The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa has sold a century-old francophone church in Ottawa's Vanier neighbourhood for $4 million.
The Archdiocese annouced the sale of St. Charles Church to an unnamed buyer in a December 22, 2014 news release.
The new owner intends to develop the site for a “mixed-use residential and commercial project, including a creative re-purposing of the former church building.”
St. Charles Church was built in 1908 and served Ottawa's francophone community.
It closed its doors in 2010 because of poor attendance.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast says half of the proceeds will be used to create an endowment fund to support pastoral work serving the Catholic francophone population.
In addition, forty per cent of the proceeds will be shared equally between the two parishes, Marie-Médiatrice parish and Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes parish. They will continue the pastoral care of Vanier’s Catholic francophone population.
The remaining 10 per cent, he said, will be given to the Pension Fund for Priests of the Archdiocese to recognize the priests’ contribution in pastoral care of the community for over a century, beginning with the founding pastor Monsignor François-Xavier Barrette.
