A preservation group has appealed a decree by Worcester’s Catholic bishop that revokes the sacred status of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church so the building can be sold. Meantime, Bishop Robert J. McManus has said warnings of seriously deteriorating conditions at the crumbling church date back a half-century, not long after Interstate 290 was built mere feet from Mount Carmel’s door on Mulberry Street.

He said the priest who was then pastor of Mount Carmel Church in 1967 recommended the church be torn down and replaced with a smaller church farther from the highway. A week and a half ago, Bishop McManus decreed the closed Mount Carmel Church at 24 Mulberry St. to be relegated from sacred to non-religious use. That means the building may be used for non-religious activities as long as those activities are not contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, according to the Worcester Diocese.