Occupation of Massachusetts Catholic Church to End After 12 Years

[mdgspencer]

After the diocese said it was going to close St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Catholic church in the Archdiocese of Boston, disgruntled Catholics occupied it in shifts, day and night, to keep it open, holding prayer services there. Now after losing one court case after another to keep it open and appeals to the Vatican failed them, they are leaving the building at last. A spokesman for the group that has been occupying the church has announced proudly that they are now going to start their own church, not affiliated with the diocese.
see reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-church-idUSKCN0Y7205

 

[otjm]

And they are going to find a priest where? Not that I really want to know…

 

[E_7]

Oh yeah. The Catholic Church there is closing many parishes and not because they lack priests, but because of money, debt or bills and other untold reasons.

 

[TyburnTreeHuggr]

It’s sad when the church building becomes more important than The Church.

What fools they are.

Ironic, in a way, that this comes in a heavily Irish (ancestry) area, when in actual Ireland, for hundreds of years the Church existed without a single building.

Again, they’re fools losing their faith for four walls and a roof.

 

[Usige]

It’s sad when the church building becomes more important than The Church.

That’s what I was thinking too. I was expecting this to be some 100+ year old building, but seems like it’s less than 50 years old so I guess some of the parishioners felt they owned the church building. I guess they never understood that donations are not an investment. To say they want to leave the Church over this seems to show where their priorities lie.

I wonder how many of those 100 that spent years in vigil for a building actually put as much time in perpetual adoration. Not saying they didn’t, but one has to wonder when they would give up the Eucharist by starting their own faith community not in communion with their bishop.

 

[GEddie]

That’s what I was thinking too. I was expecting this to be some 100+ year old building, but seems like it’s less than 50 years old so I guess some of the parishioners felt they owned the church building. I guess they never understood that donations are not an investment. To say they want to leave the Church over this seems to show where their priorities lie.

I wonder how many of those 100 that spent years in vigil for a building actually put as much time in perpetual adoration. Not saying they didn’t, but one has to wonder when they would give up the Eucharist by starting their own faith community not in communion with their bishop.

Apparently staying together was the issue, and the building symbolized that.

I sympathize with them, but clearly they value “faith community” over “Body.”

But there can’t be community without body…

ICXC NIKA

 

[njlisa]

It’s a mistake to start their own church not affiliated with the diocese. It’s like cutting off one’s nose to spite the face. Sad. Sad. Sad. I pray for their conversion.

 

[ProVobis]

Headline makes it sound so gestapo-like.

 

[ProVobis]

That’s what I was thinking too. I was expecting this to be some 100+ year old building, but seems like it’s less than 50 years old so I guess some of the parishioners felt they owned the church building. I guess they never understood that donations are not an investment. To say they want to leave the Church over this seems to show where their priorities lie.

Fifty years ago donations were more than just monetary. Carpenters, electricians, bricklayers, painters, accountants, and even lawyers gave their time to the church. True it was only a building but it represented what could be accomplished with true spirit for God.

 

[Usige]

Fifty years ago donations were more than just monetary. Carpenters, electricians, bricklayers, painters, accountants, and even lawyers gave their time to the church. True it was only a building but it represented what could be accomplished with true spirit for God.

I completely understand, but I guess I think when I donate money, talents or time that it is for the greater glory of God. It is not something that belongs to me or the beneficiaries as I gave it up for God. When we build a church building it should never be with the though that it is primarily for our benefit. Yes, I might take pleasure in the beauty that comes from mine or others efforts, but it is always with an eye towards God. Is my effort pleasing to God?

I completely understand that they might be trying to keep the community together or feel community ownership. My greatest issue is when a group sets themselves against their bishop. Talk to him; see if there are other options, but 12 years of opposing your ordinary? That is the saddest thing. Setting themselves against one of the successors of the apostles over a building. If the community is that tight and devout then they should realize that our efforts to glorify God does not end when the last nail is hammered in or the last brush stroke is complete. Take that zeal and start again, but do it while walking with Mother Church, not in obstinate rejection of Her.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Oh, I am very sorry to learn this. I have heard of these people across all these years.

The great tragedy is, by their obstinacy, they long ago were no longer in communion with their bishop and with the Holy See. Now, they are formalizing what was de facto years ago. A very very sad situation for everyone.

May God help them.

