By Rob Borkowsk
Wellesley Patch
May 17, 2010
http://wellesley.patch.com/articles/vatican-st-james-the-great-will-close
 |
| A sign outside St. James the Great Church lists Sunday services at 10:30 a.m., and more than 2,000 days of vigil. Photo by Rob Borkowski |
The Council of Parishes reported this afternoon that the highest court in the Vatican, the Apostolic Signatura, has upheld Cardinal Sean O'Malley's decisions to close dozens of parishes in 2004-2005, including St. James the Great Church in Wellesley.
The news came from Carlo Gullo, a canon lawyer who represented many of the parishes' petitions to the Signatura.
The Council of Parishes, formed in 2004 to support parishes slated for closing, issued a statement regarding that decision. It reads, in part:
"Although the archdiocese has claimed vociferously over the years that the parish closings of 2004-2005 had nothing to do with its clergy sex abuse settlement, in 2008 the RCAB (Archdiocese of Boston)'s own canon advocate in Rome filed a sworn brief with the Signatura, which includes the following remarkable passage (translated from the Latin):
"…maximum discretion was given to His Excellency the Archbishop of Boston so that he might save the entire archdiocese from monetary ruin, provoked by the 'sexual abuse crisis' [emphasis in original]. It is in this context that all actions of this process of reconfiguration and 'closing of parishes' are to be understood, not excluding the suppression of wealthy parishes, not excluding the suppression of parishes of maximum vitality…"
This is the revealed truth about the massive parish destruction program: parishes were closed, to liquidated as real estate to fund the sex abuse settlement. The contorted statements inflicted by the RCAB upon its parishioners over the past several years about the reasons for closing parishes (shortage of clergy, changing demographics, insolvent parishes) has turned out to be at variance with the truth – intentionally misleading," the Council of Parishes states in the release.
In 2004, more than 80 parishes were slated to be closed by the Archdiocese's Reconfiguration Plan. Ten parishes filed canonical appeals to the Vatican to re-open starting in 2005.
Three of those parishes, including St. James the Great, have maintained a 24/7 vigil to remain open for over five years. The leadership of those parishes has indicated that the vigils will continue despite the rulings to keep their churches open as viable, vibrant Catholic faith communities.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.