The Congregation for the Clergy has issued the first denial of an appeal by a closed Boston parish. The people can still continue their appeal by filing with the Apostolic Signatura, sort of like the Supreme Court, but it’s expensive and requires a lot of work by a canon lawyer. And the odds are it won’t be successful.
This should be the first of the appeals that are returned unfavorably for those wanting to keep their parishes open. The reality is that whatever the people think of the closings, Archbishop Sean O’Malley, in general, dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. He didn’t violate canon law or the rights of the parishes. Even though the Congregation a few months ago said there was a problem about disposition of closed parish assets, that didn’t say that the parishes couldn’t be closed, only that the assets of the closed parishes had to be given up voluntarily by the welcoming parishes.
This isn’t the end of the parish closing drama, but it’s the beginning of the end.
I know St. Peters (Lithuania) got a stay of execution.
What’s up w/ Holy Trinity (German & Latin) ??
I know Rob Quagan post here. I’ve recently jumped into their Yahoo list. It seems like the Latin Mass crowd was a good hope for keeping Holy Trinity open. PLUS, it’s the oldest Catholic church in town I think, right? 1844. Boneheads at the chancery, I guess.
Actually, my parish in Salem, Immaculate Conception, is the oldest parish after the cathedral. 1826.
I haven’t heard anything about Holy Trinity and I don’t know why the archdiocese isn’t giving weight to the needs of the Latin Mass community there. It seems very odd.
For tonyc: so far, there has been no decree to close Holy Trinity, so the need for an appeal has not arisen.
RC: I thought December 15 was the date for HT to be closed? What am I missing here?
Please check out recent (within the last week)posts by myself and a few others on the Save Holy Trinity Yahoo Egroup. This will be helpful giving a better sense of the magnitude of what has been going on at HT. To say the situation is not clear cut is an understatement. At this time our Parish Pastoral Council has identified serious financial “irregularities” (I have heard six figures), with regard to Parish Finances. It has been brought to the attention of Archdiocesan Chancellor Smith. Incidently, our Administrator has refused to convene a Parish Finance Council (PFC) despite the fact members were appointed to PFC following Bishop Boles 2001 visitation. Several requests since 2001 to convene and regularly report financials have largely been ignored by the Administrator. It also should be known that Holy Trinity and to a lesser extent St.James the Greater/Chinatown are the only two Parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston where regular Parish Financial Statements have not been submitted to the Archdiocese for several years.
Check out:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveholytrinity/