WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Wilmington’s only surgical dental clinic that offers free services to low-income patients has been served an eviction notice by the Basilica of St. Mary.

It’s the latest move in months of back and forth between the Basilica and St. Mary Health Center over the space the center operates out of.

The Basilica of St. Mary gave the health center a notice back in April, telling them to vacate the building by July 1, 2024. The center’s executive director Laura Vinson said the center had to stay open, though. The staff couldn’t find a place to move their equipment and services to and she says they still had patients to help.

“Our patients are really unique,” Vinson said. “They’re in pain. They’re emergency patients. If we abandon our patients, I mean, what does that say about the clinic?”

Since they’ve stayed past that deadline, Vinson said she believes the Basilica has been making small changes to inconvenience the health center.

“The grass hasn’t been cut anymore,” Vinson said. “It’s been a while since the maintenance department did anything outside. So the grass about comes up to your knees.”

Vinson also said the locks to the administrative office, where the mail room is, have also been changed. She’s been ordering supplies for the health center to her own house since.

Friday, while working with patients, staff also noticed the locks to the building where patients use the bathroom were changed as well. Later that day, after the patients had left around noon, a sheriff’s deputy came by and served them the eviction notice from the Basilica.

“I had thought that maybe they would have a change of heart and do the Christian thing, the kind thing and allow us to stay here for the time that we needed, but it seems like that’s not going to happen,” Vinson said.

One volunteer for the center, Anna Wood, said she still doesn’t understand why they are being asked to leave.

“If I didn’t see this going on myself, I would never believe that someone in the church or a church organization would act this way,” Wood said. “I don’t think you have to be a Catholic to see that what’s going on here is wrong.”

She said at this point, the center just wants the Basilica to give them more time to find a new place to call home.

“We’re not asking for anything but time to be able to move,” Wood said. “We don’t want to be confrontational, but we can’t just pick up in 30 days and leave. You have to have a place to go and you have to have money to get it ready. I mean it’s it’s just not a snap your fingers thing.”

The center is working with an attorney who is going to help them fight to stay. Vinson said her work at the health center will continue until they are forced out.

“There’s an awful lot of people that need help and I’m not going to be turning them away,” Vinson said. “If they get turned away, it’s going to be because the Basilica did not want me to see them.”

WECT has reached out to the Basilica of St. Mary several times to request an interview or statement. They’ve told us each time to reach out to the Diocese of Raleigh to get a statement. Despite several calls over the course of months, we have not heard back.

The music director for the Basilica did approach our crews in the parking lot of the health center, though. She tells us she was not part of the decision to ask the health center to leave.

In a statement, Barbara Gallagher told us, “Not everyone who works for the Basilica, myself included, is in agreement with the way this is being handled. Many parishioners also do not agree.”

Gallagher also said most of the people she has dealt with at St. Mary’s over the 18 years she’s played there are “kind, caring, truly Christian people, and it’s such a shame that one or a few in powerful positions at the church had to spoil things for everyone.”

The court date for the eviction is listed on the notice as Sept. 4, 2024.

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