Church asks for halt to trespassing charge
6 parishes granted stays on closing

By David Abel
Boston Globe
November 16, 2004

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/
2004/11/16/church_asks_for_halt_to_trespassing_charge/

The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston asked the Middlesex district attorney's office yesterday to drop a trespassing charge filed against a 69-year-old parishioner of Winchester's Immaculate Conception Church, who was arrested earlier this month when he refused to leave the church after its final Mass.

In another move, the archdiocese announced that Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has granted six parishes extensions of their closing dates, one for nearly six months. O'Malley summoned the pastors of 18 closing parishes to a meeting Thursday; the archdiocese said yesterday that the extension offer remains open for the other 12.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office confirmed that the archdiocese had made the request, but she said that no decision had been made on whether to drop the charge.

''Generally, in a trespass case, when the complainant does not wish to go forward, we do not pursue the case," said the spokeswoman, Emily LaGrassa.

On Nov. 6, the Rev. Thomas Foley, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, asked an off-duty police officer to remove Eugene E. Sweeney when he would not leave the church. The Woburn man, who spent about two hours in a holding cell at the Winchester police station, was released on $40 bail. He pleaded not guilty to the charge Friday, and a judge scheduled a hearing for Dec. 31.

Sweeney, who faces up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $100 if convicted, could not be reached last night.

In its initial response, the day after the arrest, the archdiocese issued a statement that said Foley had acted on his own, without direction from the archdiocese. The statement said the pastor had decided that allowing Sweeney to remain in the church after the last Mass would upset other parishioners.

Yesterday, officials said criminal proceedings were never intended.

''Neither the archdiocese nor the pastor ever intended for Mr. Sweeney to be arrested," said Kelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese. ''The archdiocese does not wish to go forward with a criminal complaint and has so advised the district attorney's office. . . . The archbishop continues to appreciate the sadness and the difficulty facing a number of people in the archdiocese relating to church closings."

Meanwhile, the archdiocese has granted six of the 30 remaining parishes it has slated to close extra time to stay open to prepare for their closings, one for as long as 5 months.

Last week, 18 pastors from parishes to be closed met with O'Malley, who offered to extend all their closing dates. By yesterday, six of the pastors had requested extensions; the other 12 will be granted additional time if they seek it, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The archdiocese gave Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Belmont an extra 1 months, pushing its closing date to Dec. 31; Sacred Heart Parish in Watertown was given more than 1 months, closing Jan. 9; Holy Trinity Parish in Lowell received 4 months, until April 3; and St. Jeremiah Parish in Framingham got 5 months, to May 15. Sacred Heart Parish in Lexington and St. Florence Parish in Wakefield, both slated to close this month, also requested extensions but have yet to be assigned new closing dates.

The archdiocese has already shuttered 47 of 83 parishes that officials plan to close as part of a reorganization ordered in response to a shortage of priests, worshippers, and money. The archdiocese started the year with 357 parishes. If the closing process is not reversed, after closing 83 parishes and creating eight new ones, the archdiocese expects to have 282 parishes.

While most parishes have closed without incident, seven of the closed parishes and one slated for closing are occupied by parishioners. Two parishes have filed civil lawsuits against the archdiocese, and many have appealed their closings to the Vatican.

The archdiocese also announced yesterday that it has begun seeking offers for the sale of 16 closed churches. The archdiocese will solicit offers over the next three months, a second statement said, and then the archdiocese's real estate office and its real estate advisory committee will review the offers.

David W. Smith, chancellor of the archdiocese, will review the ''financial terms and social considerations" of the offers and then forward his recommendations to the archbishop, the statement said. If O'Malley accepts the offers, permission will be sought from the archdiocese's college of consultors, its finance council, and, if needed, from the Vatican.

''Each decision will be based on the many factors, including proposed property used, price, and contingencies," Smith said in the statement. ''It is our hope to maximize the financial consideration consistent with the needs of the communities we serve."

In a phone interview, Secretary of State William F. Galvin said he was discouraged by the timing of the archdiocese's announcement of the sales.

Galvin has proposed that the archdiocese sell the property to an investment trust whose shareholders could decide what to do with the properties.

The announcement ''underscores the urgency of Saturday's statement by the archbishop of the financial stress that the archdiocese is undergoing," Galvin said. ''Coming when it does, it has the sense of a distress sale and that's going to put the archdiocese at a disadvantage in selling the parcels."

An archdiocese spokeswoman said the next three months will provide an opportunity for church officials to consider Galvin's idea.

''We're happy to learn more about Secretary Galvin's idea, but that doesn't preclude the opportunity to sell them," said the spokeswoman, Ann Carter.

Smith said the archdiocese has put up the 16 churches for sale because they are closed, empty, and officials have cleared their titles and environmental status. In total, he said, the archdiocese intends to sell 67 properties.

Smith said the archdiocese will publish how much it earns from selling the property, and then, in aggregate, how it spends the money.

''We'll report until the last dollar is gone," he said.

Michael Paulson and Stephen Kurkjian of the Globe staff contributed to this report.