buyer is prudent

To The Daily Sun,

This letter is in response to the article “Bishop Urged to Seek Alternative to Demolition,” and in response to Patty Thibault’s letter as well.

Regarding the article: While Ms. Whitehead’s efforts may (or may not, depending on who you talk to) be laudable, she has to understand that finding a suitable use for St. Joseph’s (or any former church) is a very hard thing to do in general, and, in particular, in the two-year time frame that has already passed.

One only has to do a Google search to see all of the examples of former churches worldwide being used for some pretty distasteful and profane purposes. I remember the infamous “Limelight” in NYC in the ‘90s — a beautiful, historic Episcopal church turned into a seedy nightclub, complete with pole dancing and drug dealing; but one doesn’t even have to look beyond Laconia to remember the flurry of letters to the editor and accompanying controversy surrounding the former Holy Grail. How would the men and women that helped build, received Sacraments, and buried their dead through St. Joseph’s feel if it were used in a way unbecoming to a former church? How would that be honorable to them?

Regarding Patty Thibault’s letter and questions, I have some questions for you: Have you been inside the current buildings of St. Andre Bessette parish and Holy Trinity School at any time within the last 10 or so years? If you have, you would have easily seen that: 1) The “old, disused convent” you mentioned was already largely updated during Fr. Marc’s time as pastor, named as the “Guadalupe Conference Center,” and used for several purposes, including for conferences, studies for both parishioners and the greater community, faith formation programs, as well as the parish’s vibrant, thriving youth group. It also housed Abba House of Mercy and Prayer, one of many of St. Andre Bessette’s outreach ministries that performs some of those “works of mercy” that you reference. 2) It was and is way more cost-effective to renovate and update the existing, above-mentioned Guadalupe Conference Center than it would have been to address the significant structural issues in the current Holy Trinity School building, and this same Guadalupe Conference Center/future home of Holy Trinity School building has the capacity to house what will be its very own library, in addition to a much-needed elevator that was recently installed there as part of the plan in place for Holy Trinity School. 3) Fr. Marc’s current residence, the former Busiel mansion, is in need of a tremendous amount of work and upkeep due to its age, and the rectory currently used for the administrative offices is in much better structural shape to begin with and will be way more cost-effective to upkeep.

My second question to you: Have you read the parish’s weekly church bulletins of the past 10 years? If you had, you would have known that there has been transparency all along in St. Andre Bessette’s decade-long consolidation process. Furthermore, you would have known that, for the past year, St. Andre Bessette parish has been in the red, largely due to the upkeep of all its current buildings. You would also have known that, in addition to the administrative offices and chapel, the former TD Bank building also now houses that same vibrant, thriving youth group of the parish (and which is open to all area youth age 13 and up, by the way), Abba House of Mercy and prayer, and has two multipurpose conference rooms for the many studies and programs St. Andre Bessette offers to its parishioners and the public. You would further have known that Catholic Charities will be moving there sometime in the future, from their Gilford Avenue office.

My third and final questions to you, in reference to your question, “Will this change be good for Laconia?” While neither I nor anyone else can really answer that, as we can’t see into the future, I ask you this: How is respecting a buyer’s wishes and avoiding potential legal ramifications “sinister”? You mentioned “prudence” in your letter more than once; “prudence” is the very virtue being exercised here; I don’t understand your suspicion,.

I invite you and anyone else in the community to inform yourselves of all of the good that St. Andre Bessette parish has done and will continue to do in the future for the Laconia community and beyond. I also invite you and anyone else in the greater Lakes Region community, who has an interest, to come worship with us.

Dominique Vazquez-Vanasse

Laconia