Boston Archdiocese Closing 60 Parishes

[Kadie]

May 25, 1:05 PM EDT

Boston Archdiocese Closing 60 Parishes

By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) -- The Boston Archdiocese will close 60 of its 357 parishes, a massive restructuring brought on partly by the sex abuse scandal that aggravated already shrinking Mass attendance and weekly collections.

Archbishop Sean O'Malley announced the parish closings Tuesday, completing a process that began in December when he said the archdiocese would be forced to undergo a major downsizing.

He said the reduction was needed because of declining Mass attendance, a shortage of priests and the inability of the archdiocese to support struggling parishes - many in older buildings in desperate need of repairs - in the midst of a financial crisis caused in part by the abuse crisis.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHURCH_CLOSINGS?SITE=CADIU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[bedtimeforbonzo]

1. bwaaaahaaahaaaa

that is all

[BayCityProgressive]

2. good.

No one cares about their rants against gays anymore either.

[bemildred]

3. Can we jerk their tax exemption yet?

We sure need the money.

[Sandpiper]

4. Good

It's always nice to see an institution pay the price for its misdeeds.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I guess the money for the settlements of the lawsuits had to come from

somewhere . . .

Next suggestion: sell some real estate big time.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. While we're sorta on the topic, I been wondering...

Do priests have to give up pederasty for Lent?

[sidpleasant]

6. let's remember that this is very bad news for a lot of people

Thousands of Catholics in the Boston metro area will be losing their churches. Regardless of what you may think of the Catholic Church or its leadership or its positions on some issues there are lots of people for whom their local parish is an important part of their life. Those people are going to pay the price for decades of appalling criminal behavior by pervert priests and their enablers in the diocese administration. I'm an ex - Catholic who strongly disagrees with the Church on many things but even I don't think this is an occasion for gloating.

[bemildred]

7. While I have no personal beef with this people,

I do have a beef with bullying, corrupt religious
leaders, and I'll gloat if I want to.

[Forkboy]

8. The point is though

that people are gloating about this while good people are being hurt by it.The people going to these churches aren't the ones you have a beef with. :shrug:

And I'm not even close to being religious.I just dont like seeing good people (and most parishioners are good people) having a huge and important part of their lives yanked out from under them because of the actions of the leaders you rightfully decry.

[CBHagman]

9. Thank you, Forkboy and Sidpleasant.

It always makes me uncomfortable to see DUers rush into Schadenfreude or gloating over a story like this. Whatever one thinks of the Catholic Church, the individual parishes do provide services and a home for people in the communities, and those families and individuals will suffer. There is so much more to the story than the financial trouble and of course the history of abuse by certain priests.

[Just Me]

12. The "Church" is disenfranchising good people,...

I don't "gloat" over that.

I am angry.

The fundamental message has been lost, has been sold out,...to empowering the "stuff", the "material" over LOVING the people, serving the people.

The "CHURCH" has FAILED!!!

IT, the "church" has become more involved in "power" than it has in SERVING all those who cannot pay for its pomp & circumstance.

God is not contained in money or gold or "stuff".

[SoCalDem]

19. The "church" has always been about POWER..

In my hometown, they built a HUGE cathedral, and poor people were "encouraged" to give-give-give...and of course the monsignor lived in a "castle" in the highest-living part of town..right across from the country club...his GARAGE was carpeted (for his precious new cadillac)..

I would always see people with lots of little kids, wearing raggedy clothes and scuffed up shoes, plunking money onto the collection plate, while the "big guy" lived like a king..

Naturally, the downtown area where they built that monstrosity, could not adequately "support" it, so they built ANOTHER one in the newer part of town too..:eyes:

[bemildred]

11. The point is that I'm not gloating about these peoples misfortunes.

That is like that argument that I should not rag on Bush
about Iraq because it's bad for the troops.

So why should I feel bad about an act I'm not committing?

[bemildred]

13. I must say I am surprised to see this from you.

This is your classic red herring argument. I'm supposed
to slack off on the church because the good parishoners
are being hurt by the Church's misfeasance and malfeasance.
Meanwhile they are threatening Presidential candidates and
meddling in non-Catholic's civil and reproductive rights, not
to mention the treatment of gays, just to begin the list.

[Forkboy]

20. I'm not asking you to stop slacking off on the Church

but the Church also contains many good people who dont deserve to be ragged on.As long as one can seperate between the two I have no problem.

[bemildred]

21. OK, I promise not to rag on any good people. nt

[Lexingtonian]

14. Well....

One of the two parishes in my town is being closed.

The talk going around town- like it is here- is that it's all due to 'the money'. Payouts or whatever, more like whatever.

I've followed the story a good bit and I'm not convinced. The Archdiocese has actually made up most of the payments/costs by selling property and from direct bequests and the like. (Though selling the bishop's residence to Boston College was a kind of wierd way of essentially just taking a massive lien or mortgage on the property.)

It's more fair to say that the diocese is desperately short on priests, the buildings are in states of underrepair if not a certain degree of neglect, and the congregations are dwindling. Worse, the tithing really has been abyssmal- when some real prosperity came to Boston in the mid-80s they apparently never got a commensurate raise in tithes and have lagged far behind the other churches and religious groups in the Boston area in money given per capita.

It was time to shut down buildings and put small congregations together. (They're ethnically fairly admixed now, though one wouldn't call what there is integration, so it's not all that difficult to pair up a good number.) But I really don't understand why O'Malley chose to lower the boom as he has. Spreading things out over a few years and letting parishes in on the planning more gradually, not playing 'Survivor' with them, that would have worked far better.

[Lugnut]

15. With all due respect.....

I'm an ex-Catholic who is rejoicing and gloating.

"You reap what you sow."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x581918

[mike1963]

18. It pleases me when ANY religion loses opportunities to fleece idiots.

And especially those which attempt to inject their delusions as adjunct to law.
bah.

[Don_G]

16. I'm Sorry It Happened

I've seen a lot of Priests help out and do good work.

I just wish the Vatican would have listened to "their Brethern" decades ago to weed out the predator pedophiles in their midst.

The Church lost the moral "high ground" over covering up for lesss than one-tenth of one percent of their "brethern." They also lost sevaral billion dollars nationwide in tax-free money trying to cover up decades of abuse.

I have no answers but I hope enough is left to help those who honestly need it.

[FlemingsGhost]

17. Sales are down. Time to close some stores.

Maybe it's time for a new CEO... er, "Pope."

[lil-petunia]

22. Less is more

Sex is not sex when a priest and an evil sex-driven child is involved.
Black is white.
Peace is war.
Day is night.

I guess there are fewer priests now that their plagrounds are cuming under scrutiny.

Close them all down. Do the world a favor.