City of Montreal blocking demolition of abandoned church that’s become safety hazard, parish says

The Catholic Church in the Saint-Marie neighbourhood has filed a lawsuit against the City of Montreal, saying the city won’t allow it to demolish the building that’s turned into a safety hazard.

There are more than 130 Catholic churches in Montreal and none feel as abandoned as the Saint-Eusèbe-de-Verceil Church on Fullum Street. The building is falling apart, vandalized, and was damaged by a fire, the parish priest warned last year.

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The congregation wants the building torn down to build affordable homes. But the city won’t deliver a demolition permit.

To add insult to injury, the parish was fined $250,000 because it can’t stop squatters from breaking in. Just before the holidays, the church filed a lawsuit against the city.

“We’re asking them to respond quickly and not go through the standard process, which we go through all kinds of consultations. It’s more in that sense where public safety is first,” said Stefano Marrone, the CEO of the Montreal Roman Catholic Real Estate Corporation.

“We can’t put that on pause anymore.”

The church says it’s caught up in a Catch-22 situation: to get a housing project off the ground, they need permission from the city. Yet the city added a layer of bureaucracy by having it listed as a heritage building.

Meanwhile, the parish spends $300,000 a year to keep the church secured.

“It’s almost impossible to invest that money or go look for partners or collaborators if we don’t know how the future of the building will be or what the outcome will be,” Marrone said.

Heritage advocates admit that while this church has historical value, it might be too late for the Saint-Eusèbe-de-Verceil Church.

“Now, at one point there is the fact that perhaps the damage is too far past, that we have to say goodbye to that building,” said Dinu Bumbaru, policy director at Heritage Montreal.

Bumbaru says the city’s piecemeal approach to conservation means the church’s fate isn’t unique.

“If we wait and we keep procrastinating, then we’ll just be burying our heritage and having a very boring setup of a neighborhood,” he added.

The city, in the meantime, declined to comment because the case is now before the courts.