The rafters of St. Patrick Catholic Parish in Edmonton’s inner city were filled with the melodic rise and fall of hymns and prayer for the last time on Sunday morning.
The small building was crammed with people for the church’s final mass and farewell to its long-time pastor, Father Frank Stempfle.
The 91-year-old is one of Canada’s oldest serving Roman Catholic priests, and his retirement marks the closing of St. Patrick’s on 118th Avenue and 96th Street.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton recommended the church close in 1998 but lobbying from parishioners convinced the archbishop to keep it open as long as Stempfle was the priest.
The church was packed for the final mass on Sunday morning. (Nathan Gross/CBC)
Of his 66 years of priesthood, Stempfle spent 39 of them with the St. Patrick Parish.
“All this time I’ve been here, it’s because I wanted to be here or I loved to be here. I didn’t have to be here, but I enjoyed being here with these people,” he said.
“They were so easy to be the priest for. And that was the reason, I think, why I stayed here so long — because they were a beautiful group of people and they were so positive and so good to me.”
Leading the final mass at the church was emotional, Stempfle said, and he’s sad to retire.
“I’m not jumping for joy that now I’m finally finished. No, I don’t feel that way at all,” he said. “I just wonder what’s in store for me around the corner.”
He hopes to lead the occasional mass at other churches in the future.
‘Everybody knows Father Frank’
Father Frank Stempfle has been a priest for nearly 70 years. (Nathan Gross/CBC)
Father Andrew Leung is the pastor of St. Alphonsus Church on 118th Avenue, which will take over the area formerly served by St. Patrick. Leung said Sunday’s mass was attended by parishioners from across the city.
“Everybody knows Father Frank because he’s been here so long that’s he’s baptised grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, great granddaughters,” he said. “So there’s generational families that have known Father Frank for such a long time.”
Leung sees Stempfle as a mentor.
“We all look up to him because of his duty and his service, his unselfishness of serving the people of God. It’s really incredible to see.”
Now that Stempfle has retired, the building will be sold. Leung said the archdiocese decided to close St. Patrick Parish, founded in 1948, because they can no longer staff it.
Keepsakes from the church, like stained glass windows, will be handed down to other churches in the city.
Parishioners take a photo on the steps of St. Patrick Church after the final mass. (Nathan Gross/CBC)