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Return to regular viewS.F. Parish Perseveres In Crusade To Reopen
St. Brigid community has stuck together
Mekeisha Madden, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 30, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/06/30/MN27435.DTL
Six fresh daisies in a vase sit in the doorway of St. Brigid Catholic Church, beside a single burning candle. A sign explains: ``God is welcome everywhere except Van Ness and Broadway.''
Five years after the Archdiocese of San Francisco shut down St. Brigid because it was too costly to retro fit, parishioners still pray and keep faith that Catholic leaders will reopen the doors to the granite edifice.
``This is a test of our faith,'' said Robert R. Bryan, an attorney for the Committee to Save St. Brigid Church. ``I believe that Archbishop Levada will reopen St. Brigid and that's what we all are praying for.''
Tonight, about 300 parishioners will gather in the church parking lot for a Mass, followed by a candlelight vigil.
The Rev. Cyril O'Sullivan, a priest at St. Brigid when it closed and now associate pastor of St. Isabella Church in San Rafael, will celebrate the parking-lot Mass.
``We still function as a parish. We just don't have a church,'' said Joe Dignan, 42, a Potrero Hill resident. ``We're homeless and we're praying for (that to) change.''
Like many St. Brigid parishioners, Dignan's roots go back many generations. His father, Joseph J. Dignan, was baptized there. He was baptized and married there, and his daughter was christened at St. Brigid.
``St. Brigid is my spiritual home,'' said Dignan, who grew up on Lombard Street. ``I've never been a `good' Catholic, but I still feel that St. Brigid is good for my spirit and this is true for countless members who, like me, are feeling a gut- wrenching sense of loss and bereavement.''
Former San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn closed St. Brigid along with eight other city churches because of high costs, aging buildings and dwindling numbers of parishioners. Quinn's closure orders frustrated the parishes, but St. Brigid put up the fiercest fight of all, taking its case to the Vatican and challenging the archdiocese's $5.5 million retrofitting estimate.
The last Mass at the church was said on July 1, 1994.
Later, parishioners, led by Bryan, traveled to Rome to appeal to the Vatican Congregation for Clergy and the Vatican court of the Apostolic Signatura. The appeal, however, was batted back down to the San Francisco Archdiocese, now headed by Archbishop William Levada.
``It was looking slightly grim in the beginning,'' said Bryan, a native of Birmingham, Ala., and a former civil rights attorney. ``Now that there is a new archbishop, our bond has strengthened. People really believe the doors of the church will open again.''
But archdiocesan spokesman Maurice Healy said St. Brigid will remain closed, at least for the foreseeable future.
``The archdiocese has spent millions of dollars saving other Catholic churches, and unfortunately St. Brigid did not have the numbers demographically to make us save it,'' Healy said. ``As it stands, St. Brigid will not be reopened and the archbishop has not said what he will do with St. Brigid.''
Healy added: ``The archbishop sympathizes with the parishioners of St. Brigid for their loss.''
Parishioners are not the only ones who want St. Brigid saved.
Architectural historians such as John Gregson, a chemist who works for the city of San Francisco, want to see the church preserved.
St. Brigid was built in 1863 and rebuilt six times, transforming from a small wood-framed building to a tall, robust granite structure with stained-glass windows imported from Dublin, Ireland.
``San Francisco's greatness as a city hinges on what happens to this church,'' said Gregson, 39, who lives in the Sunset District. ``If the archdiocese sells this church, it will sell part of the city's character to the highest bidder.''
Gregson was one of 18,000 San Franciscans who signed a petition five years ago to keep St. Brigid open. Since then, nonparishioners like Gregson have continued to write and attend vigils with parishioners like Carmen Esteva, 62.
``In the Philippines, churches were never closed no matter how poor or how small,'' said Esteva, an immigrant who joined St. Brigid six years before it closed. ``I am praying because I believe that the church is going to open.''
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A14