Parish History
A Brief History of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish Community
(taken from work compiled for the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of
the
Parish)
Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish was founded in 1908 in order to minister to the Franco-American Catholic who had settled in the South Common (lower Highlands) area of the city of Lowell. Our first church building was located on Branch Street in what was formerly the Branch Street Baptist Church (Tabernacle Baptist Church). Since our foundation our parish has been staffed by the members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate of the Northern Province (St. Jean-Baptiste Province.) Our first house of worship was blessed on August 6, 1908, the feast of the Transfiguration. At the time of our foundation there were about five hundred families in the parish, and our first pastor was Rev. Michel Dubreuil, O.M.I.
Our parish school was begun during the first years of our foundation. By 1910 we had about two hundred children in the school. Our parish was serving six hundred and ninety-eight families. The Sisters of Charity of Ottawa and some lay teachers staffed the school.
By 1912 buildings were purchased next to the church that would become our old rectory on Branch Street.
In those early years, the parish had a number of organizations to serve the needs of the younger and older members of the community -- "La Confrerie du Tres Saint Rosaire," "Legue du Sacre Coeur," "La Congregation de Ste. Anne," "Les Enfants de Marie," "Les Cadets du Sacre Coeur," and "La Societe St. Vincent de Paul."
By 1920 the parish hall on East Pine Street was purchased as well as the land that would serve as the site of our present church buildings.
One of the heartaches of our growing parish was the fundraising that was begun in 1930 for the building of the new parish school on Smith Street. Construction was begun and continued for three years. The Depression and the rising debt of the parish due to many large cost overruns and the near fatal illness of the pastor at that time brought a halt to the construction In 1936 the unfinished school was sold to the city of Lowell for $50,000. Many of our parish children today are educated in the building that has become the Hugh J. Mulloy School.
In exchange for the purchase of the school by the city, our parish was allowed to use the Franklin school on Branch Street. In 1945 Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish bought this school for $1,500. It would be used as our parish school until the closure of the school in 1975.
The parish community continued to grow in population and the old church building continued to age. It was under the pastorship of Fr. Lucien Brassard, that the parish community began serious fundraising efforts to build a new church. It had become evident during the twenty previous years that, although many renovations had been made to the old Branch Street Baptist Church, the building was still in poor condition. All parish efforts from February 1959, when Cardinal Cushing officiated at the official start-up fundraising campaign, were aimed at the building of a new church.
Groundbreaking for the new parish church took place in November of 1961, and by December 16, 1962, our new parish church on Smith Street was opened for worship.
Many of the groups who began to raise moneys for the Church continue to financially support the parish community today. The Ladies Sodality had their Christmas Fair; the Men's Club ran the BLITZ; while the Holy Name Society had its Cabaret dances.
Just a year before the new parish doors were opened, the parish's C.Y.O. was founded in 1961. The parish has every right to be proud of its thirty-three years of organized youth ministry.
During the school year of 1969-1970, the parish began feeling the financial burden of the parish school. By 1971 the school was educating children from the first through sixth grades only. Because of the decline in school enrollment and the increased number of children in religious education programs, the parish hired its first full-time religious education coordinator in 1971.
The Parish Council was formed in 1972, and its principal issue was the increased cost of the school. The school building became the religious education center, and the former convent on Westford Street was rented. The Parish Council continued to meet regularly, but many difficulties surfaced and the Council was dissolved by a vote of the members in June 1981.
In 1982 the old Franklin School (Notre Dame de Lourdes School on Branch Street) was sold and the Westford Street Convent was converted into a Parish Center. By 1983 the Parish staff included the two priests, a full time Director of Religious Education and a full time Lay Youth Minister.
In 1983 the Parish Community celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary and the first parish Vision Statement was proclaimed to the community.
Since the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary there have been many changes in the parish community. Although an active core of Franco-Americans continues to live and work within the parish, our parish community is becoming multi-ethnic. Once located in a middle-class neighborhood in the midst of three-tenement and single family homes, we find ourselves in the midst of slum-housing where the three-tenements have been converted to as many as twelve tenement apartments.
Our Parish community, thorough the 1980's and 1990's has remained active in the life of the community. Our Parish actively participated in the Ethnic Covenant to help fight poor housing conditions and to raise consciousness about community issues. We were active in working for the establishment of the House of Hope. Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish Center was one of the five sites in the city equipped with U. S. Army cots to provide emergency housing until the House of Hope was completed. The parish staff and parishioners worked for the establishment of the Merrimack Valley Housing Court. And in 1993-94 we continue to host the Lower Highlands Neighborhood Group which has worked to bring the police sub-stations to our area of the city.
The Parish Community has remained active in both ecumenical and Interfaith outreach. Members of the staff have served and are serving on boards of the Greater Lowell Conference of Churches, the Interfaith Leadership Group, the Interfaith Dialogue and the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. We also continue to support both the Catholic Charities Food Pantry and the Middlesex Shelter.
The Parish Community of Notre Dame de Lourdes remains an active community today, although its membership is not as large as it was in the 1950's and 1960's.
The Men's Club, the Lady's Sodality, the Holy Name Society, the Senior Citizens, the C.Y.O. and Boy and Girl Scout troops are all alive and active in our community. Our doors are open four days a week to AA, which meets in our middle church hall.
Our parish Center houses the Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership, the St. Julie Asian Center along with our parish's Religious Education, Youth Ministry and Senior Citizens programs.
Our Parish's Liturgical ministries are alive and well. Lay people minister as Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers at church and to the homebound, Ushers, Altar Servers, Choir, Cantor, Organist and Liturgy Committee. Our parish's Administrative ministries are served through an efficient parish secretary, as well as through the Parish Pastoral Council and the Finance Council.
New ministries are developing as well. An Evangelization team is being formed and a junior youth ministry team will be available to minister to children from the sixth to eight grades.
Our parish is proud of its Baptism team -- lay people who, with the pastor, prepare families for Baptism and continue to follow-up on families after Baptism.
Our parish has reached out to the poor since its beginnings when St. Vincent de Paul Society was founded. Today, a number of parishioners give of their time weekly to continue the Ministry to the Poor as trained Pastoral Advocates.
The Parish Community continues to be grateful to all the religious communities who have devoted themselves to ministry in the parish community. Our gratitude is extended to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate of the Northern Province who have staffed Notre Dame de Lourdes since 1908. We continue to be grateful to the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa who staffed our parish school and whose ministry is still remembered by many or our parishioners. Our rectory staff has also benefited by the work of religious women. Two communities have provided housekeeping services over the years. The "Soeurs Marie Reine du Clerge" first staffed our new rectory on Smith Street. The Little Sisters of the Holy Family replaced them and continued to minister with us until recently.