Three Catholic churches to close, says diocese

Three Catholic parish churches in a county will close by Easter and congregations will be combined, the Catholic Diocese of Northampton has said.

St Bernadette's in Rothwell, Holy Trinity in Desborough and St Nicholas Owen in Burton Latimer will shut. St Edward's Church in Kettering, the remaining church in the parish, will stay open.

The diocese said figures gathered in October 2025 showed 120 people attended masses across the three churches that were due to close.

Congregation member Peter Anderson called the plans "disappointing".

The diocese said the decision to close the three churches was made after "listening to groups across the communities, and a small group of parishioners".

"The strong recommendation to emerge from the process is that the parish becomes one community, one body, one church at St Edward's," the Catholic Diocese of Northampton said in a statement.

The closures would "provide a sustainable workload for one priest into the future" and "integrate the communities with a strong parish identity, enabling a focus on families and faith formation", it added.

Anderson said the news of closures was confirmed to the congregation during a service on the 1 March.

"I regularly attend two of the churches in the parish of St Edward's Kettering Church - at St Edward's itself and the church at Rothwell.

"About six weeks ago, the diocese started consulting the parishioners of the four churches.

"St Edwards is often very overcrowded and we're just concerned we're not going to be able to actually fit in."

"It's a huge blow and there's a lot of dissatisfaction and disappointment. People think that this process hasn't been handled correctly by the diocese," he added.

Anderson said there was concern that the congregations from the closed churches would have to travel further to attend church.

"We have no wish to fall out in the diocese, but we're not convinced they've done everything possible to maintain the other three churches," he added.

The diocese said that over the coming months a group would be established to help address possible overcrowding at St Edward's and to help the "outlying communities to feel at home".

It added that it would look at ways to use the closed churches, including as "mission-led community centres".

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