WARWICK -- Until July, the Rev. Thomas P. Gilfillan's lonely gravesite at the Aldrich Estate, on Warwick Neck, marked a 20-year holdout against the Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Father Gilfillan had remained buried there since his family prevailed in a highly publicized 1986 court battle, even as the diocese unearthed the bodies of 38 other priests and Bishop Russell McVinney from that cemetery and reburied them elsewhere.

Back then, Gilfillan's heirs accused the diocese of wanting to close the Regina Cleri Cemetery to improve the marketability of its 70-acre jewel on Narragansett Bay -- valued today at $34.1 million.

Previous stories indicate alternately that the Aldrich family in 1939 either sold the property to the diocese for $10, or that the diocese purchased the property for an estimated $75,000.

The diocese denied rumors that the property was for sale, and cited vandalism concerns and a need to consolidate its cemeteries in view of a shrinking clergy.

But this year, Gilfillan's family had a change of heart, and on July 12, the priest's remains were relocated to St. Francis Cemetery, in Pawtucket, among fellow priests.

Aldrich Estate is listed as collateral on some $14.2 million in loans toward settlements with victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Even so, says diocesan spokesman Michael Guilfoyle, "there's no current plan to sell Aldrich Mansion."

"There is, however," Guilfoyle continued, "a diocesan-wide property-utilization review under way. This is something that's a regular occurrence here in the diocese. It's just a continuing review of all our nonministerial property."

Guilfoyle said a committee is studying whether the estate's current use, which includes rental for weddings, retreats, banquets-- and in 1997, the filming of the movie Meet Joe Black -- is the best for the diocese. That review extends to all diocesan properties, he said.

Monsignor Paul Theroux, vicar general and cochairman of that study committee, emphasized that the study "really doesn't reflect any intention at this time to sell the property. . . . It's a study to know what our options are."

The monsignor said the diocese recently renewed its lease with the private Overbrook Academy (in the former seminary) for two years, "and we have quite a number of bookings for the Aldrich Manor."

In 2003, the diocese began appraising significant properties to pay off its loans. The first was the bishop's 16-room summer home in Watch Hill for $7 million. Last year, the diocese sold off a small corner of the Aldrich Estate for $1.75 million, to the Grenier Group, a Providence developer.

That 8-acre parcel includes a former caretaker's house. The property is now offered for sale by the Grenier Group, according to RE/MAX Realty.

This year, the diocese sold a narrow easement to a private homeowner whose shoreline property abuts the estate.

Meanwhile, before the sale of the old caretaker's house, the City of Warwick in 2002 approached the diocese about buying rights to the property to prevent development on the Aldrich Estate.

"It's such an important parcel in the fabric of Warwick Neck, which is why we sent the letter originally -- that if there was a chance of selling, we'd like to have a discussion about buying the development rights," Mayor Scott Avedisian said recently.

"Originally when we sent the letter, they said they weren't interested in doing anything," Avedisian said. "So our discussion went by the wayside."

THE CONFLICT OVER Father Gilfillan's grave dates to the summer of 1986, when the priest's nieces and nephews brought a civil action against the diocese.

In May of that year, the diocese moved McVinney's body from the Bishop's Chapel at Regina Cleri Cemetery to a new mausoleum at St. Francis Cemetery.

The diocese also petitioned to remove the bodies of 39 priests, including Gilfillan's, that were buried at the cemetery.

Church officials said that relocating the Our Lady of Providence Seminary to Providence from the Aldrich Estate made obsolete the original purpose -- to have seminarians visit and pray at the gravesites. As such, the cemetery was "unattended and subject to vandalism," the diocese said.

Gilfillan's nieces and nephews questioned the wisdom and truthfulness of the diocese, accusing its officials of disturbing consecrated ground and removing the bodies "for capital gain."

The court granted the diocese permission to remove all the bodies, excepting Gilfillan's, and relocate them elsewhere.

Eventually, the diocese agreed to let Gilfillan's remain where it was, said Charles Wick, a Providence lawyer who represented Gilfillan's next-of-kin.

"The diocese simply agreed not to do anything. . . . The diocese agreed not to move him and not to oppose their motion. I guess that's the way it's been for 20 years," Wick said last week. "It never went to a judgment. A judge never made a decision."

William T. Murphy, lawyer for the corporation known as Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, said, "As I recall, there was a miscellaneous petition filed with notice to everybody to obtain permission to remove and re-inter the bodies. The only persons who objected were people who were relatives of Father Gilfillan, and when they objected, the removal of Father Gilfillan just did not happen."

The diocese eventually razed the bishop's chapel, reseeded the grass, and built a wrought-iron fence around Gilfillan's grave. And there the body stayed, alone on the knoll that sweeps down to Narragansett Bay, until July.

Joseph T. Martin, of Warwick, nephew of the late priest and executor of Gilfillan's estate, called the family's decision to allow moving his body "a private matter."

But James F. Martin, another nephew of Gilfillan's, said the decision was a function "of us all getting older."

"It was just one of those things that we all reconsidered," Martin said. "They just transferred him to another gravesite with the rest of the priests. We all decided, he was there alone. And we all decided it was time. The diocese took care of the unearthing and the recommittal. They were just thankful that it could be done."

On July 12, the Perry-McStay Funeral Home of Pawtucket presided over the disinterment of the body of the Rev. Thomas P. Gilfillan. His nephew attended.

A funeral home spokesman said Gilfillan's remains were transferred to St. Francis Cemetery, also owned by the diocese, that same morning. The necessary permits were obtained through the state board of health and the city, the spokesman said.

Margaret Malcolm, chairwoman of Warwick's Historic Cemetery Commission, said however, that the diocese did not notify either the City Council or the commission that removing Gilfillan's grave effectively removed the cemetery.

"I think, as a courtesy, they could have told us. It would have been nice to have told us, just to let us know that cemetery was no longer within our district," Malcolm said.

Diocesan caretakers removed the tiny wrought-iron fence and planted sod where Gilfillan's grave had been. And with that, Warwick Historical Cemetery 94 ceased to exist.

kziner@projo.com / (401) 277-7375