Lots of Boston church closing news today; I would cover other things, but this keeps filling my in box. Archbishop Sean O’Malley announced on Tuesday that he has reversed his decision on the closing of one parish and revised his plans for several others. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha parish in Plymouth will remain open. I don’t believe they had or were planning to have a sit-in.
In Newton, where Mary Immaculate of Lourdes and St. Bernard were scheduled to close and St. Bernard was already having a sit-in, they will instead throw them back in to the mix with two other parishes, Corpus Christi and St. Philip Neri. Over the next year, they will “enter a period of re-evaluation and ... provide recommendations.” In other words, those four parishes have to figure out how to make it work.
On the one hand, it’s good to admit a mistake and move on, but this doesn’t have that kind of air. The Newton situation doesn’t look like anything was missed in the reconfiguration planning, but something changed in the implementation. And so now, after a protest, it looks like they’re being rewarded. If anything this isn’t going to help in dealing with the other protesters. It might, in fact, cause them to become even more entrenched and encourage others to begin because it looks like obstinance is being rewarded. That may not be what it is in reality, but you can be sure that the newspapers on Wednesday will portray it as such, especially when we see the quotes from Voice of the Faithful, the Council of Parishes, and whatever other pressure group wants to weigh in.
Actually, it ends up being the same thing that happened in Charlestown. All the current pastors are removed and two new ones are brought in ASAP. The new pastor of the St. Bernards / Corpus Christi grouping will then have the fun task of bringing all of the people in thosee two parishes to one table!!! They, together will then figure out what the new parish will look like. I think it was a brilliant move. It cuts the protestors feet out from under them. The battle moves to the local level where it wont’ be the big bad Archdiocese they are waring / protesting but they will be fighting with their neighbor. The agenda’s will be real obvious to neighbors. Neighbors will be able to “report” on neighbors with the truth when the reporters come looking for a story. The story will be about selfishness and entrenchment on one side and Christ’s love and mercy on the other. We need to truly pray and sacrifice for these new pastors. It is going to be a difficult but very necessary job. Hopefully they will be able to bring the light of Christ to the “table” and maybe, just maybe through the pain and difficulty, yes through the Cross conversions will take place.
Also, the Blessed Kateri decision never made sense. That area is only growing and in a short time they would have had to build down there to match the need. How about closing one of the two parishes in Westwood instead?
Light dawns on Marblehead! Maybe they’ll start presenting explanations for their decisions.