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Pontiff Rejects Boston Parish Appeals
BOSTON — The pope has rejected the pleas of parishes in the Boston Archdiocese to remain open.
According to several media sources, a Dec. 15 letter addressed to Peter Borre, chairman of the Council of Parishes, stated, "The Holy Father [Pope Benedict XVI] was apprised of the question, which was also clearly studied by this office. ... I regret to inform you, however, that His Holiness has decided not to accept your appeal."
Borre has been the leader in the effort to keep open Boston area churches closed in 2003 as part of a consolidation sparked by financial and demographic declines. The Council of Parishes, a collaboration of 16 parishes, has been supporting vigilers trying to keep open the churches. At present, five churches are still being occupied around the clock to prevent their closure.
The decision doesn't bode well for the vigilers at St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams, who are entering their third year in trying to keep the historic Polish church from closing.
Borre, and the Council of Parishes, have been advising the St. Stan's vigilers — as well as trailblazing the twisted path through the Vatican appeals process. The Boston group was dealt a blow last spring when the Apostolic Signatura rejected its appeals.
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At the time, Friends of St. Stan's spokeswoman Laurie Haas, noted that the Adams parish was years behind the Boston group in the appeals process.
"We're firm and we're resolute and we set the course ...," she said then.
"Things could be very different; their outcome is not our outcome."
Borre told the Boston Herald that he received the letter from undersecretary of state Archbishop Fernando Filoni on Monday and described the final appeal directly to the pontiff as a "Hail Mary."
But while the archdiocese indicated to the Herald that the matter is closed, Borre said his group is now working on a way to keep the churches open as a place of Catholic worship.
Boston Setback Doesn't Shake Vigilers' Faith
Vigilkeepers at St. Stan's were upbeat on Monday despite the bad news for 10 Boston churches. According to reports, the Vatican's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura, rejected appeals from parishioners to rescind the archdiocese's closure order for the churches, three of which have been occupied by vigils for more than five years.
"It's not going to change how we proceed," said Laurie Haas, one of the leaders in appealing the Adams church's closure last year. Vigilers at St. Stanislaus Kostka have been closely following the fates of the Boston churches and have aligned themselves with the Council of Parishes, a lay group fighting to keep them open. The group's leader, Peter Borre, has been counseling St. Stan's as it, too, wends its way through the Holy See's legal maze.
It was Borre who alerted press Monday to the Collegium's decision, which was actually been handed down on May 7. Within a half-hour, chuckled Haas, Msgr. John Bonzagni had e-mailed it to her inbox.
Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning for the Springfield Diocese, had a hand in the decisions that would close numerous churches and consolidate parishes across Western Mass two years ago. Of the six churches shuttered in North Berkshire, only the Polish church has refused to close and join Notre Dame at the former St. Thomas' Church, now known as Pope John Paul the Great.
It was day 508 as some 50-odd supporters, about a quarter of the total number of vigilers taking turns standing post, attended the regular Monday meeting — and to hear if what the news out of Boston would mean.
"So this is very sad for Boston and, of course, we can't help but parallel their plight to our plight, here now," said Haas, after reading both an AP article and a statement from the Council of Parishes. "We're firm and we're resolute and we set the course ... things could be very different: their outcome is not our outcome."
But there's undercurrent of anger below the sunny smiles that their beloved St. Stan's and other parishes are paying the price for church leaders' failings and for sex-abuse scandals that have cost tens of millions.
One sentence in particular in the Council of Parishes statement struck a chord. "American Catholics will not let up in their efforts to bring the American bishops to account, and to compel bishops to stop using parishes as ATMs to pay the pay the piper for clergy sex abuse" was met with loud murmurs of agreement.
In the meantime, the vigilers will continue to raise funds to maintain the beautifully decorated church, including a Polish dinner and dancing at PNA this Saturday with Eddie Forman's polka band. Admission $5; a Polish plate is available from 5 to 6 with dancing until 11.
They're also doing their best to keep the occupation in the diocese's eye. Last week, the local papers did a story on the 500th day of the vigil, the television stations show up now and again, and hats, T-shirts and, soon, buttons promoting St. Stan's are available. "We have to keep ourselves in the news so the bishop knows what's going on," said Fran Hajda.
They're in it for the long haul. It could be years before their case reaches the Signatura.
"Five years from now, when we are at that level, it could be a completely different climate over at the Apostolic Signatura," said Haas. "We always have to have hope, we have to pray ... we're a people of faith, a family brought so much closer together."
The full statement of the Council of Parishes is below:
"Today in Rome the canon law advocate for nine parishioner appeal groups in the Archdiocese of Boston (RCAB) was notified by an official of the Holy See’s Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican’s supreme-court equivalent) that all nine appeals, plus a tenth appeal from another Boston parishioner group, were denied by the Signatura’s Collegium at its session of May 7.
