Sunday, May 30, 2010

Vatican Rejects Final Appeals of 10 Closed Parishes in Boston

This item rolled off the AP on May 17. The New York Times presented it as a news brief in their national section, Massachusetts: Vatican Rejects Appeals by 10 Parishes in Boston Archdiocese. The following day USA Today expanded and expounded on the topic in their piece Vatican rejects closed Boston churches' appeals.

The wagons seem to have been circled and there seems to be a singularity of purpose in these denials. We should all get together and see if the text (in Latin, no less) of these denials is identical. The Church's recently demonstrated penitence for the abuse of minors by priests has not yet extended itself to the corollary phenomenon: the manner in which "parish families" have been dispossessed and dispersed without suitable pastoral attention. Parishes have unique cultures and charisms that should be studied, preserved and propagated, not obliterated.

Archbishop Dolan: Our Lady of Vilnius, while originated to serve Lithuanians, evolved into a beloved multi-ethnic community solidly resting on the base established by faithful Lithuanian immigrants. The recent rapprochement between the archdiocese and the Lithuanian clergy does not reconstitute the parish family of Our Lady of Vilnius. Our flock needs to be gathered, reunited and fed.

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