SCITUATE The days leading up to Easter at St. Frances X. Cabrini Church had all the familiar rituals of Holy Week at a Catholic parish, including prayer on Palm Sundayand observance of the Stations of the Cross. After Easter Mass, there was an egg hunt for children.

What was missing has also become familiar to parishioners. For the third year, the Boston archdiocese denied parishioners request for a priest to say Easter Mass.

The Mass was bright and uplifting, said Jon Rogers, one of the original organizers of the prayer vigil after the church was closed by the archdiocese as part of a cost-cutting reconfiguration. Were very polished at this after almost four years.

The Mass, which drew about 300 people, was celebrated by a lay person. The Eucharist was blessed by a sympathetic and anonymous clergyman, Rogers said.

While other closed churches have occasionally been granted clergy for holiday Masses and even regular Sunday services, St. Frances has been consistently denied.

One of 67 churches the archdiocese ordered closed in 2004, St. Frances is one of five where parishioners are holding vigils to keep the doors from being shut permanently.

On Sunday, Bishop Robert Hennessey said Easter Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Boston, another closed church.

Rogers said parishioners saw the choice as a classic example of the old boys network granting privileges to some churches and not to others.

But archdiocesan spokesman Terrence Donilon denied that the church plays favorites and said the church aims to be consistent by denying priests to closed parishes.

We really do understand the anxiety, frustration and anger they are feeling, said Donilon. But we hope theyll also understand that their gifts and faith could be put to great use at one of the open, welcoming parishes.

Rogers said the parishioners success at holding holiday Mass without clergy exemplifies the battle cry adopted by St. Frances parishioners: Keep the Faith, change the management.

Parishioners at the churches have filed civil suits claiming that they not the archdiocese should be declared the owners of their churches.

We are not just a Catholic church, we are a Catholic community, Rogers said. The archdiocese should be using us as a model, not trying to tear us down and take the assets.

Kaitlin Keane may be reached at kkeane@ledger.com.