WOBURN, Mass. (AP) – At the request of the Archdiocese of Boston, prosecutors dropped a trespassing charge against a 69-year-old man arrested for refusing to leave his church after its final Mass.

Middlesex County prosecutors filed a document in Woburn District Court on Friday that said the office won’t pursue the case against Eugene Sweeney of Winchester.

The archdiocese asked the district attorney’s office to drop the case on Nov. 15, said Melissa Sherman, spokeswoman for District Attorney Martha Coakley. Sherman said the office agreed after reviewing the case.

A call to a spokeswoman for the archdiocese wasn’t immediately returned Saturday.

Sweeney was arrested Nov. 6 at Immaculate Conception Church in Winchester after he refused to leave the parish. The church is one of 83 parishes the Boston archdiocese is closing under a massive restructuring brought on in part by declining numbers of priests and financial struggles.

His lawyer has said Sweeney thought his actions were appropriate, and similar to what parishioners at other closing churches have done by staging 24-hour vigils inside the church buildings.

Sweeney had pleaded innocent and was free on personal recognizance.