A simple solution to unauthorized parish vigils
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Nov 16, 2011
In the Archdiocese of Boston, plans to close and sell parish churches have been stymied by disgruntled parishioners who have been holding vigil at several churches. This week one such vigil came to an end.
Even after the archdiocese sold St. Jeremiah church in Framingham to a local community of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, the vigils continued. But the former parishioners who had been occupying the building finally left this week, for two reasons. First, the Vatican turned down their appeal against the sale of the building. Second, as the Boston Herald reports :
Early this month, the Syro-Malobar changed the locks at St. Jeremiah.
So after 7 years of unauthorized occupations—7 years in which the expenses rolled up, and the projected sales were thwarted, and the cash-strapped archdiocese sunk deeper in red ink—someone finally hit on a solution.
They changed the locks.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Nov. 21, 2011 7:41 PM ET USA
The churches are being closed because of lack of funds and clergy. Who will pay the utilities in parishes with dwindling congregation to shoulder the bills. Isn't flight to the suburbs the reason?
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Posted by: lauriem5377 -
Nov. 19, 2011 11:40 AM ET USA
Perhaps it would have been better to have spent the past 7 years in evangilization and filling the church, rather than closing and locking parishioners out of it.
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Posted by: samuel.doucette1787 -
Nov. 18, 2011 9:01 AM ET USA
This archdiocese makes the Keystone Cops look like a SWAT team.
