1 year later, they rise again

WEYMOUTH -- Worshipers filled the pews, stood along the walls, and spilled into the foyer of St. Albert the Great, belting out an upbeat hymn of resurrection and redemption.

They held hands and even danced as the choir sang ''We Will Rise Again" during a festive service that marked the one-year anniversary of a successful struggle to keep the 54-year-old brick church open. The church's efforts also triggered a series of occupations across the Archdiocese of Boston.

''I feel like after today, I can say with an exclamation point, mission accomplished," said Mary Akoury, cochairwoman of the parish council.

Last night, parishioners even had their old pastor back. After almost an entire year away, the beloved Rev. Ronald D. Coyne stood again at the altar alongside the newly installed pastor, the Rev. Laurence Borges.

After the Mass, the celebration spilled outside, where parishioners feasted on cold cuts and streamed to the cash bar. A DJ provided entertainment as parishioners mingled under two white tents set up between the rectory and the church building.

Last summer, the final Mass at St. Albert the Great was funereal. Boxes of Kleenex dotted the pews. Coyne compared leaving the Weymouth church to driving away from a cemetery.

But after that Aug. 29 Mass, parishioners refused to leave the pews and settled in for a 10-month vigil, remaining in shifts to prevent the archdiocese from shuttering the church as part of its reconfiguration plan. They continued the vigil until July 2, well after Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley announced that he had reversed his decision. Their protest sparked similar sit-ins throughout the archdiocese, forcing O'Malley to reconsider and delay some closures.

Last night, about 550 people attended the celebration Mass that also was a chance to invite back parishioners who left after the planned closure, said Nancy Sullivan-Pugh, chairwoman of the church's reopening committee.

''We're open. We're alive. We're well," she said. ''We want to welcome everybody."

But for some, the celebration was bittersweet. Coyne, whom many parishioners had not seen since last August, was assigned to the archdiocese's Emergency Response Team, which sends priests to parishes to fill in on a temporary basis, and many were devastated when O'Malley decided not to reinstate him at the church.

''He was such a big, big part of all of our lives," Sullivan-Pugh said. ''We all have so much respect for him. A great injustice was done to our church, but a bigger injustice was done to him."

Coyne, an outspoken priest who called for the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law because of the sex abuse scandal, has kept a low profile since the archdiocese decided to close the church. Borges, 74, said he asked Coyne, 58, to give the homily at Mass yesterday, but the younger priest declined.

During the Mass, Coyne said little, thanking parishioners for a book with personal messages. Asked why he didn't say Mass, Coyne said, ''Laurence Borges is the pastor now. It's not about the past, it's about the future."

Borges, who was pastor at St. Albert from 1959 to 1964 and again in the 1990s, said the parishioners have welcomed him.

''I know that they really would like Father Coyne, and I'm able to live with that," he said before the Mass. Borges said he has told parishioners he is aware that ''Father Coyne has won the gold Olympic medal. I'm trying for the bronze medal, maybe even the silver."

The day after Borges made that comment, a parishioner gave him a gold medal, he said.

Parishioners are trying to get past the tumultuous year. They planted a spruce tree in front of the church as a symbol of rebirth, Sullivan-Pugh said.

Borges has asked O'Malley to preside over Mass in November, perhaps on the 15th, the feast day of St. Albert, parishioners said.

The archbishop will consider the invitation, said O'Malley's spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon.

Should he accept the invitation, O'Malley would receive a warm reception, Borges said.

''We thank the archbishop for being pastor and man enough to rescind the decision," he said.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.