Dissidents losing struggle at closed Boston parishes

September 20, 2010

Dissident groups that have fought against the closing of their parishes in the Boston archdiocese are losing support for their vigils, the Boston Globe reports.

After six years of resisting the archdiocesan orders, with their appeals to the Vatican now exhausted, the organizers of sit-ins in the affected churches are facing the challenges of declining numbers and sagging morale. The Globe-- which has been strongly sympathetic toward the dissidents—reports that participants are now wondering whether they should accede to the request of the archdiocese by joining an active parish, or move to another religious community. The Globe report provides evidence that some of the vigil participants have already strayed from a Catholic understanding of the Church and sacramental life:

Several have grown used to a Sunday service without priests — something that is not quite Mass, but that offers a kind of homespun spiritual intimacy. At St. James the Great in Wellesley, when it’s time for Communion, dozens gather in a circle around the altar, and Eucharistic ministers place wafers, blessed by sympathetic priests, in open hands. Strains of choir music rise from a boom box.

 

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Further information:

• Vigils’ days numbered, parishioners’ hope fades (Boston Globe)