LEWISTON — The pipe organ originally housed in Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Saco will be blessed and dedicated at its new home in the crypt chapel of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during a Mass in the chapel at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 28.

The Mass will be celebrated in French.

According to a news release from the Portland Diocese, Monsignor Marc Caron, pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Lewiston, will be the main celebrant, with Monsignor René Mathieu, pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Saco, concelebrating.

Notre Dame de Lourdes Church was closed in December 2009, and the organ was dismantled in 2013 before being moved to Lewiston. It has been refurbished, thanks to a gift from the estate of the Rev. Maurice Morin, who was born in Lewiston in 1938 and served as parochial vicar at St. Andre Church in Biddeford (1967-1970) and pastor of St. Joseph’s Church, also in Biddeford (1983-1989).

“I had asked Monsignor Mathieu if they had plans for the pipe organ when the church closed,” Caron said in the release. “I told him that we would be interested in using it in the basilica chapel. He was kind enough to indicate that the parish would donate the organ to Prince of Peace.”

Using Morin’s gift, the Lewiston parish covered the cost of moving the instrument, repairing and updating it, and installing it in the basilica chapel.

Members of Morin’s family and parishioners from Good Shepherd Parish are expected to attend Saturday’s blessing and dedication.


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