PARISH
CLOSINGS: THE RIGHT WAY
Sharon Harrington, VOTF Weymouth, Mass., St. Albert the Great
Parish
[Sharon Harrington is an attorney and one of the leaders in
St. Albert the Great Church, which had been slated for closing,
whose persistent, articulate refusal to be shut down effected
a reversal by the RCAB.]
In the spirit that it’s easier to critique than
to come up with ideas, I would like to offer some suggestions
to consider for church closings. If your diocese hasn’t
been hit yet, your parish closing may just be a matter
of time. As someone who is still working on the issue in
the Boston area since January 2004, I offer my two cents.
As members of VOTF, we believe that lay people should
have a meaningful voice and participation in these types
of administrative, non-dogma or doctrine-type issues. We
have a wealth of experience, knowledge, time, treasure
and good will to share with OUR Church. We should be at
the table when the initial discussions take place, and
our voices should be heard as well as those of the clergy,
religious and hierarchy. “Many hands make light the
work” and “Two (thousand or more) heads are
better than one.”
As the diocese of Santa Fe did, when faced with enormous
judgments, each diocese should tell the people the whole
truth-financial and otherwise, and enlist the wisdom of
the entire people of God in the solution. Sure, it may
be messy, but let me tell you vigils and protests and the
uproar that many parishes in my diocese have had to go
through, are messier-and a solution is still far away,
I fear.
When the Administrator of Santa Fe went to his pastors,
his parishes and his clergy and worked together with his
people, they found a solution that worked. Santa Fe was
a relatively poor diocese compared to the enormous judgments
it faced, but the diocese sold off some of its non-parish
property, parishes contributed what they could to the
solution, and the judgments were paid in full. No parishes
had to close, Mass attendance went up, and there was a
two-fold increase in vocations!
They found a solution that worked because they worked
TOGETHER. In so doing, all participants discovered each
other’s gifts and talents and their diocese GREW.
If the ordinaries would face their people in the parishes
and deal with them as human beings, IN PERSON, a parish
closing could be community building. Isn’t peace
and smooth operation of the diocese a worthwhile goal?
In Boston, a number of the vigils began when people were
treated in an imperious, callous way at the time of closing
and had no way to directly contact the archbishop.
Using the priest shortage as an excuse to close parishes
simply does not comport with known facts. Many areas of
the world share a pastor, or a group of priests is assigned
to a cluster of churches, while a deacon, religious or
lay person serves as an administrator. Lay people as well
as ordained deacons and religious have wonderful gifts
to share with their parish communities. Canon Law provides
a number of solutions to the priest shortage and Canon
Law also recognizes parishes as the place where Catholics
learn and grow in their faith with one another. These relationships
build up gradually over time and should never be dismissed
in the face of a parish closing.
There may be some parishes that are unable to continue.
If that is truly the case, and the facts have been laid
out for all to see, the truth will be recognized because
those affected were made an integral part of the decision
and were able to communicate directly with their ordinary.
Closing churches should be a last resort but as such, there
is a right way and a wrong way to get there.
The wrong way to close a parish is now part of Church
record: true facts of the diocese’s situation are
hidden; closure decisions are pre-ordained; lay people
feel that their role is for show and the lay people who
participate are hand-picked by the clergy and hierarchy;
and the politics of clerical “insiders’” affects
the outcome (or is believed to affect the outcome). What
you get is the regrettable and avoidable circumstances
of Boston’s parish closings.
Additionally, part of the Boston result has not really
registered – the large number of practicing Catholics
(a dying breed?) who have stopped “practicing” when
their parishes were locked and sold. Literature notes a
one-third “fall-away” after a parish closure.
In Boston, we believe it has been closer to 90% or more. This
is not a way to “re-build the Church”; this
is a way to close it down and not just the building but
the faith community. We in Boston who have gone through
this don’t believe it had to be this way.
Boston area VOTF has a wealth of information to share
on this topic, and a number of very knowledgeable leaders.
The Boston Council of Parishes, an outgrowth of the Boston
VOTF summer meetings, does also. A number of other dioceses
are facing or going through this shattering experience
now. We are useful resources for Catholics anywhere and
hope our fellow Catholics will be able to profit from our
experience.
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