PORTLAND, Maine — Two Catholic churches in Maine are closing by next spring.
That’s according to a pastor, who says there is dwindling attendance and questions about boilers in the buildings.
A letter went out to worshipers that “Our Lady of the Rosary” in Sabattus and “Holy Cross” in Lewiston will close by June and could close by winter if the boilers in the churches fail.
Father Daniel Greenleaf says 50 years ago, churches in the Lewiston area were bustling as there were so many mill jobs, but we’re living in different times, and the churches are getting older.
“I can’t sustain it,” Greenleaf said. “They can’t sustain it, it’s not fair to them to have all this money be going to buildings and heating when we could be [a] much more solid community in one building heating more as one mass here, one mass there.”
He says Maine’s churches were built in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s, and decisions need to be made about whether it’s worth investing in new furnaces or other upgrades or shutting churches down and consolidating masses.
