If it’s Easter in Boston then it must be time to profile another one of those closed Catholic churches where the protesters pretend at Catholic sacraments.
It was an Easter Sunday service at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini church in Scituate, and it was led almost entirely by women. Standing in front of the altar, Bonnie Mayo and Patti Litz, longtime members of the seaside church, handed out wafers and wine. Marian MacIsaac, whose parents helped found the church four decades ago, raised her hands skyward and recited the Lord’s Prayer. Karen Nawn-Fahey, who was married in the church 20 years ago, retold the story of Jesus’s resurrection. Denied a priest by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, this church turned instead to its longtime members—teachers, financial executives, and retirees—to celebrate one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was officially closed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in October 2004, and is one of six churches that have been occupied around the clock in attempts to keep them open.
In this case, the Boston Globe got the wording exactly right: They handed out “bread and wine”, not the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, technically it says that “A priest sympathetic to parishioners’ fight at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini had blessed the wafer and wine beforehand, rather than during the Easter service.” Umm, yeah, what does it mean by “blessed”? Was this a real priest or one of these guys from those pseudo-Catholic churches popping up here and there? Whoever he was, he certainly didn’t follow the liturgical law—you not supposed to “pre-consecrate” the Precious Blood—raising questions not just about the licitness, but also the validity of the sacrament.
She substituted her own “telling” for the Gospel
Technorati Tags: Boston, Catholic, dissent, Easter, liturgy, Mass, parish closing
*YAWN*
And I bet these people think they’re doing something daring.
Having failed to produce a next generation and having failed to pass on the faith, this is their fate. They are reaping what they have sowed: nothing.
It’s certainly not Catholic…maybe “Catholesque”…..
I’ve written about this too, but you are calmer than I. Perhaps because this is unfortunately commonplace for you.
I suppose “commonplace” is one way of putting it. It’s not new to me. Parish-sitters have been doing this stuff since the parish closings began.