This one is called, “Learning to read the signs of the times.” A small group of recusant parishioners at Sacred Heart parish in Natick fails to realize that their protests are pointless. Back in November I noted that only 15 people had joined in their closing protest but, undeterred by the fact that everyone else in the parish was ready to move on, they were determined to press ahead.
As the first link above shows, they haven’t got a better grasp on the reality. They failed to raise the $20,000 to hire a canon lawyer, their pastor is moving ahead with the closing process, and other parishioners have already started leaving for other parishes. Yet, like Sisyphus, they keep making plans unconnected with reality. And as I first predicted on Nov. 1, when the closing comes at the beginning of January, this recalcitrant handful will refuse to leave the building and the media will portray it as another parish in revolt, although in reality 99 percent of the parish has moved on and accepts the decision.
In fact, I will maintain that this so-called rebellion is as much a media creation as it is a reality. I guess with the stick of the Scandal fading out of the mainstream consciousness, the parish closings make convenient new bat with which to beat the Church over the head.
fails to realize?
Do you realize that you only comment lately on my typos? But I still love you.
I wonder if some of these ex-parishes won’t start to help each other out—personnel sharing as it were—in order to prove their point.