1994... 2004... 2008... 2018

Image: Boston Globe - Protesting parishioners sleeping in church

I'm the pastor of a parish which was founded on October 24, 2004. As recent as that sounds, Holy Family Parish stands on two solid foundations: Our Lady Help of Christians Parish and Saint Bernard Parish. These are what I call Holy Family's "parishes of origin." In the reconfiguration of parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston four years ago, the two Catholic parishes in Concord were suppressed and a new parish founded to serve the needs of all Catholics in Concord. In the process, the church and rectory of Our Lady Help of Christians was sold by the archdiocese: the former to The New Church of Concord, the latter to a private family. Holy Family Parish worships in St. Bernard Church and I live in the rectory across the street from the church building.

At the time of the reconfiguration the archdiocese told the Concord parishes that the question guiding the decision for our town's Catholics was this: Can one parish serve the needs of the Catholic people of Concord? The archdiocese's answer to that question was yes and in spite of the anger and deep hurt this decision occasioned, one parish is, indeed, successfully serving the needs of the Catholic people of Concord. After nearly a hundred years of two parishes in town with, in times past, as many as 5-6 priests serving the needs of the people, the overnight shift to one parish with one priest has been made. Not all the wounds have completely healed and, I'm sad to report, we have lost some of our people along the way, but the Catholic community of Concord has fashioned a vigorous beginning for Holy Family Parish.

Part of our work has involved a serious look at the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Planning Committee Report which gives an assessment and some projections for the life and future of the archdiocese and its parishes. In light of our study of this report and in line with work we had already begun on pastoral planning for the parish, we have been gathering parish leadership to work on our 2018 Initiative. This represents our effort to do pastoral planning with a view towards life in the archdiocese a decade from now.

This work isn't easy: we're not accustomed to it - and a crystal ball would be so very helpful! But the response from parish leadership and the skills and gifts of some individual parishioners are helping us immensely and step by step we are making our way ahead.

Here are just three paragraphs from the Committee Report:

In 1994, the Archdiocese identified pastoral planning within and among parishes as its highest priority. At that time clusters of parishes were formed. Many of the clusters, with cooperation of clergy and laity, recommended parish closings or mergers. Between 1994 and 2003, 42 parishes were closed outright or as a result of a merger. Some clusters worked together far better than others.

In 2004 the Archdiocese launched a planning process that called upon clusters to identify one or two parishes within their cluster that could be closed if the Archbishop found it necessary. Without the appropriate training in facilitation and planning for those leading the process, coupled with the very short time provided for parishes to develop their recommendations, many of these cluster processes floundered, and some became downright ugly. Recommendations from the clusters were reviewed by the appropriate vicars and regional bishops and then revised in some cases before being sent to the Archdiocesan Central Committee, established to make the final recommendations to the archbishop. When dissension arose among parishioners of parishes recommended to close, an outside review committee was established to revisit the recommendations; sit-ins occurred, appeals were made to the Vatican, and some decisions were reversed. Today, 295 parishes remain open, but the statistics below will indicate that even this number cannot be sustained for long.

The Archdiocese of Boston is currently served by a total of 500 active priests. Of these, 38 are on health leave or unassigned, 97 in special ministry and 365 in parish ministry. Of those in parish ministry, 108 are 65 years of age or older. At a projected average net-loss rate of 25 active priests per year and a projected average of 5 newly ordained priests per year, by 2015 there will be only 292 active priests, i.e., priests who are not retired or permanently disabled; only an estimated 212 will be available for parish ministry. This will leave approximately 10-12 priests in each of the 20 vicariates in full-time parish work. Not all active priests will be capable or willing to serve as pastors. It is likely that more religious communities -- as have the Marists, Oblates and Franciscans -- will be turning their leadership of parishes back to the archdiocese, owing to insufficient numbers of priests; a few new communities will likely take responsibility for some parishes. The current dependence on many senior priests to assist with liturgical life will surely continue but their numbers will begin to decrease.

Just down the road apiece from Concord is another town with two Catholic parishes. Recently the pastor of one parish announced his retirement and the pastor of the other parish was named the pastor of both parishes in the town. One doesn't need to be an ecclesiastical genius to see what a difference this will make in the ministries and priorities of the pastor and the two parishes! Having been burned badly by the reconfiguration of 2004's parish closings, the archdiocese will likely pursue this solution of naming one priest the pastor of two (or more?) parishes.

