St. Joseph Church demolition application remains valid

LACONIA — The city’s purchase and sale agreement for the St. Joseph Church rectory and Catholic school stipulates that a demolition application for the church itself will remain valid.

The agreement, obtained by The Daily Sun, also includes a series of covenants that will restrict what can be done on the property by future owners.

Father Marc Drouin, pastor of St. Andre Bessette, has said the goal is to save the 91-year-old church, which the diocese will continue to own. Money from the sale of the rectory and school could help pay for a required renovation. A private preservation society also wants to save the church and help with yearly operating expenses.

When the diocese applied for the demolition permit last year, many local people, including Mayor Andrew Hosmer, objected. Hosmer is a member of the St. Joseph Preservation Society.

The diocese backed off from the demolition plan and spent about $100,000, according to Drouin, to subdivide the church campus into three sections — the church, the school and the rectory — with the goal of making it easier to save the church while selling the other two parts.

Despite all this, it would cost an estimated $500,000 to renovate St. Joseph Church, and it’s clear from the purchase and sale agreement that the diocese wants to keep its options open.

A portion of the agreement states:

“For the purpose of inducing Seller to enter into this Agreement and to consummate the sale and purchase in accordance herewith, Purchaser represents and warrants to Seller that this Agreement nor the Closing and transfer of the title to the Premises to the City shall: (i) have any adverse effect whatsoever on the continued legal validity and existence of the Seller's demolition application on file with the City of Laconia with respect to the so-called "Church Lot Parcel”, which is shown as Map 425, Lot 44-1 on the Plan; and (ii) require the Seller to proceed with, stay, withdraw or otherwise terminate said demolition application.”

Meanwhile, covenants restricting the use of the property will stay with the land through any future sales.

City officials have said they hope to defray the $1.14 million cost of the real estate by selling the rectory and the school, while retaining the 84 parking spots that are the stated reason for the purchase.

The agreement specifies that the property is not to be used for religious purposes not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

It is also not to be used for “human abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, assisted suicide, in vitro fertilization, experimentation on human embryos, destruction of human embryos, human cloning or stem cell research where the source of the stem cells is either human embryos or fetal tissues and organs from induced abortions.”

The property is not to be used for purposes involving pornography, nudity or obscene content.

It is also not to be used for purposes that “vilify, defame or hold up to contempt or ridicule the teachings and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.”