Parishes in North Providence and Providence to merge

Jack Perry, The Providence Journal
·2 min read

Three Catholic parishes in Providence and North Providence, one of them dating back to the 1870s, will merge into a single parish at the end of the year, Bishop Thomas Tobin announced Sunday.

The move will merge Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish of North Providence and St. Edward Parish of Providence into St. Anthony Parish, North Providence, the diocese said in a press release. Parish members were notified this weekend.

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The three neighboring parishes have shared a pastor, Very Rev. Edward S. Cardente, since 2013. Tobin said he approved the merger at the request of Cardente and the leadership of the three parishes. Tobin also consulted the diocesan College of Consultors and Council of Priests.

“I commend Father Cardente and the members of the three parishes for working so well together in recent years,” Tobin said. “This canonical merger confirms and strengthens the practical unity the parishes have already achieved, and with God’s help, St. Anthony’s Parish will continue to be a beacon of faith, hope and charity for the local community for many years to come.”

In August of 2013, traffic crawled on the eastbound lane of Mineral Spring Avenue as people stopped to look at the cross atop the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where some claimed to see an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The parish is part of a merger announced Sunday but the church will stay open as an additional worship venue, the Diocese of Providence said.

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St. Edward Parish has served Catholics in the Wanskuck neighborhood of Providence since 1874, while Presentation Parish was founded in 1913 in the Marieville section of North Providence. Both parishes were seeing a decline in participation even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the diocese said.

St. Edward Parish has 263 registered families, while Presentation Parish has 590. St. Anthony's has 1,150 registered families. In a recent count, 45 people attended the one weekend Mass at St. Edward, 265 attended the two weekend Masses at Presentation and 281 went to the two Masses at St. Anthony's.

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"I am very grateful for the understanding and support of the leadership of the three communities in bringing about a consolidation of the overall administration in recent years," Cardente said. "This has made the merger possible without closing any churches and keeping the Mass schedule intact but with greater emphasis on our mission to reach out to the poor and homeless through our shared ministries."

St. Anthony Parish will assume the territory, parishioners, debts and assets, and sacramental records of Presentation and St. Edward parishes. All sacramental records will be maintained at the St. Anthony Parish office at 5 Gibbs Street, North Providence.

The Presentation and St. Edward church buildings will remain open and available as additional worship venues of St. Anthony Parish, the diocese said.

The merger goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Parishes in Providence, North Providence RI to merge