St. Michael’s Church, Ancoats, Manchester.

St. Michael’s Church, Ancoats, Manchester.

Madonna del Rosario Procession

Sunday, 1 July 2007, could be the last time this procession, which is said to have taken place every year for the past 117 years, will use St. Michael’s Church, Ancoats, Manchester. This historic area of Ancoats, not far from the City Centre, is said to have been the ‘world’s first industrial suburb’ and among that industry lived many Irish and Italian immigrants.

This procession is organised by the Manchester Italian Association as a celebration of the City’s Roman Catholic Italian/Manchester heritage. The church was closed in 2004 by Salford Diocese, which includes Manchester, and was compulsorily purchased in 2002 as part of a scheme to regenerate the Ancoats area.

The campaigners wish to have the church reopened and they hold weekly prayer sessions on the pavement outside the church every Sunday.

They have used the church building to prepare the 7ft-high statues of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Calvary (Jesus on the Cross), and St. John for the annual procession. Now the Save St. Michael’s campaigners have been told, by the Development Agency, that the locks will be changed because their occupation of the church is a ‘health and safety risk’.

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