SACO — On Friday, parishioners at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church began the process of saying goodbye to their church, which will close the end of the month.

“We come here with heavy hearts, with a sense of sadness and loss,” said Bishop Richard Malone, who presided over mass that evening to a crowd that packed the pews. The “beloved familiar house of worship” will no longer be the place that “this faithful, devout community,” which has gathered at the church for eight decades, comes to worship, he said.

The closing of the church is part of a plan to keep the Good Shepherd Parish ”“ which encompasses several churches in Saco and Biddeford ”“ afloat at a time when there are fewer priests and church attendance is on the decline.

Weekly offerings, which bring in the main financial support for the parish, continue to decrease about 10 percent each year while insurance, employee health benefits and building maintenance and repair continue to rise, Monsignor Rene Mathieu, one of the parish’s three priests, reported in church records earlier this year.

In recent years, the parish has had more than 200 funerals and less than 100 baptisms annually.

The Good Shepherd Parish currently has six churches in the communities of Saco and Biddeford. The parish ended the last fiscal year with a deficit of $48,000. If the parish were to remain as it has been, the projected deficit for the next fiscal year would be $170,000.

The end of the month will not only mark the closing of Notre Dame Church, but of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Biddeford as well. St. Andre Church in Biddeford will close by the end of 2010. Most Holy Trinity Church in Saco and St. Joseph Church and St. Brendan Chapel in Biddeford will remain.

The parish will expand to include Lyman and Old Orchard Beach and is eventually expected to have five churches overseen by three priests.

Friday night, Mathieu said the parish can’t continue to maintain the number of buildings it has, noting that a large, old building like Notre Dame Church is expensive to maintain. He said that the consolidation will allow the parish to do what it is intended to do: Provide a place of fellowship, worship and outreach.

With people concentrated in higher numbers at local congregations, they can join together more effectively to work on projects such as providing food for the poor, he said.

Still, it will be difficult to leave the church.

“I love this place. I love the people here,” said Mathieu.

Parishioner Dave Dube was married at Notre Dame in 1995. His wife was a member of the church and their family have attended ever since. He said that he has been involved in church committees and had expected the sad news.

“I understand the need for consolidation, but it’s still hard,” he said. The church has been part of their lives for a long time, he said. He said that after the church closes, his family may attend a church closer to their home in Arundel.

The Notre Dame de Lourdes church building was purchased from the Second Baptist Church in December of 1928. Prior to being a church, the building was used as a theater.

The Notre Dame de Lourdes church was formed to accommodate the needs of a growing French speaking population in the area and there is still a strong French presence in the church today.

The first mass was held on Easter Sunday in 1929. The same year, Notre Dame de Lourdes School was founded and classes were held on the property before moving to its present location on Beach Street in 1951.

“There’s a great history here,” said Mathieu.

The Catholic Diocese will likely sell the church and surrounding property on Cutts Avenue, which includes a rectory and a former convent which is now a halfway house for prisoners.

Mathieu said that he’s not sure what will happen to the many “precious artifacts” in the church.

“It breaks my heart,” he said.

Places of worship become dear to parishioners, said Malone.

“You will certainly miss this holy place, which has been your spiritual home, and the ways that it has formed and nurtured you as individuals and as a community,” he said.

Malone asked parishioners to think about the events that occurred over the past 80 years in the church, including the children who had been baptized, or received their confirmation, and the many marriages that had been performed in the church,

“Your strong legacy will continue, in new ways. And it will enrich a larger community of disciples to which you will bring your unique gifts of faith and hope and love,” said Malone.

The final masses at Notre Dame church will be held on Sunday, Dec. 27, at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., with Mathieu presiding.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.