A protest vigil in a Roman Catholic parish slated for closing by the Archdiocese of Boston ended Sunday when police sealed off the 114-year-old church following its final scheduled mass and ordered parishioners to leave.
About a dozen parishioners had resumed the vigil in Sacred Heart Church on Sunday morning after two church members, Anne Green and Leo Ryan, were arrested for refusing to leave following Christmas Eve mass on Friday.
But after several hours, police entered the building and told the parishioners they would be arrested if they didn't leave. No arrests were made.
The closing is part of a reorganization announced last spring by Archbishop Sean O'Malley. The move was in response to declining attendance, a shortage of priests and financial pressure caused in part by the clergy sex-abuse scandal.
The archdiocese is shutting or consolidating 83 churches by year's end.
Brendan Melchiorri, 14, who left Sacred Heart weeping with the other evicted parishioners, said the closing was "one of the worst days of my entire life."
"I was baptized in this church, and I have grown up in this church," he said. "It's wrong. It's horrible. This shouldn't be happening. I can't believe I am never going to see the inside of my church ever again."