BOSTON – The Boston Archdiocese announced Saturday that it had sold the properties of a Framingham parish that’s been occupied by protesting parishioners since it was closed six years ago, but the protesters said they won’t leave.

The archdiocese announced the sale of St. Jeremiah’s church building, parking lot and rectory for $2 million to the Syro-Malabar diocese, a part of the Eastern Catholic Church that shares the same fundamental doctrines as the Roman Catholic Church. The archdiocese said it would put the proceeds into its remaining parishes.

“The completion of this transaction provides the Syro-Malabar community a much needed location for their parishioners,” said the Rev. Walter J. Edyvean, the archdiocese’s auxiliary bishop for its western region.

Protesters said they didn’t know when the sale was coming, but the deal itself was no surprise. The archdiocese said this summer that the deal was in the works, and a Syro-Malabar priest has been leading a Sunday Mass at the Framingham church since 2008, with Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s permission.

Edyvean and other church officials delivered news of the sale to parishioners Saturday morning.

“We always go in hopeful. We are always, unfortunately, disappointed,” said Mary Beth Carmody, co-leader of the protesting parishioners.

Carmody said because the archdiocese said it was working on a deal this summer, the parishioners have already begun an appeal to the Vatican to block the sale. They also plan to go to the state attorney general, arguing that the archdiocese wasn’t allowed to sell the building because the protesters’ appeals aren’t complete.

In the meantime, there’s no reason that parishioners can’t continue sharing the building with the Syro-Malabar community, as they’ve been doing, Carmody said.

“We share the facilities,” she said. “We work in a cooperative way, both communities.”

St. Jeremiah’s was among several churches that parishioners occupied in round-the-clock protest after the archdiocese announced a broad round of parish closings, beginning in 2004.Four closed parishes remain in vigil today.

Last year, parishioners lost their final Vatican appeal to be re-established as a parish.

 

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