We’ve apparently heard the last word on changes to the Boston parish closing plan today, barring one final decision.
The archdiocese announced today that a church in Squantum, a part of the city of Quincy, where protests were happening, will become a chapel where one Mass per week will be celebrated. Of course, the protesters aren’t happy because they didn’t get everything they wanted, but based on the pastoral statistics, this tiny parish had no basis on which to remain open.
After that decision, the archdiocese announced that the Meade-Eisner committee, which was re-examining the closing process, had finished its work, although the fate of St. Jeremiah in Framingham will be decided in two weeks. That leaves a number of protesting groups without a resolution. The archdiocese is also providing air conditioning for the church for the protesters over the summer. Apparently, because the church had been air conditioned and had its units removed when closed, they will get them back. Unfortunately, all the other parishes in the archdiocese without AC will remain sweltering.
The parishes whose status remains as closing are Our Lady of Mt Carmel in East Boston (although there’s negotiations for it be a chapel, which the protesters are balking at), St. Therese in Everett, St. Frances Cabrini in Scituate, and St. James in Wellesley.
Predictably the protesting crowd isn’t happy that they didn’t get their way. When will the archbishop send in the constables to remove the trespassers and get his excommunication letters written? Oh, hee, hee, I crack myself up.
