Closed S.F. Church Sold for Townhouses
St. Edward parish fought shutdown
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Tuesday, November 3, 1998
©1998 San Francisco Chronicle

Twenty-nine upscale townhouses will replace St. Edward the Confessor Roman Catholic Church in a $4.1 million real estate deal announced yesterday by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The announcement pounded the last nail in the coffin of St. Edward, where die-hard parishioners fought the archdiocese's 1994 decision to close the Laurel Heights church and eight other parishes across the city.

Archdiocesan spokesman Maurice Healy said proceeds from the sale will be used to help retrofit five other churches to make them meet new earthquake safety standards.

Former parishioners at St. Edwards, along with their pastor, the late Monsignor Edward Dullea, appealed to the Vatican in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn former Archbishop John Quinn's decision to shut down the church in a controversial parish consolidation plan.

``They broke my pastor's heart,'' said David Joy, who worshiped at St. Edward's for 26 years. ``Monsignor Dullea told us, `They'll close the church over my dead body.' ''

Dullea, the only pastor to challenge Quinn publicly on church closings, died in August 1996.

Archdiocesan officials said the 35-year-old church was closed because of the small numbers of parishioners attending services there.

But that, Joy said, was what gave the parish its special feeling.

``It was the kind of place where if you didn't see someone in church, you'd call up to make sure they were OK,'' he said. ``This shouldn't be about buildings, but about community, which is something we should be building up.''

Joy said he heard that the money from the sale would be used to fund a new archdiocesan newspaper scheduled to begin publication next year.

Not true, said Healy.

According to Healy, proceeds from the sale will go toward the archdiocese's $7.75 million commitment to retrofit St. Boniface Church in the Tenderloin, Sacred Heart in the Western Addition, Old St. Mary's in Chinatown, St. Patrick's on Mission Street and St. Paul's in Noe Valley.

Those five projects will cost more than $21 million, and the individual parishes are trying to raise money to make up the difference.

Healy said no decision has yet been made about what to do with two other closed churches, St. Joseph's at 10th and Howard streets, and St. Brigid's, the Van Ness Avenue landmark where activist parishioners have appealed to Archbishop William Levada to reopen the church.