Here are some vignettes from a suppressed parish where there’s a sit-in. At the former St. Anselm’s in Sudbury, Mass., there’s lots of happy talk about all this has brought the people together, how God is blessing them, how they’re all closer than they ever were:
“It’s more personal now,” said Mike Richard, who was among the parents sitting with the 17 youngsters watching “Shrek 2.” “It makes you wonder maybe it should have been like this all along.”
Ding, ding, ding! Give the man a prize! If they had put this much effort into their parish when it was still open, perhaps it wouldn’t have closed. Perhaps they’d have been sending men to the seminary. Perhaps they would have filled the pews to overflowing. Perhaps it would not have been smaller than the other parishes around it. However, the article still doesn’t give us numbers: How many people are actually part of this sit-in? 10? 20? 100? Even 100 would not be many when you consider that a typical parish has 1,000 or more families. St. Anselm’s had only 377 people attending Mass at the last parish census, a tiny number yet 100 would only be one-third of that.
Speaking of Mass, let’s get a little flavor of these “services” they’re holding in the church before Friday movie nights instead of Mass:
“So we’re going to get a movie for the projector,” said Barbara Gogan, who came in with her children, Alex and Abby, moments after the projector was discovered. The threesome returned with “Shrek 2” in time for the service that included children marching with tambourines, maracas and a drum to accompany the “Godspell” song “Day By Day.”
