Do the math

By Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. ( articles - email ) | May 28, 2004

It was inevitable that conspiracy theories would multiply when Archbishop Sean O'Malley announced large-scale parish closings in Boston. The usual kooks are complaining that the closings were designed to target them.

Among them are Voice of the Faithful who note that eight of 46 Boston parishes with VOTF chapters are closing. That's just unfair, they say. Is it?

Let's do the math: The archdiocese is closing 65 out of 357 parishes, or 18 percent. Hmm, so if the archbishop was targeting VOTF you'd expect more than 18 percent of VOTF parishes to close. For you non-math majors, eight divided by 46 is ... 17 percent. Yes, real unfair.

Are they too dumb to do the math themselves or do they think we're too dumb to do it ourselves? Take your pick.