The Collegium is the highest level of the Vatican’s canon law system for appeals against the suppression of parishes. A list of the ten RCAB parishioner groups is attached.
The Boston appeals are the result of the “Reconfiguration” program of parish closings announced in early 2004 in the RCAB, in the immediate aftermath of the clergy sex abuse scandal which was settled in late 2003 - with $85 million paid by the archdiocese for 541 claims. To fund this, in May of 2004 the RCAB identified 83 Boston-area parishes to be closed, almost one-fourth of all RCAB parishes then open. When announced, this was the most massive parish closing program in the history of Catholic America.
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’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 parishioner groups whose appeals have been denied, the RCAB Catholics who have been in vigil in five RCAB churches occupied round the clock for over five years, and 70 parishioner groups in 16 other dioceses who have followed closely the course of the Boston appeals, will now have to consider what steps to take next.
One thing is clear: American Catholics will not let up in their efforts to bring the American bishops to account, and to compel bishops to stop using parishes as ATMs to pay the piper for clergy sex abuse.
Since the scandal exploded in Boston more than eight years ago, at least $2.5 billion has been paid out by American bishops. And the process is not over: just last week, Vermont’s diocese of Montpelier settled 26 claims for almost $18 million.
St Augustine wrote, “Roma locuta est, causa finita est,” Rome has spoken, case closed. The good saint got this wrong: while one chapter has closed, another chapter is opening.
As allegations of clergy sex abuse work their way through many other countries with large Catholic populations, we will see a pattern very familiar to Boston’s Catholics:
First, blame the media, the victims, and perhaps a predecessor pope;
Next, toss a few bishops over the side;
Then, acknowledge the inevitable, grudgingly;
Avoid courts, depositions and document discovery;
After dragging out litigation, pay out enormous settlements;
After an interval, close local parishes but deny any link to settlements; and
Above all, deceive the parishioners about truth regarding the parish closings.
We are seven years away from the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses in 1517; what will the Roman Catholic Church look like in 2017?"
St. Stan's Joins With 30 Parishes in Appeal to Rome
ADAMS, Mass. — As the faithful at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church pass the 100-day mark of keeping vigil, they're hoping a Holy Week that ends with Resurrection will be repeated in the revival of their beloved church.
St. Stanislaus' Church was closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield two days after Christmas as part of a consolidation across the Berkshires and Springfield region. But the descendants of the Polish immigrants who built the church with their sweat and money are fighting the decision on several fronts — and finding friends in other communities.
Tuesday, members of the former parish will join 30 other groups in eight parishes, including Boston, in requesting the Vatican bypass the appeals and start a process to overturn the closures. A gathering will be held at St. Stan's at noon today to show support and to explain the details of the request.
While the diocese has said it will not interfere with the vigil, the parishioners who have been keeping watch over the century-old church have worried they may be forcefully removed, as happened in New Orleans.
"I think that because this is a very critical time in the history of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish," Laurie Hass, who spearheaded the appeals to Rome after the first notice of the closure, said from the church's pulpit on Monday night. "That we make a novena to the Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy chaplet is a powerful intercessory prayer."
Despite the wet, cold weather, the church's pews were more than a quarter filled at Monday night's regular meeting, at which vigil members were updated on appeals and informed of schedules and events.
As it has for decades, the church will be filled with Easter lilies, 200 or more, and the call of "Christ Has Risen" will be declared at 6 a.m. on Easter morning. The Polish traditions will be kept but there will be no Mass, no priest.
Rachel Branch of North Adams knows the pain of losing a church. She was the organist at St. Teresa's in Pittsfield, which was shuttered last year in the first round of closures.
She visited St. Stan's for the first time last week and was so struck by its beauty she felt she had to help
"It's absolutely awesome," she told vigil members. "I've been to cathedrals in Europe like this. I was nearly brought to tears."
Branch offered them a petition she had written and offered to help spread it throughout the Berkshires. Afterward, Branch said both St. Stan's beauty and importance as historical element of Berkshire County had prompted her offer. "But it's up to them to do it if they want to."
It seems likely they will; Branch's offer and request to be an "honorary vigil member" was greeted with loud applause.
Branch's petition:
We the residents of Berkshire County petition the Roman Catholic Diocese to keep St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Adams, Mass., open. We believe it must be preserved because of its historic value, its artistic treasures, its cultural identity and its extraordinary beauty and the unquestioned contribution of the Polish community in building this magnificent cathedral in the Berkshires.
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10 days of a decree of suppres-
appeal to the Apostolic Signatory, the Vatican's "supreme court." It is headed by St. Louis' former Archbishop Raymond Burke, who leans conservative.