Letters to the Editor

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Steve Sheehan is a Boston VOTF Survivor Support activist with some thoughts to share on parishioners losing their parish churches. He finds there are two populations with much in common.

“The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston (RCAB) has created a new breed of survivors. These are not survivors of sexual abuse but survivors of ecclesiastical abuse.

The abuse stems from a program the archdiocese calls reconfiguration, a euphemistic expression that obfuscates the true purpose of the exercise – to close as many and as valuable of the churches of the archdiocese as possible in order to restore the wealth of the Boston See and place the archdiocese on a solid financial basis. The archdiocese has squandered its wealth by unbelievably inept management of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

The victims of this abuse are the loyal, faithful Catholics in the Greater Boston area. Every man, woman and child who has adhered to their faith, tried to follow the teachings of the Church, and did as they were told by their bishops and cardinals stand victimized by this abject betrayal by those whom they were taught to trust. This is true whether these individuals are members of congregations whose churches are designated to close or not.

Those who face parish closure have been orphaned and many of them do not, at this time, know where to turn. Some, perhaps much more than a few, will leave the Church of their parents and seek a spiritual path in another organized religion where they may feel safer from repeated abuse. Others may well become itinerant worshipers, going from parish to parish hoping to find one that most closely resembles the parish they had loved and served for many years.

Those who are (for the moment) safe from the ravages of closure feel the pain of their wounded brothers and sisters; few, if any, understand why the archdiocese chose to go about the closing procedure in the way it did – setting criteria for closing and then in many instances abandoning the process that they themselves ordained in favor of pitting parish against parish in a circus of cluster polls to determine the future of the churches in specific geographic areas. The “safe” parishes must welcome and incorporate into their existing parish structures the wanderers who come knocking at their doors, and neither they nor the wanderers themselves feel secure in the current “It could happen here” mindset.

I have had the marvelous opportunity to spend several hours, including an overnight sleep-in, at Saint Albert the Great in Weymouth, MA, over the past few days. I have met some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. They are the core Catholics, faithful parishioners, active participants in a variety of roles in their parish, who now are fighting to keep their parish open, who refuse to acquiesce to the demands of an appointed shepherd who has not had the common courtesy to visit their parish before he ordered it closed. I have spoken at length with many of them and their pain infuses my very being. I know that I have to stand in solidarity with them during this desperate time. What they have endured in the past few months may take years to heal.

Our spiritual journey is informing us that abuse takes many forms. Abuse, however, is never justified, whether physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or spiritual. Abuse eats at the very being of the one abused and destroys the ability to trust as well as the institution that allows the abuse to continue. And the buck doesn’t stop until there is no higher earthly authority to whom we can turn for reprieve.

But the pilgrim people of God will continue to place their faith in God knowing that they may have to abandon the institutions and leaders that they were taught to follow. Our conscience must become the guiding beacon that will determine the paths we follow to fulfill our purpose here on Earth, to conduct our lives so as to live with God forever.”

“I have become aware of the fact that the lay persons who are being laid off by parishes that are closing are not eligible for unemployment. I just spoke with the janitor from Sacred Heart in Lexington, MA. He worked for Regis and, now, Sacred Heart, is 60 yrs old with no Social Security, and ineligible for unemployment since the Church does not have to pay into it by law. I wonder if VOTF knows this, and also if anyone can help bring attention to this scandalous situation. In peace and solidarity.” Donna M Gaspar Belmont MA

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