WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Wilmington’s only surgical dental clinic, which offers free services to low-income patients, has received an eviction notice from the Basilica of St. Mary.
This is the latest move in a months-long back and forth between the Basilica and St. Mary Health Center regarding the space in which the center will operate.
St. Mary’s Basilica asked the health center back in April to vacate the building by July 1, 2024. The center’s executive director, Laura Vinson, said the center must remain open, however. Staff couldn’t find a place to move their equipment and services, and she said they still had patients to care for.
“Our patients are truly unique,” Vinson said. “They are in pain. They are emergency patients. If we fail our patients, what does that say about the hospital?”
Since that deadline has passed, Vinson believes the Basilica has made small changes that are causing inconvenience to the health center.
“The lawn is no longer mowed,” Vinson said. “It’s been a while since the maintenance department has done anything out there, so the grass is about knee-deep.”
Vinson also said the locks to the administrative office, where the mailroom is located, have also been changed. Since then, she has been ordering supplies for the health center to her home.
On Friday, staff working with patients also noticed that the locks on the building where patients use the restroom had also been changed. Later that day, after patients left the building around noon, a deputy sheriff came by and served them with the eviction notice from the Basilica.
“I thought maybe they would change their minds and be Christian and kind and allow us to stay here as long as we needed, but it looks like that’s not going to happen,” Vinson said.
Anna Wood, a volunteer at the center, said she still doesn’t understand why they are being asked to leave.
“If I didn’t see it myself, I would never believe that anyone in the church or any church organization would act like that,” Wood said. “I don’t think you have to be a Catholic to see that what’s going on here is wrong.”
She said that at this point, the center simply wants the basilica to give them more time to find a new place to call home.
“All we’re asking for is time to move,” Wood said. “We don’t want to be confrontational, but we can’t just clean everything up and walk away in 30 days. You have to have a place to go and you have to have money to prepare it. I mean, you can’t just do that.”
The center is working with an attorney who will help them fight to stay. Vinson said their work at the health center will continue until they are forced to leave.
“There are a lot of people who need help, and I’m not going to turn them away,” Vinson said. “If they’re turned away, it’s because the basilica didn’t want me to see them.”
WECT has reached out to St. Mary’s Basilica several times requesting an interview or statement. Each time we have been told to contact the Diocese of Raleigh for a statement. Despite multiple calls over the months, we have not received a response.
However, the music director of the Basilica approached our teams in the parking lot of the health center. She told us that she was not involved in the decision to ask people to leave the health center.
In a statement, Barbara Gallagher told us: “Not everyone who works for the Basilica, including myself, agrees with the way the matter is being handled. Many parishioners also disagree.”
Gallagher also said that most of the people she interacted with at St. Mary’s during the 18 years she played there were “kind, caring, genuine Christians and it’s a great shame that one or a few people in positions of power in the church had to spoil it for everyone.”
The notice specifies September 4, 2024 as the court date for the eviction.
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