People more attached to their buildings than the Church continue to look for ways to avoid the inevitable. Today, it’s the people in wealthy Concord, Massachusetts, who are asking their town to seize their parish church by eminent domain or otherwise restrict the property because they think such totalitarian, unconstitutional tactics will pressure the Archdiocese of Boston to keep their parish open. It’s not going to happen.
They can steal the church through eminent domain. They can make it a national historic landmark. Whatever they do, it won’t force the Archbishop of Boston to put a priest there or call it a parish. The problem with all these groups is that they assume that Archbishop O’Malley’s first concern is the money to be gained from selling the property. It isn’t and I think there’s a bit of projection here on their parts. Remember, he’s a very observant Franciscan. Money is way down on his list of worries. The parishes must be closed to meet different needs.
So even if these towns succeed in stealing from the Church, and if they succeed in convincing the federal courts that this isn’t a violation of the First Amendment, it won’t change a single thing. They need to grow up and accept reality and realize that the Church is bigger than their own little parish.
