It’s official

It’s official

The official decree declaring St. Albert’s in Weymouth as a parish again has been issued ten weeks after Archbishop O’Malley promised to do so.

Methinks that people at the parish came through this with a faulty understanding of the Church and ecclesiology.

“I think you have seen that David did slay Goliath,” said Mary Akoury, cochairwoman of the parish council, to the hurrahs of about two dozen parishioners who came last night for the evening prayer session.

The next time these people are asked to faithfully embrace a hard or difficult teaching of the Church I don’t think the assent of the faithful heart will come so easily to them.

The round-the-clock sit-in continues at least until Friday while their list of additional demands remains unanswered by the chancery: They want their bank accounts back, their full sacramental schedule, their parish records and “the return of church groups that existed before the parish closed.” I’m thinking the last one refers, at least in part, to their Voice of the Faithful chapter.

The lesson here is that if you want something from the archdiocese, hold a protest, occupy the property, and ignore the authority of the archbishop. The irony is that conservative Catholics (and I use that term specifically) tend to shy away from such actions. They are more inclined to obedience, to following the rules, even if they disagree.

That may change. When the pleas of the people of Holy Trinity Parish’s Tridentine Mass community fall on deaf ears, will they occupy the building? Will it matter if they’re not getting the same fawning attention from the Boston Globe that St. Albert’s did?

Will parents disgusted with Talking about Touching set up a tent city on the chancery grounds until the archdiocese acknowledges that it can’t forcibly strip the innocence from every Catholic child in the archdiocese? Without powerful patrons like Secretary of State Bill Galvin will anyone listen to them if they do?

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