AUBURN ? Local Catholics will celebrate Mass one final time in the 98-year-old St. Louis Church.
The event is scheduled for Aug. 29, four months after the grand brick structure was closed due to structural concerns, particularly at its front entrance on Third Street.
Details of the Mass and other events surrounding the church closure are not yet final, said the Rev. Robert Lariviere, pastor of Auburn's Immaculate Heart of Mary parish.
A committee has been formed and is working on the event, he said.
It will be sad for many families who have grown up in the church, Lariviere said.
The church has towered over the New Auburn neighborhood for nearly a century. However, an analysis last fall found structural problems.
The parish committee and the statewide Roman Catholic diocese estimated repairs would cost more than $1 million.
Issues included large cracks down a tower, cracks in a concrete overhang and a deteriorating stone crown on the roof. Earlier this year, three of the church's four spires were removed due to structural worries.
Finally, when a crack appeared near the front doors, the parish closed the church.
The parish?s Finance and Pastoral Councils have recommended that the church be deconsecrated and torn down at a cost of around $120,000.
No formal decision has yet been made.
Roland Miller, Auburn's director of economic development, has held out hope that the church might be saved.
"We're hopeful that we're going to be able to attract some private party interest who, perhaps, could help the diocese avoid a large cost in demolition," Miller said on July 1.
Losing the building would be a huge loss for the city, said Al Manoian, the city's economic development assistant. Future generations may not forgive people who let it happen, he said.
"They look back and they say to the previous generation, 'How could you have done that?'" Manoian said. "I do that to my mother's generation."
He compared demolition of the building to the loss of civic and mercantile buildings ? mills, business blocks and railroad stations ? to the loss of churches.
In January 2011, crews demolished the field stone United Baptist Church on Main Street in Lewiston. The city's oldest Catholic church, St. Joseph's, is due to be razed by its new owners, Central Maine Health Care. The space is to be used for parking.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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