People in the community of Portugal Cove South are pulling out all the stops – or locks – to try to save their local church.
Holy Rosary Church is being sold by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s as part of the process to compensate the victims of Mount Cashel.
However, Mayor Clarance Molloy says the land for the church was donated by a family, and it has been the people in the community that have kept the church going all these years.
As Molloy explains, the town has now taken extra steps to try to keep their church from being sold.
He says after the mass held on September first the decision was made to change the locks on the building.
Molloy says the town has been told that the way the Catholic Church is going about the situation is illegal, and goes against Canon law.
“We feel that what they’re doing is illegal… and we don’t want them, and we’re not going to let them take our church…if we possibly can stop it.”