It’s no surprise to me that three Boston-area parishes fighting loudest to stay open are run by their particular pastors. Fathers Steve Josoma, Ron Coyne, and Bob Bowers are well-known to Catholics in this area and not for the orthodoxy of their preaching. They are among the most liberal and least likely to preach the full truth of the Catholic faith.
Witness the effects of their lack of Catholic pastoral leadership: Parishioners at Coyne’s St. Albert’s parish are talking about filing for a court injunction and are even looking at setting up a parish independent of the archdiocese! Sorry folks, that’s called schism. Welcome to Protestantism.
You cover the dissenters well, Dom, and thanks for that.
One would think that the baptisms and First Communions and Confirmations would be fairly close in numbers?
One thing that the archdiocese can do is to look at the catechismal material that the parishes use and look at the DREs in each parish. It is a shameful mess.
I had to laugh at the BG article on Fr. Josoma’s parish… standing room only this week.. where has everyone been every other week? I feel awful that Catholic parishes are being closed rather than opened but it is our own fault and the fault of the parish priests and the negligence of the chancery… educate the kids in the 2000 year old Catholic faith and not the touchy feely stuff that would be acceptible at most any Protestant Church and they will come (back). Our faith is rich in history and tradition and Truth and these kids AND most of their parents have absolutely no idea.
Recently my family started to attend the Masses of a priest (took me months to find one) who is holy and reverent and actually teaches the faith. The difference in my kids is amazing – and in only three months. The two parish priests in my old parish have asked my son to be an altar boy (he’s 10) and my son kind of blew it off because he couldn’t see the point. God’s honest truth, last week he approached the priest on his own and asked if he could be an altar boy. I take my nephews (largely uncatechized) to this Mass and they listen to the priest and never fool around. Both of them (ages 10 & 11) have actually asked me to take them to Mass. Please, Fathers, teach the truth of the faith and not just biblical commentary or the latest sound system or how the parish needs more money or how much God loves us – and look at your CCD programs! No wonder there aren’t many young men in the seminaries around here.
There was also an op-ed in the Herald on Saturday about the Archbishop shutting down a “progressive” parish because the Pastor was one of the priest who called for Law’s ouster. I believe it was in the “As You Were Saying” by someone by the name of DeFillipo. I noticed the same kind of “financially thriving” statements as well.
Quotes of note:
“We are witnessing a death, a death of something that is very dear to us—our parish,” said the Rev. Lawrence Rondeau, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Salem, who wept during his homily. “We should feel angry. We should feel sadness. We should feel confusion. Those are all necessary emotions for us to feel.”
I don’t agree with the Rev. Rondeau, but understand that this is his opinion.
At St. William in Dorchester, which will merge, the Rev. Christopher J. Hickey compared his pain at the church’s selection to the sorrow he felt during the clergy sexual abuse scandal. “The pain of this is as deep, if not deeper, than the scandal,” he said. “This is more personal…”
Yikes. For the life of me, I really cannot feel Father Hickey’s “pain,” nor comprehend his astounding comparison.
And here’s one that almost knocked me off my chair:
And at St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth, the Rev. Ron Coyne acknowledged to a packed congregation that it was “hard to sense God’s spirit” in the closing.
“There are days we won’t want to have spirit or go back to church,” Coyne said. “I hope everyone in this parish continues to believe in Christ, even though it’s not easy to do.”
Not exactly the stuff of martyrs, is it?
Prayers are really needed, I think, for Ellen Richard, 81, of Saint Joseph’s, Salem, quoted as saying:
“It’s terrible,” Richard said. “I’m losing my faith . . . I’m telling you, I’m really thinking about not going to church anymore.”
Think about that. At 81, she’s considering chucking it all, evidently.
Prayers of thanksgiving for Mrs. Richard’s husband, 82 year old Henry, for his attitude (which I pray will influence his wife):
“It’s pretty discouraging,” said Richard, who said he does not know which church he will attend next. “But I will go,” Richard stressed. “I never miss Mass. We’ll have to live with this.”7;Malley.