Newman House, the home of the Catholic chaplaincy at the University of Birmingham, will close at the end of the academic year.
The Archdiocese of Birmingham informed the chaplain, Fr Pavel Baco, and the building manager, on 2 May.
Built near the university campus in Edgbaston in 1966 as a home for the chaplaincy, Newman House also provided 12 student rooms and a base for the university’s Catholic Society.
The society publicised the closure on social media on 13 May after it was alerted to it by the house residents. The announcement said there had been no direct communication from the archdiocese.
“We are particularly disappointed that this news comes at such short notice at the busiest time of the academic year and without any prior warning or consultation process between the archdiocese and the student body,” it said.
Nicholas Munro, the chair of the society, told The Tablet: “This news came completely out of the dark to us.”
He said that he had written to the Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, and received a reply dated 16 May, but had not received responses to further questions to diocesan staff.
“What I’d really like to know from the archdiocese is whether every reasonable option has been explored to keep the chaplaincy open,” he said.
The Catholic Society runs three weekly events at Newman House and regularly attracts more than 30 people to its Sunday evening gatherings. Four candidates from the chaplaincy were received into the Church this year.
John Guy, a chair of the society in the 1970s, told The Tablet that former members were distressed by the news of the closure.
He said that the chaplaincy had been “the most significant part of my faith formation” and Newman House had been “a magnificent facility” for its mission.
Former members had provided support for the chaplaincy, he said, adding that the lack of communication with them or with students was concerning from “an archdiocese whose vision allegedly speaks to the synodal process”.
“They discern without listening,” Dr Guy said.
The university has an inter-faith chaplaincy building which the Catholic Society occasionally uses. That building, St Francis Hall, is listed as Fr Baco’s address on the university website.
Mr Munro said that the society was in the process of finding a regular venue for next year, while students who had made arrangements to live in chaplaincy accommodation next year were looking for alternative residence in time for the start of term in September.
He said that they were “deflated” by the closure but insisted: “Whatever happens, CathSoc will survive.”
In a statement on 2 June, the archdiocese said:
“The Archdiocese of Birmingham has had to make the difficult decision to close Newman House due to prohibitive running costs. Unfortunately, the condition of the building means it requires a significant investment which the archdiocese would be unable to provide.
“The chaplaincy will continue and the archdiocese is in discussion with University of Birmingham to find an alternative base.
“We are also in conversation with a small number of students who were resident at Newman House with regards to their future accommodation needs.”
However, Mr Munro said that the claim that the archdiocese was assisting with accommodation was “simply false”.
“The archdiocese has not contacted the current residents, or those formerly with deposits to live at the chaplaincy next year, and has not offered us any support in finding alternative accommodation for September,” he said.
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