For the second time in 15 months the Vatican overturned a Canadian archbishop’s decision to close a small parish, thus continuing a three-year dispute between parishioners and the archbishop.
Parishioners at Holy Rosary Parish in Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Newfoundland, announced earlier this week that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy had once again overturned Archbishop Peter Hundt’s decision to close Holy Rosary and merge it with the nearby Holy Trinity parish.
This new decree continues a three-year saga that began after the archdiocese announced it would sell Holy Rosary Church and 17 of the archdiocese’s other 34 parish properties in the midst of ongoing bankruptcy filing and court order to compensate victims of sexual abuse.
Holy Rosary parishioners protested and attempted to purchase the church.
The archdiocese reached an agreement with a group of local business leaders to split the church property in two. The larger property would be developed as a community and business space, while the parishioners could buy the smaller parcel, containing the church building and about an acre of surrounding land.
With the land split in two, the parishioners set up a GoFundMe campaign in an effort to save the church building.
Parishioners say they raised enough money to successfully bid on the church property, but when they approached the archdiocese to ask about the next legal steps in the process, the archbishop said he still intended to close the parish. He cited a shortage of priests in the diocese, questions about the parish’s financial viability, and a general decreasing and aging parish population.
The parishioners then appealed to the Vatican, arguing that proper canonical process was not followed in the de facto suppression of their parish, a different issue to the sale of a church building.
The dicastery ruled that the archdiocese did not have a right to sell Holy Rosary Parish property, because the parish is a distinct juridic person.
In Canada, many dioceses are legally structured in such a way that the diocese — rather than the parish — owns the property that churches sit on, and thus has legal possession. Then, in cases of bankruptcy, the diocese is forced to sell the property to settle lawsuits.
However, this arrangement, while common, is at odds with canon law. The Vatican in its ruling cited canon 515 §3, which states that “A legitimately erected parish possesses juridic personality by the law itself,” thus its property is under the administration of the parish itself, represented by the pastor.
Three months after the Vatican’s decision, Hundt issued a second decree, stating that Holy Rosary would indeed merge with Holy Trinity. Parishioners filed a second appeal with the Vatican, and the Dicastery for the Clergy ruled on June 7, 2025 that once again, the archdiocese had violated canonical procedures and thus Holy Rosary was to remain a parish.
This time, the Vatican ruled that Hundt’s second decree did not provide a just cause for closure based upon the present reality of the parish, Holy Rosary parishioner Ed Martin told The Pillar. Hundt’s second decree only listed reasons for closing the parish that existed prior to the sale of the property, thus contrary to the norms for closing a parish. The Vatican again cited canon 515 in its ruling.
Hundt had a 60-day window to appeal the Vatican’s most recent decision, which was issued August 7. It is unclear whether Hundt and the archdiocese filed an appeal during that time. Parishioners say that neither Hundt nor the archdiocese have communicated with them about their parish’s current status.
In an August 7 email to The Pillar, the Archdiocese of St. John confirmed that it had received a decree from the Dicastery of Clergy, revoking the decree of merger for Holy Rosary.
“Presently the Archdiocese is seeking legal counsel on how best to proceed,” the archdiocese said. “Any further comment regarding this situation will be dependent on the legal counsel received.”
For three years, Martin, a local Catholic and businessman, has been coordinating the Holy Rosary parishioners’ efforts to keep their parish doors open. While their appeals have found merit in the Vatican, he said the archdiocese has kept them locked out of the church.
“We have not been able to go inside the church for well over two and a half years. We can’t even go in there and pray a rosary,” Martin said. “We have not been able to go in because, by my understanding, the archdiocese has a lease on the building and by the terms of the lease, if we go into the church, they could come in and remove all of the sacred vessels and such. It has effectively been shuttered.”
Martin and his family have been driving 15 minutes to the next parish in St. Johns, Newfoundland. Other parishioners opted simply to stop attending Mass.
“A lot of people just don’t go to church anymore, both young and old,” Martin said. “There was a woman well into her 80s who said, ‘I just haven’t had the heart to go to Mass anymore.’ There was a young lady, 15 years old, who said that her family had not come to Mass since the church was shuttered.”
Parishioners are largely frustrated with the archbishop’s decision, Martin said. They also feel that Hundt misled them, giving them the impression that their parish could remain open if they successfully bought their church building during the archdiocesan bankruptcy auction.
He added that he believes other dioceses in Canada should take note, as the Archdiocese of St. John is one of the first in the country to face bankruptcy, and other dioceses may find themselves facing similar situations in the future.
Since many Canadian dioceses are legally structured in a way that goes against canon law regulations, with the diocese owning parish property, other bishops may find similar legal hurdles to consolidating parishes.
The Vatican’s latest ruling comes as the local community of 14,000 is growing due to an influx of immigrants from South Asia, the Philippines and Africa — many of whom are Catholic.
“Historically, about 50% of the people in this area of Newfoundland are Catholic,” Martin said. “We have had a huge influx over the last few years of immigrants who are Catholic. I was actually at a different parish for weekday Mass recently, and more than half the people at a daily Mass were actually from India.”
With the Vatican’s second letter, the future of Holy Rosary Parish in Portugal Cove-St. Philips, remains uncertain. But parishioners remain hopeful that they will be able to return to their church in the near future.
“It has been a long haul for over three years now, and it’s draining doing this for that long,” Martin said. “But you have to keep up the fight.”