 

[otjm]

Oh yeah. The Catholic Church there is closing many parishes and not because they lack priests, but because of money, debt or bills and other untold reasons.

We have about as many priests as we have parishes - @ 17,000 priests, and @ 17,300 parishes.

Debt and bills are real. When a parish cannot raise enough funds in their collections to pay for repairs, maintenance, salaries and other expenses, it falls to other parishes - who have their own set of bills and debts, to pick up the slack. It is easy to say the diocese needs to pay it, but the diocese gets any money from the other parishes; it isn’t coming out of a printing press in the basement of the chancery.

For decades now there has been a migration in many cities to other cities, and to the suburbs. That has left older parishes - some 100 years old or more, with dwindling parishioners. And putting a priest in a parish with 75, 100, even 200 parishioners when there are other parishes with 5, 10, or even 15 times as many parishioners and one priest makes for poor use of facilities, personnel, and limited funds. Some parishes are going to close; and elsewhere, other parishes are going to start.

It is understandable the anger that can come up when someone is in a parish that their parents, grandparents, and even more were members. But the reality is that some parishes have lost bodies to other parts of the country, or other parts of the diocese.

In anger, people accuse the diocese and the bishop of ulterior motives; and that helps nothing. It is just reality.

 

[Holly3278]

Participants in an 11-year-long vigil to prevent the closing of the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church in Scituate, Massachusetts, have finally given up the fight to save the building in which generations have worshipped. The Boston Archdiocese has been trying to evict the group, which has appealed every decision as they occupied the building around the clock in the longest lasting vigil in the country.

nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/05/19/parishioners-surrender-their-small-catholic-church-and-separate-from-hierarchy/

It looks to me like they are basically in schism now. I could be wrong about that though.

Anyway, I looked for any kind of information from the diocese or archdiocese but couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search. Perhaps someone else will be able to find something.

 

[Holly3278]

I feel bad now because I posted another thread about this and didn’t realize that this thread was already in existence. I can barely see because I broke my glasses a few weeks ago and my new glasses aren’t ready to be picked up yet. Please forgive me.

Anyway, it seems to me that they are in schism now. This is incredibly sad. I hope they repent

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

If they are just associating, that doesn’t mean schism. We should all associate, more and more!

They are only in schism over exact concretes where unity with the hierarchy is specifically called for, e.g administering sacraments, ordaining their own clergy, etc.

 

[dans0622]

If they are just associating, that doesn’t mean schism. We should all associate, more and more!

They are only in schism over exact concretes where unity with the hierarchy is specifically called for, e.g administering sacraments, ordaining their own clergy, etc.

I also would not want to throw this “s word” around lightly. However, when I read something like “John Rogers, spokesperson for the former protesters, says that the group will transition into an all-inclusive, independent Catholic church”… it doesn’t look good.

Dan

 

[tvknight415]

I also would not want to throw this “s word” around lightly. However, when I read something like “John Rogers, spokesperson for the former protesters, says that the group will transition into an all-inclusive, independent Catholic church”… it doesn’t look good.

Dan

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, I’m pretty sure its not a whitetail deer…

 

[ProVobis]

I completely understand that they might be trying to keep the community together or feel community ownership. My greatest issue is when a group sets themselves against their bishop. Talk to him; see if there are other options, but 12 years of opposing your ordinary?

Right. It ignores the financial realities of not only the church but of things in general. People don’t contribute as much and that’s where they are still going to Mass at all. Chicago and New York are closing and merging parishes right and left. It hurts to be a lonely dozen or so trying to save dying parishes. But it happens. One hears about it on the news all the time.

 

[RPRPsych]

I also would not want to throw this “s word” around lightly. However, when I read something like “John Rogers, spokesperson for the former protesters, says that the group will transition into an all-inclusive, independent Catholic church”… it doesn’t look good.

Dan

Especially “inclusive”. That makes me think it will be supportive of “gay rights”, women priests, and so on. “Inclusive” is a euphemism for “anything goes” these days.

 

[dans0622]

Especially “inclusive”. That makes me think it will be supportive of “gay rights”, women priests, and so on. “Inclusive” is a euphemism for “anything goes” these days.

Well, I’d throw the “h word” around when it comes to that sort of thing. “Independence” is a rather clear indication of a withdrawal of submission to the Pope and/or withdrawal of communion with those subject to the Pope (one’s own diocesan bishop, for example). Such is the definition of schism (c. 751).

Dan