Vatican upholds Bishop's decision on Mount Carmel

Bishop McManus’ decision to relegate Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to profane but not sordid use has been upheld by the Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican, the diocese has announced. According to Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, diocesan judicial vicar/vicar for canonical affairs, the diocese received word of the decision in mid-January.
In a decree dated Oct. 24, 2017, Bishop McManus gave the history of the church and detailed the “serious deterioration” of the building dating back to 1967. He then enumerated reasons for closing the building and finally declared that the “secondary church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish at Our Lady of Loreto Church, Worcester, is relegated to profane but not sordid use,” according to the norm of canon law.
A group of former parishioners seeking to keep the church open, and calling itself the Mount Carmel Preservation Society, asked the bishop to change his decision, but he rejected their appeal. The Preservation Society then appealed to the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy which issued its decision Dec. 20. It took nearly 30 days for the decision to reach the diocese, Msgr. Pedone said. The Preservation Society now can appeal that decision to the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Vatican, according to Msgr. Pedone.
“The good news for the diocese is that the Congregation has twice upheld the bishop’s decisions,” Msgr. Pedone said. Previously it upheld the decision to merge Our Lady of Mount Carmel - St. Ann Parish and Our Lady of Loreto Parish. Msgr. Pedone also is pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish at Our Lady of Loreto Church. The parishes were merged after Mount Carmel Church on Mulberry Street was closed May 1, 2016, because of safety concerns.
The Preservation Society also appealed the merger to the Congregation. After its rejection, the group made a second appeal to the Signatura. The Signatura ruled in December that the appeal was incomplete. It gave the group time to complete the appeal and resubmit it, according to Msgr. Pedone.
In other efforts to keep the Italian-American church open, the former parishioners petitioned the Worcester Historical Commission to hold a hearing on a proposal to initiate a study group to include Mount Carmel property on Mulberry Street in a historic district, but the Worcester Historical Commission voted 3-2 against doing so. Last week the commission again voted unanimously to deny a new request by the group to include the property into a different historical district.
Msgr. Pedone said that if the Signatora rejects the Preservation Society appeals, the Worcester Diocese will have until May 19 to begin demolition of the church. He said the parish property committee wants to sell the property and that there are several potential buyers who are “anxious” to buy it.
Proceeds from a sale will go to the parish, he said. Engineers and architects declared the 89-year-old building unsafe in 2016 after the front wall began pulling away from the rest of the building, the steeple was unstable and portions of the ceiling fell. The parish borrowed more than $200,000 from the diocese to pay to stabilize the church to protect the public.