Based at St Mary's in Blenheim, Star of the Sea parish has gone without a permanent priest for over six months.

Their last priest was Father Michael McCabe who retired in January.

Praying for visas

In a December parish newsletter, McCabe said two missionaries had been appointed to assume pastoral responsibility for Star of the Sea.

He named Father Simione Volavola, originally from Fiji, and his assistant Father Tavita Lemusu, originally from Samoa.

McCabe said that Simione had ministered in the US state of Pennsylvania for 16 years and had American citizenship.

Christmas and New Year came and went without a sign of the pair.

In a January newsletter, McCabe asked his congregation to pray that the visa status situation would "be resolved soon".

"We are very aware that Star of the Sea parishioners have had to face this issue before, hence the need for prayer" he said.

They hadn't arrived by the time McCabe's retirement date had arrived.

Interim arrangements

An interim priest has taken McCabe's place and in May the Archdiocese of Wellington provided an update about his official replacements.

The parish is part of the Archdiocese of Wellington.

The archdiocesan office told parishioners it has little control over the visa application process "except for checking the credentials of the clergy and the congregations concerned.

"Even having done this, there can be hiccups.

"Sometimes in the countries of origin the detail required for a visa application is not easy to obtain quickly."

Visa issue

The Archdiocese has been assured that as soon as the visas are issued the two missionary priests would be able to assume pastoral responsibilities.

The archdiocesan office says the matter is in the hands of Immigration NZ.

As Immigration NZ is not permitted to discuss individual cases without privacy waivers, no information is available through that source.

Its website provides the following information:

• Non-residents can apply for a Religious Worker Work Visa if they have an offer of religious work from a religious organisation
• Religious Worker Resident Visas are available to those who had held a Religious Worker Work Visa for three years.

Source

• Stuff

Its long history of Sunday masses ended on January 13, 2019 and its doors were closed for good after a parish property review later that year.

The soon-to-be-razed Catholic church building was the second church built on the site . The first had its first Mass in 1865.

The current building has been deemed an earthquake risk after being given a new building standard (NBS) rating of just 10 percent.

Options were considered by the region's Catholic parish, Star of the Sea Marlborough. The parish eventually decided the cost of making the building safe to use again wasn't viable.

"Today, with fewer priests, rising costs and parishioners more likely to drive to Mass, parishes have been asked to reorganise how they engage with their communities," said Greg Stretch, Star of the Sea Steering Committee chair.

A decision was made to demolish the building in May this year. Stretch said the committee is currently seeking quotes to get the job done.

"It was a tough decision to make, but in the end when you look at what the NBS rating was, we needed to make sure we're looking after our clergy as well as our parishioners," he said.

Parishioners don't have to go far to their new church, though.

A wall between two classrooms was knocked down next door at St Joseph's School, which closed in 2017. This enabled the parish to convert the building into the Picton community's new place of worship.

"The decision was made that when we had the old school available, to actually refurbish that, which would basically better meet our needs," Stretch said.

"If we could have saved it [the old St Joseph's Catholic Church], we would've," parishioner Carolyn Strongman said.

She said they took everything they could from inside the old church to their new home. The parish hopes the central stained-glass window could be salvaged before the building was levelled.

"It's going to be very sad, we're all very, very sad that it is coming down," she said.

The refurbished church attracted about 30 regulars on a Sunday and was "chocka" at Easter and Christmas. Despite some Picton locals thinking closing the old church meant St Joseph's was gone for good, the greater Catholic Church's wishes won out, Strongman said.

"The fact the beautiful little building will remain in place and become an asset to the wider Renwick community now is some comfort though," she said.

Marlborough has just one Catholic priest. The parish stretches from Picton to Kaikoura. These facts came into consideration when closing St Joseph's was mooted.

"There's only so many places that they can say mass over a weekend, so that was all part of the review," Stretch said.

"There's still services in Blenheim, Picton, Seddon and Kaikoura every weekend, so we're still trying to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our parishioners."

Source

• Stuff