St. Anne’s Church to hold final mass Sunday

November 25, 2018 9:57 am

By Sam Vaccaro

Email: svaccaro@gmail.com

Twitter: @VaccaroABC6

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) – St Anne’s Church will be closing its doors for good after hosting its final services Sunday morning.

The Fall River parish, as previously reported, is facing between $5 million and $13.5 million in repair costs to repair and restore the church.

In October, Bishop of Fall River Edgar Moreira da Cunha cited these repair costs, along with changing demographics and a decline in parish membership and participation as reasons for the decision to close down the church.

The Bishop said the decision was made to close the Parish after extensive exploration of fundraising efforts discovered the prospect of raising the necessary money highly unlikely.

Bishop da Cunha said he intends to find alternative uses for the church building once it is closed, planning to form a committee to explore the adaptive re-use of the St. Anne’s building.

In a Facebook post Saturday, the church reminded parishioners that Sunday would be the church’s final services and one last chance for the parish community to “be together as we celebrate our heritage and comfort each other during this solemn occasion”.