BOSTON (MA)
Washington Post
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 15, 2005; Page A03
BOSTON -- Lessons of 11 months of sanctuary sit-ins: The altar boys' room makes an excellent office. A confessional booth can be turned into a spacious linen closet. It is not comfortable to sleep on a pew.
And now, an especially surprising lesson. The leaders of the Archdiocese of Boston -- which once dominated the moral and political life of this heavily Catholic city -- will reverse themselves, if you are willing to sit still long enough to make them.
Since last spring, three churches slated for closing and occupied by protesting parishioners have won reprieves. Another was spared by the archdiocesan leadership after its members threatened to hire a married priest. ...
It was not the best timing. The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, O'Malley's cabinet secretary for social services, said that the church had eroded trust among Catholics during the sex abuse scandal -- and then asked them to trust that it was doing the right thing by closing churches.
"Closing a military base is a piece of cake compared to closing a parish," Hehir said. "Nobody gets buried in a military base."
Maria DelVecchio has slept among the statues in Boston's Our Lady of Mount Carmel church to keep the vigil going and the parish open. (Photos By David A. Fahrenthold -- The Washington Post)
O'Malley had not been archbishop at the height of the scandal. He replaced the imperious Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who resigned during the backlash from many parishioners, and O'Malley quickly won praise from victims' advocates for his responsiveness. Still, the laity had a different view of the hierarchy after the scandal, and when O'Malley announced the parish closings, there was a new willingness from people in the pews to push back.