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	Port Au Port Campaigns to Keep Historic Church CBC [Canada] November 1, 2005 Residents in a small town with a large church have launched a fund-raising campaign to prevent the church from falling into the wrong hands. Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church in Port au Port West is one of the oldest wooden structures in the province, and is one of the properties put on the real estate market by the cash-strapped Diocese of St. George's. The diocese needs to raise about $13 million, and has put properties on the market to help pay its obligations under a claim involving sexual abuse victims, almost all of them at the hands of priest Kevin Bennett. FROM OCT. 26, 2005: 'For sale' signs hung up on churches "I can't imagine Port au Port West without it," said Danny McCann, a long-time resident of the community who was married in the church. Our Lady of Mercy church in Port au Port West is one of the oldest wooden structures in the province. "We have to keep it. It can't go." Our Lady of Mercy was built in 1914, and was designed to accommodate what planners thought would become one of the largest communities in the island. The town's population, centred in part around a quarry in the region, never did mushroom as planned, but the church has served generations, and is a beacon for the local tourism industry. Danny McCann Now residents are reaching out to parishioners and their relatives for support. They are aiming to raise $150,000 to buy the church and a nearby museum, as well as a gym, a rink and a park. The church's finely crafted wooden features are too precious to lose, said McCann, who is spearheading a campaign. "[Most] if not all of everything in here [of] the woodwork was done by local people at the time and some of these people that were involved with this church construction still have families here," McCann said. Father Jim Robertson says many communities have expressed an interest to buy back their churches. He hopes they can raise the money fairly quickly. "While we want to say, 'Take all your time and fund-raise to keep your buildings,' we have obligations to the victims and we have to meet those obligations," Robertson said.
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