Former parishioners of long-closed Revere parish to hold 21st annual outdoor reunion Mass
Like other Catholics upset about losing their parish, Our Lady's members appealed the closing all the way to the Vatican, but the decision was not reversed.
In 2014, the church building was sold to an Ethiopian congregation, which still worships there, the Globe reported.
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This year's mass will be dedicated to former parishioners who have died , particularly Carmela Mercier, said John Verrengia, who organizes the Mass.
'She was a 95-year-old parishioner who lived right down the street from Our Lady of Lourdes,' he said of Mercier, who died last fall. 'She was everything that Our Lady of Lourdes was all about.'
Mercier and her husband were active parishioners. They baked bread for the Feast of St. Joseph's in March and May, he said.
'I saw her last year, 95-year young, she looked great, and she was so excited about the Mass,' Verrengia, 69, said.
All parishioners who have died will be remembered at the Mass, with a special dedication to Mercier, he said.
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'She loved the church,' Verrengia said. 'The church was her whole life.'
Verrengia said that the church and the community that formed around it was important to him.
Despite Our Lady's closing, Verrengia said, the yearly Mass brings people back to Beachmont for community worship.
'You go on, we certainly do, all of us go on,' Verrengia said. 'But...when we go back there it's like we never left. It's really like we never left.'
Adam Sennott can be reached at
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