With word St. Peter’s parish in the north end is among the five in the city that will shutter, you may be wondering what that means for Divine Mercy Catholic School.
The school’s director of marketing and donor relations Catherine Burnham tells CHSJ News they’ve always had an unofficial relationship with the church but its closure doesn’t mean the school will meet the same fate.
“It does sadden us, we love being close to a church, we love being able to bring our students into a church…the Bishop had actually called us before the announcement was made just to assure us that our school would be able to continue running,” says Burnham.
She says the church and the school, which began in the church basement and is now located in the former rectory, have supported each other for the past 15 years and the closure will impact them — Burnham says they use the church for the end of the year concert and the children all go to mass there at the end of each Friday.
“So there are little ways that we will have to rearrange how we do things and figure out different spaces to be able to use.”
Nine Catholic churches in total are being closed in New Brunswick.
