Warren's St. Jean Baptiste Church is for sale

Asking price for 1882 church, land is $400,000

By Ted Hayes
Posted 2/21/18

Interested in living in a church? The former St. Jean The Baptiste on Main Street is for sale.

Two months after it was permanently closed by the Diocese of Providence, the 1882 church that …

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Warren's St. Jean Baptiste Church is for sale

Asking price for 1882 church, land is $400,000

Posted

Interested in living in a church? The former St. Jean The Baptiste on Main Street is for sale.

Two months after it was permanently closed by the Diocese of Providence, the 1882 church that ministered to generations of Warrenites is being marketed by Realtor Brenda Marchwicki of Bismarc Properties LLC. The asking price is $400,000.

Town’s property tax assessments value the church and adjoining parking lots at just over $1 million. The church contains approximately 7,200 square feet of living space and the parking lots cover a little more than three quarters of an acre. The church sits in an R-6 (residential) zone.

The Diocese of Providence decided to close the church late last year, with Pastor Douglass Grant citing “a decay in sacramental custom,” along with the rising and ongoing costs to preserve the church building, as the main reasons.

The church’s last Mass was held on Dec. 31.

“I commend Father Grant and his parishioners for handling this change in such a professional and compassionate manner,” Bishop Thomas Tobin said. “The decision to close the church building, while understandably difficult, is necessary and it will strengthen the spiritual mission of the parish.”

In 2010, due to gradual patterns of population decline and diminishing parish income, St. Jean Baptiste Parish was merged canonically into St. Mary of the Bay Parish and became “a mission” of St. Mary of the Bay. Over the past year, officials from the Diocese of Providence and Father Grant have acknowledged causes that support the case for closing, including the high annual costs of maintenance, the negative effect of the overall financial condition of the parish at-large, and a declining attendance.

In 1990, there were 750 registered families in the parish. By 2009 that had dropped to 500 registered families, and recent turnout at the only remaining weekend Mass topped out at about 80 parishioners.

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