The steadfast parishioners of St. Albert the Great in Weymouth and St. Anselm in Sudbury are refusing to leave their churches despite a decision by the Archdiocese of Boston to close the parishes as part of a massive reorganization effort. The round-the-clock vigils, which will likely spread to other churches, are a sign of faithfulness, signaling that the archdiocese should not stand rigidly by its decision to close 82 parishes by the end of the year.
Boston Globe editorial, 9/20/04
Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley's so-called "parish configuration" is in trouble. It would close an unprecedented 82 of 357 parishes, 23 percent, in just seven months. His stated reasons are dwindling attendance, financial problems, decrepit buildings, and a shortage of priests. But not all parishes are going quietly.
By late September, parishioners at a third church, St. Bernard in West Newton, had announced that their sit-in would begin after their last scheduled Mass Oct. 24, and were collecting support money at the doors after Sunday mass. Several more parishes slated for closure were sending lay leaders to the prayer vigils and meetings at St. Albert and St. Anselm, comparing notes, starting save-our-church websites, and raising money for their own sit-ins and lawsuits.
As the first sit-in, lie-in parish, St. Albert has led the way in the media: regular stories in the Globe and the Boston Herald, two National Public Radio features, articles in the New York Times and the L.A. Times. Follow their saga on their website: stalbertsweymouth.org They are one of 20 closure parishes who immediately appealed O'Malley's decision last spring. (All 20 got turned down.) They have a canonical appeal filed at the Vatican, and a civil lawsuit in state court claiming that they own the parish, with the archbishop as corporation sole acting as their trustee. The court refused to grant an injunction blocking archdiocesan efforts to sell the property, but did not dismiss the underlying suit. Parishioners have raised over $110,000 in a legal fund.
St. Albert is also the parish of two Call To Action New England board activists, Eileen and Stan Doherty. The Dohertys are writing a detailed "Informal Statistical Study" of the whole Boston parish reconfiguration process since last December. (See story here.)
In every parish where the people are protesting closure, a common cry is heard: O'Malley made sweeping, top-down decisions in the hierarchical, clerical style of old, and the people really had no voice. They still don't: O'Malley and his staff refuse to meet with aggrieved parishioners. Without the people's voice, the process of parish reconfiguration was flawed from the start.
Yet O'Malley seems unaware that, as The Globe editorial said, "Many area Catholics retook possession of their church in the spiritual sense" since the 2002 revelations of clergy sexual abuse of children and its coverup by the hierarchy. "Traditional deference to clerical authority is diminishing. Lay leaders are taking greater responsibility." It is no accident that Voice of the Faithful (VotF), created in the abuse crisis to awaken the laity, has parish affiliates at St. Albert, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, and several more parishes now fighting against closure.
The above parishes are vibrant, white, suburban, with full pews and money in the bank. If closing them is O'Malley's bad dream, closing St. Catherine of Siena in the Charlestown section of Boston this fall will be his nightmare. He has spared two upscale white Charletown parishes and chosen to close St. Catherine's, the one with blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos in public housing — the one with the daily AA meetings, a Spanish Mass, a food pantry, and space for Muslim neighbors to study the Koran. And a VotF chapter.
Fr. Robert Bowers, pastor, asked a VotF audience last month, "Why are we being closed? Isn't St. Catherine's exactly what a Catholic church should look like?" Globe columnist Eileen McNamara took down his words:
"It's a myth that these parishes have to close. When they tell you it
it not about the money, you know that it is about the money. It's not about
a shortage of priests. In half the parishes in the world there is no resident
priest. The people run the parish. So can you. Don't ask permission. Do it."
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