Posted on 05/30/2004 8:49:36 AM PDT by maryz
Even some of today’s harshest critics of the archdiocese in Boston admit that reconfiguration is necessary in a climate of declining attendance, financial hardship, deteriorating structures and limited priest availability. The archdiocese’s stated mission of merging and reconfiguring its parish network is based on the making the surviving parishes stronger, reducing the number of parishes requiring subsidies and avoiding expensive maintenance and renovation of underutilized, physically declining buildings.
This is to be accomplished, according to the archdiocese, without sacrificing the true mission of the Catholic Church – providing sacraments to its parishioners, caring for and tending to the disadvantaged and providing a place of worship for all, including ethnic minorities, non-English-speaking immigrants and growing suburban communities.
So, according to the criteria delineated by the archdiocese, parishes that are financially independent, growing in size and offerings, and whose structures are in good repair should be exempt from closing.
Well, not so with St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, led by the Rev. Steve Josoma. St. Susanna’s revenues grew more than 20 percent the past fiscal year, with offertories up 18.5 percent. Few parishes can make that claim. Positive cash flow is up m ore than 25 percent for the year. Attendance has increased noticeably at the weekly Masses, and weddings are projected to be up 300 percent this year. The rectors recently has been renovated and the church building is in excellent shape, with no capital needs on the horizon..
Josoma is part of a new but small group of priests in Boston who are considered by the their parishioners as progressive, challenging and even hip. He is able to relate to all generations of parishioners and all ethnic groups; and to preach God’s love and forgiveness to everyone, regardless of their views or sexual orientation.
The Rev. Josoma also has been outspoken about the actions and policies of the archdiocese during the past two years, often expressing in clear and unemotional tones what many Catholics have been struggling with since the beginning of the sex scandal.
Josoma was among those who called for the resignation of Bernard Cardinal Law. He has expressed concern about the hawkish and politically charged manner in which the archdiocese has handled the gay-marriage issue. He and some of his colleagues have questioned how a church that had a balanced budget under Cardinal Law is now, 18 months later, more than $150 million in debt. He wonders how the archdiocese can decide the fate of hundreds of Catholics in Dedham without having visited them or spoken to their pastor.
Josoma is among those who have allowed Voice of the Faithful to meet on church property, largely because many of the veteran parishioners are supporters of VOTF.
Much of St. Susanna’s growth has come from surrounding towns, such as Needham, where Catholics come to hear Josoma proclaim the gospel from memory and deliver homilies about our everyday struggles and how we can use the gospel and faith to get us through them. Yet this thriving and vital parish, with a pastor who is not only respected but also loved by those he serves, is now facing extinction.
The question that begs to be asked is: Why is St. Susanna’s even being considered for closure? A likely outcome of priests who lose their parishes might be relegation to visiting priests and temporary replacements for vacationing and sabbatical priests. These fill-ins would be limited to conducting Masses and administering the sacraments with no involvement in the growth and expansion of the parish missions.
Is reconfigured being used not only to suppress parishes but also to suppress outspoken, progressive priests in today’s Boston archdiocese?
More on Boston archdiocese parish closings.
A bishop's job, first and foremost, is to keep those cards and letters coming.
Although the donations to St. Susanna's may be up, that is pretty recent because probably parishioners knew that their parish was the likely one to close due to all the recent parish cluster meetings. And if you look at the parish bulletin, the weekly donation isn't exactly huge. There are quite a few parishes in that area and quite a few parishioners are not even from Dedham. Fr. Josoma is also not obedient to the Magisterium or even his bishop. He openly opposes the Church's teachings on homosexuality and same sex marriage and in fact, has called the Church's teachings on the above 'vapid' and 'baseless' - one shrudders to think he is supposed to be leading souls to heaven.
To the author of the piece, those are his good points!
Incrementalism?
I don't know Cuenin or Bullock -- where are they?
Sad, but true. Especially sad around here (Boston), where the moneyed are more likely to be "progressive."
Yes; the author considers that a selling point. Sounds more like a nest of vipers to me.
My. Cynical this morning, are we not? Doesn't appear to me as though Bishop Sherman gave your "cards and letters" even a soupcon of thought.
Fr. Bullock is pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Sharon, Ma. Used to be my parish priest. Gives (unasked for) general absolution and his is the behind the scenes (along with Fr. Richard McBrien) author of 'Boston Priest's Forum ™' and 'Voice of the Faithful ™'.
I am waiting for a parish priest reconfiguration.
I don't really know the suburbs except from what I read; I did have the impression, though, that Sharon is largely Jewish.
Sharon is largely Jewish and very pc. It was the first town to ban outdoor smoking (yipes! good thing I don't live there anymore) and it is a dry town. Our Lady of Sorrows used to be a beautiful parish until Fr. Bullock took the helm.. now it looks like it's a Protestant parish - no kneelers where the pews were replaced with chairs, crucifix relegated to the back of the Church and hey! where's the tabernacle??? So sad.
Akin to the Paulist Center, "a worship community in the Roman Catholic tradition"? Does that mean the Paulist Center is more orthodox????
Definitely progressive priest.
Heck, why are we using the word "progoressive"?
Why don't we just come out and say LIBERAL?
LOL! For that matter, why don't we just come out and say "left-wing wacko"?
BS. Otherwise your boss would never have sent a certain priest to Greenville.
Greenville's in Dallas. Grahmann is not my boss.
I usually use it in conjunction with marxist,liberal,amchurchian and communist.I try to string them together so that those who don't recognize that it represents a very pernicious view will start alerting themselves when they see the word. It's "code" for an evil movement in the Church.
It is also quite a fitting term fo the enemy. I often compare it to cancer. If you think about it cancer is a "progressive" disease. If they catch it early enough it's stage I,once cancer starts to metastisize,it can rapidly progress through stages II and III to IV,which is terminal. I think it very appropriate to think of the left wing of the Church as "progressive",and it has devastated the body of the Church because it was allowed to grow rampant because it was relatively ignored and untreated for 40 years. Now the Church seems to be late into stage III. It's going to take radical surgery,chemo and massive doses of rakiation to get rid of it.
I bet that's more than you ever wanted to know.Sorry I got off on a tangent,but I just got back from a party with many,"progresive" catholics,ACLU types no less. I know you didn't ask me,but I had to let off steam.
Sorry. However, Grahmann's action goes against your point. Bishops do not like priests who succeed in doing things that thwart the bishop's wishes and they usually end up in some Siberia.
Powerful metaphor!
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