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SCITUATE, Mass. (AP) — The Latest on the final service held at a Roman Catholic church after an 11-year protest (all times local):
4:10 p.m.
Members of a parish closed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston have held a final service before leaving the church they've occupied in an around-the-clock vigil since 2004.
Parishioners called Sunday's service at St. Frances X. Cabrini in Scituate (SIH'-choo-iht) a "celebration of faith and transition."
During the service, a handful of empty pews dotted a sea of churchgoers, many of whom openly cried. About a dozen quilts, some of them depicting each year of the vigil, decorated the church's walls. At the service's conclusion, families retrieved the quilts and formed a procession, carrying them down the aisles and through the church's doors.
The archdiocese wanted to shutter the church as part of a broad restructuring plan that closed dozens of other parishes.
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6:30 a.m.
Parishioners of a church closed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston plan to hold a final service before leaving the church they've occupied in an around-the-clock vigil since 2004.
The service set for Sunday at St. Frances X. Cabrini in Scituate — a suburb of Boston — is being called a "celebration of faith and transition."
The parishioners agreed to leave after the Supreme Court refused to hear their final appeal earlier this month. They say they will form an independent Catholic church outside of archdiocese control.
For more than 11 years, a die-hard group of parishioners kept a constant vigil in the church building in hopes of reversing an archdiocese decision to close it as part of a broad restructuring plan that closed dozens of other parishes.
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