GREENFIELD (MA)
Republican
Thursday, September 08, 2005
By BETSY CALVERT
ecalvert@repub.com
GREENFIELD - About 50 Roman Catholics from three area churches slated for closure gathered yesterday for peaceful contemplation and to recite the rosary.
But today, parishioners unhappy with the planned merger will have a chance to speak out.
The Rev. Stanley J. Aksamit, pastor of the three churches in Montague and Greenfield, will be on hand at Sacred Heart Church on Deerfield Street tonight at 6:30 to answer questions about the cost-saving proposal by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. ...
Aksamit acknowledged yesterday that the timing of the decision is bad, with the Catholic Church nationally exposed in the scandal of pedophile priests. Still, he said, the reasons for the proposed merger do not relate to the church having to pay enormous sums in civil lawsuits to victims of alleged sexual abuse.
That money, by church law, cannot come from the parishes, he said.