By Adam Nossiter
New York Times
January 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/07vigil.html?_r=1&ref=us
[Includes photograph of arrest of Hunter Harris.]
NEW ORLEANS — The police ended a months-old protest on Tuesday at two Roman Catholic churches slated to be closed by the local archdiocese, arresting two people who had locked themselves inside to keep the churches from being shuttered.
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| The police on Tuesday removed a protester from Our Lady of Good Counsel, a Roman Catholic church slated to be closed. Photo by Alex Brandon |
Since October, angry parishioners have defied the closing order, one of a wave of such plans across the nation that are prompted, church officials say, by a severe shortage of priests.
Parishioners have taken turns occupying the two weathered brick churches in the Uptown neighborhood, living in the buildings several at a time. Similar vigils have been taking place in Boston and New York.
On Tuesday, the archdiocese requested that the police end the protests at St. Henry, a church near the Mississippi River, and Our Lady of Good Counsel, at the edge of the Garden District.
No arrests were made at St. Henry's, but at Our Lady of Good Counsel, a majestic structure that has long been an anchor for the neighborhood, protesters refused to open the old wooden door. The police broke it down, and two parishioners were arrested.
The plan to close the churches, first disseminated over a year ago by the archdiocese, has caused considerable pain in New Orleans.
Related
In Quiet Rebellion, Parishioners Keep Faith (January 6, 2009)
The discarding of any institution here, especially a venerable one, is taken as a personal affront. Adding to the hurt, a number of stately church buildings Uptown, not just Catholic ones, have been abandoned, burned or destroyed in recent years.
But archdiocese officials have been implacable in spite of the vigorous protests.
"The former church buildings have been occupied for the last two months," said Sarah Comiskey, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Archdiocese. "We brought that to a close today."
Ms. Comiskey said that the number of priests had declined from 486 in 1950 to 136, adding that 33 parishes would be merged with neighboring ones under the local plan.
She said Tuesday's action was precipitated by the protesters' refusal on Monday to allow officials to enter Our Lady of Good Counsel and by their locking of doors at St. Henry's.
No plans have been made for the buildings, Ms. Comiskey said, but officials hope to find other uses for them.
One of the protesters, Harold Baquet, a photographer, dismissed the priest-shortage argument, saying that Our Lady of Good Counsel had been making good use of retired priests. Mr. Baquet, who was not arrested, decried both the closing of his church and the forced entry on Tuesday.
"We turned that community into something ethnically, racially and culturally diverse," Mr. Baquet said.
He added, "Breaking down the old cypress door was abominable, anti-Christian, anti-justice, anti-peace. It's a drastic overreaction. We weren't trying to hurt anybody. We were just trying to maintain a Christian community."
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