The Boston City Council is angry that the Archdiocese of Boston isn’t coming to them, hat in hand, to ask what they should do with closed properties. Of course, the politicians phrase it in terms of their constituents being mad.
“You would just think that after all the pain and anguish that we felt in the Archdiocese of Boston that they would handle the disposition of property in a more humane approach,” said City Councilor Jerry McDermott. “The wounds inflicted by the archdiocese are festering. They are not healing. People are fighting mad.”
Oh really? Apart from protests about a Brookline school closing (which isn’t one of the properties that City Council is complaining about), there is no outrage.
No, what we have here are politicians who are doing what politicians do: Try to make themselves relevant. If they can force the archdiocese, an institution that is not in people’s good graces these days, to make concessions, the solons can claim trumpet their “accomplishments” to their constituents. In other words, if they don’t bring home the bacon, why should people vote for them?
The Church is an easy target, but the reality is that the needs of politicians are not our priority or concern. The ministries present in the closing churches will continue. Archbishop O’Malley, a Franciscan who has served the poor for his whole priesthood, is not going to just close homeless shelters with no regard for the people affected. I think the City Council should sit down, be quiet, and keep their noses out of our business.
