I feel bad for people whose parish is closing, but when they start comparing it to the sexual abuse of young people my sympathy wanes.
As parishioners fight the closing of St. Anselm’s Church, many said what they are going through is just another form of abuse from the church. “I think all of us are emotionally abused Catholics and now we can more fully identify with the abused victims in our church,” Framingham resident Gail Trainor said, referring to the church’s sexual abuse scandal.
That’s not just poor taste, it’s also a lack of proportionaity.
Once again, the reporter fails to do the background so we have to look up the information ourselves. There are two parishes in Sudbury: St. Anselm and Our Lady of Fatima. St. Anselm has a whopping weekly attendance of 377 people at all it’s Masses. Not only is that a third of Our Lady of Fatima, but it’s the smallest in the entire Marlborough vicariate. They had the second fewest baptisms (half that of OLF), the third-fewest First Communions, the fewest confirmations, the third-fewest marriages, and by far the fewest funerals. Add it all up, and that’s a mandate for closure right there, never mind the particular circumstances of the vicariate. But then the parishioners try on their argument for why they shouldn’t close, and your credulity is strained.
How come no one mentioned prayer?