Let there be a lighted cross, court says

Twenty-three years ago, Noel Dube said, the Virgin Mary urged him to erect a shrine to God. Now a different authority has ruled that it can stay.

A Middlesex Superior Court judge said Dube can keep an illuminated, three-story religious display in his Pepperell backyard, more than five years after local officials ordered that he take it down because he did not have the proper building permits.

Dube, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who lost a leg sweeping mines in Germany, said he began building the shrine after the Virgin Mary spoke to him during his morning prayers on May 28, 1982.

After a neighbor complained about the shrine's size and the visitors it attracted, the town asked Dube to remove it in 1999.

Instead, he expanded it, adding a 30-foot painting of Jesus and a 24-foot illuminated cross to a 20-foot mural of Our Lady of Fatima.

Dube could not be reached for comment yesterday, but feels vindicated, said his lawyer, Edward McCormick.

"He's not a guy who ever wanted to flaunt the rules and regulations, but on the other hand, when no accommodations were made, he fought back," McCormick said.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Fishman handed down the ruling last week. The town of Pepperell had argued that Dube needed permits to legally maintain the mural. Since he refused to apply for permits, the town reasoned, the mural had to be removed.

McCormick argued that the shrine was protected by the First Amendment, as well as a state law that prohibits zoning ordinances from regulating or restricting structures for religious purpose, as long as the dimensions of the structures are reasonable.

In his decision, Fishman said the structures are clearly used for religious purposes and are of reasonable dimensions.

The town has not decided if it will appeal the ruling, said Town Administrator Robert Hanson. But he criticized Fishman's decision as being "narrow in its focus." The town is concerned about safety, not religion, Hanson said.

"He has a structure 20-something-feet tall, and the town has no knowledge of how it was fastened to the ground," Hanson said. "The judge just focused on religion."

"We're surprised and a bit disappointed," said neighbor Jen Reale. "He clearly disregarded the fact that there is a size limitation. He's taken advantage, and we strongly feel that should be addressed."

Dube, a devout Roman Catholic who considered entering the seminary as a teenager, said he was commanded to erect a shrine while he was on his knees in his backyard saying his morning prayers that spring day 23 years ago.

Uncertain what to do, he procrastinated until he nearly died of prostate cancer a few years later. After recovering, he erected the Fatima mural and placed small signs around town to advertise the new shrine. As the faithful and the curious began to trickle into his half-acre, tree-lined backyard, Dube added the mural of Jesus.

But in 1999, with the number of visitors approaching 4,000 a year, a neighbor complained that the shrine did not belong in a residential neighborhood.

Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com.