Understanding that this is already happening and will likely occur with increasing frequency, our 2018 Initiative looks towards building a parish ready for such changes when they take place.

It's against this background that I read today's Boston Globe.

Above the fold on today's front page, the headlines announced the Celtics' loss to the Lakers and plans for a new form of public schools in the Commonwealth. A teaser on a sidebar brought the reader 17 pages into the paper to the City and Region section and Michael Paulson's report "Vatican tribunal hands loss to 8 local groups on closings." It was not long ago when a story on this topic was front page news.

A high-level Vatican tribunal has dealt yet another blow to Boston-area Catholics protesting parish closings, declining to hear appeals from eight groups of parishioners who are attempting to force re-openings of local parish churches.

The Apostolic Signatura declared, in dense Latin documents mailed to lay worshipers who do not speak that long-dead language, that the challenges to the closings are "clearly lacking any basis."

The dismissal came from a subset of the bishops and cardinals who sit on the tribunal; the local parishioners, meeting over the weekend, all decided to appeal to the full tribunal for reconsideration. They acknowledged that the appeal for reconsideration has little chance of success, but said they would continue to pursue any recourse afforded them under the church's canon law, including trying to block Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley from designating the parish buildings suitable for "profane use," which is how the church describes secular uses of church buildings.

"While the prospects are dim, we're going to continue to stand up and say we want to be counted and we want our parish," said John J. Verrengia, 52, a Revere accountant who is leading the small band of worshipers in the working-class seaside community who are still mourning the closure of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in 2004... "You can always keep swinging and hope you get lucky one time," Verrengia said. "And the appeals have been successful, in the sense that the church is still standing. If you can't stop the closure, at least you can forestall the selling of the parish."

Verrengia was the first advocate of a closed parish to receive a copy of a negative ruling, but the Rome-based canon lawyer representing multiple parishes said the Vatican had issued eight nearly identical rulings denying appeals from advocates for parishes the archdiocese had closed in Brookline, Framingham, Lynn, Quincy, Scituate, Sudbury, and Wellesley, as well as Revere... The nine parishes with active appeals to the Vatican are only a few of the parishes closed by O'Malley. Since 2004, the archdiocese has reduced its parishes from 357 to 294, and it plans to close two more parishes, in Boston and Brockton, later this month...

(Read the complete article)

I am not unfamiliar with the faith and anger, the devotion and pain that fuel the determination and perseverance of the people spending nights asleep on church floors and petitioning Vatican dicasteries on behalf of their cause. I have worked over four years to shepherd two communities of faith into one pasture and that effort has taken its toll on all of us. I know there are those who fault me for not having taken a different stance at the time of parish closings. Looking back and, more importantly, looking around and ahead I am confident that the hard road we have traveled is the road we had to walk in light of the painful realities that afflict not only the Archdiocese of Boston but most dioceses in the United States. Boston is not alone in this. The abuse scandal is a tragically significant piece in this story but it is not the only piece. The declining number of priests and demographic shifts in population are heavy factors in the balance here.

I understand the grief of the people of the 8 parishes recently in receipt of Rome's latest decision. I understand the grief because I have shared it as a pastor of a closed parish, as the pastor of people for whom that parish was a lifelong home. I agree that there is little hope that the Vatican's final court of appeal will overturn the Apostolic Signatura's most recent decision. And even if that should happen, those 8 parishes will then need to face and work through their own 2018 Initiatives and the very real probability that more change awaits them as the years go by.

My parish bears the scars of reconfiguration and perhaps there's a slight limp in our step where the brokenness has not evenly healed. Certainly there is and will be for generations a place in our hearts tender to the touch and lovingly protected by memories that will not and should not fade. Still, as a parish we are alive, afoot and moving ahead: our worship is strong, our outreach generous and our plans for the future in the hands of capable, gifted parishioners. The love of these people for Holy Family Parish is strengthened by their trust in God's Spirit and their hope to hand on our Catholic faith to the generations ahead of us.

It is at the heart of our faith that our life flows from wounds of Christ, that our strength finds its source in his being broken for our sakes, that in the sacrifice of his body and blood we find the sustenance for our work in his name. Let us not be surprised if even in the deepest of the wounds we bear there springs forth new life, if even in the most painful brokenness we know we find strength to move on.

-ConcordPastor