FALL RIVER — The vacant shrine smelled damp Tuesday night when volunteers stepped inside with mops, brooms and cleaning solution, ready to spruce things up for the much anticipated re-opening of the historic St. Anne’s Church on Thursday, July 4.
Closed since Nov. 25, 2018, the lower shrine was dusty and its candle holders bare, but it was otherwise intact.
The crutches left behind by those said to have been healed through their devotions were still piled in the corner, and the familiar faces of the statues looked down on the workers as the church was prepared for a new beginning.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Richard Affonso, the humble parishioner who led the charge and started the St. Anne’s Church Preservation Society that ultimately saved the city’s beloved landmark.
Affonso and society board members, after negotiating with the Fall River Diocese during the last few months, were able to convince Bishop Edgar da Cunha to allow the group to oversee the church as a sacred space – no longer as a parish of the Fall River Diocese.
Da Cunha and Affonso signed a 10-year lease agreement, giving the nonprofit group the right to use the church and its contents for $1 a year. Affonso said the lease was paid in full with a $10 check.
The Fall River Diocese purchased St. Anne’s Church from the Dominican Fathers of the Canadian Province in the 1970s for $1, when the Dominicans could no longer staff the church.
This is essentially the third act for St. Anne’s Church.
“Now the real work begins,” Affonso said.
The plan is to re-open the shrine for prayer and create a schedule for recitations of the rosary, bible study and other special programs, all the while fundraising to eventually restore the grand main church and re-open in the coming years.
Affonso said the sale of candles, along with fundraisers and corporate donations, will help the cause.
The church will hold at least two Masses each year with priests chosen by the society and approved by the diocese. The first will be July 26.
On Tuesday, the air in the main church was thick with dust. Yellow tape still cordoned off the area where plaster fell from the top of a wall in 2015 and led to the church’s closure – that along with a shrinking congregation, additional costly repairs and a decrease in the number of diocesan priests.
“It’s as magnificent as it was in 1906,” Affonso said, stepping through a door behind the altar as the setting sun sliced through the stained glass windows and spilled into the space.
Affonso pointed to the areas in the church that need work. Where the plaster fell, caused by a leaking roof, two murals are peeling away from the wall. He said the 100-plus-year-old slate roof will need to be replaced before the murals and walls can be restored to their original states.
The main church was dedicated July 4, 1906 – making the opening day for the shrine that much more poignant to parishioners.
The basement shrine opened Christmas Day in 1895. Over the next several years, the main church and exterior were built. It was to be a lasting monument to the faith of French-Canadian immigrants who raised funds to erect the structure, built of local granite and faced with Vermont blue marble.
About 20 volunteers were on hand Tuesday night to get the shrine cleaned up.
“The goal tonight is to wipe down the pews and clean the candle holders,” Affonso said.
It all started with a peaceful protest organized by Affonso before the church closed its doors last year.
“I was just a parishioner standing on the sidewalk with a sign in my hand,” Affonso, a carpenter and handy man, told The Herald News.
He wouldn’t take all, or really any, of the credit for the re-opening – something that many people understandably thought would never really happen.
City parishioners have lost several churches over the past few years. St. Anne’s is the only one to be saved.
Affonso was able to connect with Attorney Brody Hale, who has saved some 13 Catholic churches from closure around the country through appeals and negotiations.
“I don’t want everybody to think it was me alone,” Affonso said. “I believed in it and I did what I thought was necessary.
“I was doing what God told me to do."
St. Anne’s Church shrine will be open to the public and staffed daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Candles can be purchased – small for $1 and large for $5 – at the parish shrine office.
Donation information is available by emailing St.AnnesPreservationSociety@gmail.com
Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.