Archbishop Marcel Gervais has denied allegations that he has a "hidden agenda" in closing St. Brigid's Church in Lowertown to counteract low attendance at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

While the Roman Catholic leader acknowledged the cathedral is a "problematic" building because it is difficult to fill, he said he wasn't closing St. Brigid's to satisfy his own vanity, but because there was no need to have two half-empty churches within blocks of each other.

"The cathedral has many of the same problems as St. Brigid's," Archbishop Gervais said this week. "It's very hard to support a variety of churches. It is very clear to me now that (St. Brigid's) is too big. It is too big an institution to support."

Two weeks ago, Archbishop Gervais announced he was planning to close and sell the church because he could not approve spending on a crumbling building with a bad roof. St. Brigid's is recognized and protected as a heritage site by the province and city.

Since the announcement was made, some parishioners have accused the archbishop of trying to move their tight-knit community to the cathedral.

"That's what we believe the hidden agenda is," said Marilyn Donoghue, chairwoman of St. Brigid's parish pastoral council. "They don't have a family there. St. Brigid's has always been a caring family; that came first."

Mrs. Donoghue described the congregation at Notre-Dame as a "transient population" made up of dignitaries, tourists and Catholics from Gatineau.

While there was nothing wrong with the archbishop wanting to foster a closer community at the cathedral, she said, she disagreed with using the existing St. Brigid's community for that purpose, especially since the church's large Filipino following will be forced to move to Assumption Parish in Vanier.

"Why break up one that is already going strong?" she asked. "I can tell you that to a person, we're not going (to the cathedral)."

The archbishop also denied allegations that he is discriminating against Filipino parishioners.

"If all the people want to stay together, they can all move to Assumption," the archbishop said.

"They have the energy and vitality to affect change at whatever parish they go to."

About 150 St. Brigid's parishioners met at the church last night to discuss ways to convince the archbishop to reverse his decision.

Mrs. Donoghue said a taskforce will be formed comprised of subcommittees to lobby the archdiocese to keep the congregation together, launch campaigns to raise awareness of how the building and congregation serve the public and city, and a push to get the archdiocese to recognize the cultural and spiritual significance of the building and community.

Vigils and prayers will be the order of the day, though Mrs. Donoghue said there was no discussion on exactly where those will be held, and parishioners will continue to look at what obligations the archdiocese has to maintaining the church in case legal action is required.