St. Bernard Church in Oriska closing after 108 years

ORISKA, N.D. — On a quiet July day in Oriska, it is easy to see a lot has changed. There is no bustling main street anymore but the steeple of St. Bernard’s Catholic Church stands out. But soon that too will disappear.

“It is heartwarming to see how much it (the church) has really impacted people,” said Father Brian Bachmeier, priest at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church.

It was 115 years ago, in 1908, and big farm families needed a church to call home. St. Bernard’s did that for many years, but this weekend the church will close for good.

“There are many families that grew up here and have roots back here and they still have a real deep affection for the church,” Father Bachmeier said.

All the sacred pieces in the church; the statues, pews, and prized stained-glass windows will all go to North Dakota Catholic churches. It will be hard for the families have called St. Bernard’s their church for generations.

“I don’t think it has really hit us yet, really, really hard,” said lifelong church member Tony Yanish.

“There is something about an old, building, when you walk into it and you smell it that is so familiar,” said church member Jim McAllister. “There are just a lot of memories made here.”

That’s a lot of funerals, weddings, and baptisms. The church to part in treasured life moments, both beginnings and the endings.

“When the wrecking ball starts, that’s when it’s really going be tough,” Yanish said.

The handful of families who have been attending St. Bernard’s recently will now attend churches in five different churches in the surrounding communities.

“Some will go to Valley City, some will go to Fingal, some will go to Sanborn, to Hope, to Dazey and enter into those parish families,” Father Bachmeier said.

It will be an adjustment. The aroma of a fall supper or Christmas boughs will be just a memory.

“You need to be grateful for the many things, for everything in life, for the little things and I’m trying to focus on that instead of the things we’re going to lose because of this — which is not easy but we are working on it,” McAllister said.

Bishop John Fulda will say the final Mass on Sunday, July 16. At a recent church closing in Wales, North Dakota, the bishop told the congregation, “I don’t need to tell you that the church is more than a building. It is built on Christ. It is sustained by the Gospel and the Holy Eucharist and all the sacraments, and it will continue to the end of time because Jesus promised that it would.”