A Catholic chapel at a New Jersey shopping mall is closing after nearly 50 years.
St. Therese's Chapel, also known as the Chapel on the Mall, is at the Bergen Town Center in Paramus. The church planned to have its final Mass on Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent, before packing up and seeking a new home.
The chapel, office rooms and gift shop have occupied 5,000 square feet. The chapel's been run by the Carmelite order of priests since it opened in 1970 and had a month-to-month lease at the mall for the past decade.
The New York Times reports the chapel has drawn almost 1,000 people to Mass each week.
Rev. Eugene Bettinger, the chapel's executive director, says new potential locations have already been scouted.
