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	Pope Denies Framingham, Wellesley Church Appeals MetroWest Daily News January 4, 2011 http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/breaking/x1049175383/Pope-denies-Framingham-Wellesley-church-appeals Pope Benedict XVI ‘‘has decided not to accept your appeal,” members of closed Archdiocese of Boston parishes were told in a recent letter from the Vatican. Framingham's St. Jeremiah Church and St. James the Great of Wellesley were among the nine parishes that filed a direct appeal to the pope in October in hopes of overturning previous rulings on the church closures that began in 2004. ‘‘Clearly, we don't look at this as winning or losing,'' archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said this afternoon. ‘‘We're going to continue to work toward a peaceful and prayerful resolution to these vigils,'' said Donilon, but ‘‘they have to end and they are going to end at some point.'' Since the archdiocese ordered the parishes suppressed, members of St. Jeremiah and St. James have refused to leave the closed churches. In late October, St. James members met with archdiocese officials and said they were encouraged by the ‘‘frank and robust exchange of views.'' Through the Council of Parishes, formed in the wake of the archdiocese's 2004 reconfiguration plan, St. James and St. Jeremiah members have been part of several appeals to local church authorities and the Vatican supreme court. Although they have been rejected at each step, a Council of Parishes spokesman said there were hopeful elements in the two-paragraph letter from the Vatican's Secretariat of State office. ‘‘Getting to the pope was a big deal,'' said Bill Bannon, spokesman for the Council of Parishes. ‘‘We're happy with the tone'' of the letter that concludes with the message that the pope is remembering members of the closed parishes “in his prayers in these difficult times.''
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