Parishioners vacate church after 12-year protest of its closing

A nearly 12-year, round-the-clock protest by the parishioners of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, Massachusetts, came to an end late Monday (May 30).

On Sunday, about 200 parishioners of the Roman Catholic church in the coastal New England town held their last mass after years of protesting the Archdiocese of Boston over its 2004 decision to close their sanctuary. For more than a decade they took turns keeping a vigil, 24/7, to make sure that at least one person was in the church at all times. 

After the United States Supreme Court declined to hear their case this month, however, letting stand the rulings of lower courts that found they were trespassing, parishioners ran out of options to keep the doors open.