BishopAccountability.org
	Boston Parishioners Hold 4-Year Vigil They're Still Keeping Church Doors Open By Bruce Nolan The Times-Picayune October 27, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1225084812201900.xml&coll=1 Four years after they spontaneously occupied their church to save it from closing, hundreds of members of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini parish in suburban Boston still occupy the building around the clock, sleeping there in shifts and worshipping together on priestless Sundays. They are among five Boston-area parishes still holding out -- literally -- against Cardinal Sean O'Malley's reorganization of parish life in 2004. Now two New Orleans parishes have opted for the same course of action. Leaders at Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. Henry parishes said Sunday they will have teams in those churches around the clock to prevent the Archdiocese of New Orleans from closing them as part of a massive reorganization plan. Their challenge will be more daunting than Cabrini's; neither is even half the size of that Boston parish. Citing population shifts and an economic crisis, Boston's O'Malley announced scores of closures in 2004 that in time shrank the archdiocese's parishes from 357 to 294. But in Scitaute, a seaside suburb south of Boston, parishioners balked and dug in. Today, a core of more than 100 parishioners take turns safeguarding Cabrini around the clock, seven days a week, said Jon Rogers, a financial planner and resistance leader. Rogers said they don't call it an occupation, but a "vigil." At any time during the day a group of parishioners is in the building, visiting or attending to personal business there instead of at home, he said. At minimum, two parishioners sleep over each night. They have imported a few pieces of furniture into two small rooms off the sanctuary. "There's a television, although reception's not so good. And in the summer we bring in a small portable air conditioner," he said. "I'd equate it to a modestly appointed dorm room." The vigil so far has consumed the second term of the Bush administration, the entire national career of Barack Obama and two Red Sox World Series championships. Meantime, the archdiocese has kept Cabrini supplied with lights and power. At least while the vigils by Cabrini and other parishes are still running, O'Malley has taken a hands-off approach and allowed parishioners to remain. Apart from a handful of exceptions, however, O'Malley has banned priests from celebrating Mass at Cabrini and other vigil parishes. Still, Rogers said Sunday church attendance reaches as high as 200 -- much more on major holidays. He said parishioners read Scripture and conduct a priestless communion service. The Eucharist is supplied by sympathetic priests who give Cabrini surplus wafers consecrated at other Masses, he said. Parishioners also run a few ministries, including a food pantry and a Christmas outreach to poor families, Rogers said. Cabrini parishioners filed an unsuccessful civil suit years ago. In addition, they and a handful of other Boston-area parishes filed canonical appeals in the Catholic judicial system. In early summer, those parishes learned they had been turned down and had only one, long-shot hearing left -- before the full Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's equivalent of the Supreme Court. Rogers remains a furious defender of Cabrini's vitality, if allowed to resume operations. He said he and others believe the parish was put on the block to get at its premium coastal real estate. But for their intervention, he said, the church and its complex would have been sold to developers and "there would be a dozen or two big McMansions up there." Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
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