Surely St. Andre Bassette would object to destroying church

To The Daily Sun,

Sadness has no place in Heaven, but anger might. Consider St. Andre Bessette, who died in Montreal in 1937. He might be angry.

For decades, holy Andre prayed over thousands of disabled pilgrims who visited him. Many were miraculously healed. But Andre never accepted credit for the cures. He said the wonder-worker was really St. Joseph, the husband of the mother of Jesus. In gratitude, Andre spent 20 years begging for funds to build a chapel in St. Joseph’s honor. That “chapel” is the magnificent St. Joseph’s Oratory, Canada’s largest church.

Why might Andre be angry? Consider: We have our own beautiful St. Joseph Church, built in 1929, in downtown Laconia. But this summer, the Catholic Bishop of Manchester plans to demolish it. Why? Because the local parish, coincidentally named, St. Andre Bessette Parish, needs cash to consolidate its facilities. So the Bishop will sell the church lot without the church, mainly to keep the church building out of the hands of future owners who might use it for sordid purposes.

Irony drips from this deal, like the sweat from the brows of those industrious Catholic immigrants who labored in Laconia for the construction of their church. Surely St. Andre Bessette, who was poor and humble in this life, would object to the attempt by a parish named after him to destroy a church named after St. Joseph!

With St. Joseph Church, the Catholic clergy aims to destroy what many laity would rather keep. Moreover, the Catholic Church may demolish what many non-Catholics are hoping to preserve. Surely St. Andre would seek a prudent path to avoid destruction, on the one the hand, and degradation of a former church, on the other.

Laconia is the better for having St. Joseph Church. Therefore, the city might create an Historic District Commission to safeguard St. Joseph Church and other historic buildings downtown. I hope St. Andre smiles upon this undertaking.

Thomas Bates 

Meredith