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	Priest Resigns Early, Unhappy at Land Sale By Scott Allen and Kathy McCabe Boston Globe May 28, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/28/priest_resigns_early_unhappy_at_land_sale/ The leader of St. John's Seminary in Brighton resigned abruptly last week, saying he is unhappy with the Archdiocese of Boston for selling the seminary's library and one of its halls as part of a $65 million sale of church headquarters to Boston College. The Rev. John A. Farren, rector of St. John's Seminary since 2003, had been scheduled to step down on June 30 to take a new assignment in New York City, but Farren resigned last week after the school's board voted to support the sale of 18 acres of archdiocesan land to Boston College. Farren e-mailed a letter of resignation to the board on May 24 that detailed his fierce opposition to the sale, which includes the seminary's Bishop Peterson Hall as well as the seminary library. Board member Mary Kate Connolly confirmed Farren's early resignation, but declined to share his resignation letter or discuss its contents. Farren, a Dominican priest from Medford who was ordained in 1964, did not respond to requests for comment on his departure. A spokesman for the archdiocese said that Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley remains deeply committed to the seminary despite the sale of the buildings. "The cardinal has made the seminary one of his top priorities," said spokesman Terrence C. Donilon. "We need more people to focus on ministering to nearly 2 million Catholics. There is no option but to make [the seminary] successful, in his mind." The seminary, which has been training priests for the Boston Archdiocese since 1884, has seen enrollment decline from more than 100 a generation ago to just 42 currently. Farren has blamed the slump on the failure of the church to educate its adult members and on smaller families in which parents are less likely to urge a child to enter the priesthood. "Parents want grandchildren, and there's not the encouragement for vocations that existed 30 or 40 years ago," Farren told the Globe in an interview last winter. The decline prompted O'Malley to reassign four of the 19 faculty members in 2004 and to accept the resignation of three others. "Archbishop O'Malley told the faculty that our ratio of faculty to students was a luxury we can't really afford," Farren said at the time. A few months later, the diocese sold 43 acres of the headquarters campus to neighboring Boston College, giving BC the option to acquire more land in the future. The seminary board of directors held an emergency board meeting Wednesday for a briefing from archdiocesan officials on the latest sale to Boston College. Under the deal, which still must be approved by the Vatican, the archdiocese would retain only one building of the seminary, St John's Hall. However, Donilon said, the enormous structure is ample for the seminary's current operations. He also said that Farren's early departure will have little practical effect since O'Malley has already named the Rev. Arthur L. Kennedy to take over as seminary rector on July 1. Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com.
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