In a letter dated Tuesday, April 28, Bishop of Oakland Michael C. Barber announced the upcoming closures of two Catholic churches in Alameda—St. Barnabas at 1427 Sixth Street and St. Albert the Great at 1022 Holly Street—along with 10 others in the East Bay.
The decision was made due to “diocesan-wide trends in declining Mass attendance, participation in the sacraments, and Catholic school enrollment that began in the early 2010s,” Bishop Barber stated in the announcement letter sent to priests and parish members. “We are also at an all-time low of priests assigned to our 80 parishes, and the average age of our priests continues to climb. Some parishes and schools are struggling with financial sustainability.”
The Bishop said the decision comes as part of the diocese’s Mission Alignment Process (MAP), which seeks to engage clergy and parishioners “in a process of self-reflection and renewal.”
The announcement stunned parishioners, neighbors, and employees in Alameda, ABC 7 News reported. Agatha Leong, a lifelong member of Saint Barnabas said a friend texted her and told her about the closing.
“I thought, no, it’s not closing, but then she sent me the letter from the Bishop,” Leong said. St. Barnabas has been a second home to her, she told ABC. She has attended Mass there since she was born, received every sacrament there, and all five of her children were baptized there.
Leong said she has noticed attendance declining at Mass, so she figured it might not be sustainable to keep the church open in the long run. But the closure is still hard to take. “I’m glad it went to 100 years, but we wish there would have been more,” she said.
In his announcement, Bishop Barber wrote, “I deeply understand the sacrifice this will require. We cannot allow nostalgia and sentimentality to hold back the message of the Gospel. While we love our local church building, the church has never been solely a building. The church has always been a people called by God and united in faith. The faith of our people will continue, just in a different place and with new people.”
The full list of East Bay parish closures includes:
- St. Albert the Great, Alameda.
- St. Barnabas, Alameda.
- Mary Help of Christians, Oakland.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe site at Blacow Road, Fremont.
- Our Lady of Lourdes, Oakland.
- Sacred Heart, Oakland.
- St. Andrew Kim Korean Pastoral Center, Oakland.
- St. Augustine, Oakland.
- St. Paschal Baylon, Oakland.
- St. Patrick, Oakland.
- St. Rose of Lima, Crockett.
- St. Stephen, Walnut Creek.
In addition to the number of parishioners and clergy declining, the Diocese of Oakland had to file for bankruptcy in 2023 after hundreds of lawsuits alleged clergy members sexually abused children, according to KTVU News. And just last week, the diocese was ordered to pay $16 million in a clergy abuse case, according to an ABC News report. Church leaders said those developments were not a factor in the decision to close churches.
