End Nears for Latin Mass at Boston (Catholic) Church

Associated Press via Myrtle Beach Online ^ | 5/30/2005 | Michael Kunzelman

[nonsumdignus]

End Nears for Latin Mass at Boston Church

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

The Associated Press
Monday, May 30, 2005; 5:00 AM

BOSTON -- Dan Linnell drives from his home on Cape Cod to Boston's South End most Sundays so he can worship at Holy Trinity Church, the only Roman Catholic congregation in the area that celebrates Mass in Latin.

Linnell's wife introduced him to Holy Trinity in 1996, when they started dating, and he immediately "fell in love" with the Latin Mass, which features Roman Catholic rituals, including Gregorian chants, that date back more than 1,500 years.

Monsignor Peter V. Conley gives Communion to priests on the 15th anniversary of the return of the Latin Mass at Holy Trinity Church in Boston, Sunday, May 29, 2005. Holy Trinity, which has the only Latin service sanctioned by the Boston Archdiocese, is one of 20 parishes that the archdiocese intends to close in the coming weeks and months as part of a broader cost-cutting plan to close 80 of its 357 parishes. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) (Michael Dwyer - AP)

"I started crying I was so moved," the 41-year-old recalled as he entered the church with his three young children after an hourlong drive from Sandwich. "For me, it's what Catholic worship is. It's just beautiful, and it edifies the soul."

Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of Holy Trinity's Latin Mass, which is the only service of its kind sanctioned by the Boston Archdiocese. Barring a change of heart by the archdiocese, there won't be a 16th.

Holy Trinity is one of 20 parishes that the archdiocese intends to close in the coming weeks and months as part of a broader cost-cutting plan to close 80 of its 357 parishes.

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley's decision to shutter or consolidate the churches came in response to declining attendance, a shortage of priests and financial pressure caused in part by the clergy sex abuse crisis.

With Holy Trinity scheduled to close June 30, the archdiocese plans to move its Latin Mass to St. James the Greater in nearby Chinatown. Parishioners are upset they have to leave the historic church, which was founded in 1844 to serve German immigrants. It's the only German-Catholic congregation in New England.

John Fahey, 49, of Boston, said Holy Trinity is an oasis for several hundred Catholics who prefer to worship in a more conservative, traditional manner.

The church is "totally financially self-sustaining," he added. "There is no reason why it should be closed by the archdiocese."

Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon said that although the church closings have been hard for parishioners to accept, the process has "strengthened the Catholic community" in other ways.

"The vast majority of parishioners have moved on and done so in a very spiritual and prayerful manner," he said.

Mass was celebrated in Latin across the world until the mid-1960s, when the Second Vatican Council ruled it could be celebrated in native languages. Twenty years later, however, Pope John Paul II granted permission for it to be celebrated in Latin again.

Once a month since the Latin Mass returned to Holy Trinity in 1990, Michael Ferry drives 75 miles from his home in Ogunquit, Maine, to sing in the church's choir, which recites Gregorian chants.

"People come here because this is the Mass as it was in 1962," he said. "It's more traditional."

Susan Long said she left the Catholic church as a teenager because she disagreed with the changes made by the Second Vatican Council.

"When I came back, I came back because of this Mass," she said. "I'd like it to stay here, but my faith is in my heart. Wherever they move it, it's not going to change my faith."

It has been a tumultuous month for parishioners at Holy Trinity. Earlier this month, worshippers at the church protested its imminent closing by placing fake bills in the collection baskets.

Holy Trinity also is coping with a brewing financial scandal. Parishioners have asked state and archdiocesan officials to investigate allegations that their pastor, the Rev. Hugh O'Regan, mismanaged the church's finances. O'Regan did not immediately return a call to comment.

ON THE NET

Boston Archdiocese: http://www.rcab.org/

[nonsumdignus]

Archbishop O'Malley has taken a page from my beloved Mahoney--If the kids want it bad enough, then they'll travel anywhere for it. Those who live by the Indult will be used by those who control the Indult for their own ends.

[Siobhan]

What Archbishop O'Malley is doing is proof that each Catholic parish should be locally incorporated with title held jointly by bishop and local community so these unilateral decisions against self-supporting congregations cannot take place.

Archbishop O'Malley always makes me think of Marie-Julie Jahenny.

[noste paire]

Joint ownership of parishes is a terrible idea. For better or worse, the Church is not a democracy. It is not right for laymen and non-episcopal clergy, who do not have a complete understanding of the diocese's political/economic/spiritual situation, to have power over the bishop. I am not at all liberal, I adore the Latin Mass, and I respectfully question many policies of the bishops. But obedience is a principle that goes back the apostolic fathers and the apostles themselves.

From the epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch, martyred in 108 AD:

"He who acts in anything apart from the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons is not pure in conscience." (To the Trallians)

"Do nothing without the bishop. Keep your flesh as a shrine of God. Love union. Flee divisions. Become followers of Jesus Christ as He also was of the Father." (To the Romans)

"Avoid divisions as the beginning of evil. Follow, all of you, the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father; and follow the presbytery as the Apostles. [..] Let no man do aught pertaining to the Church apart from the bishop." (To the Smyrnaeans)

(et cetera)

John

[Rosary]

I say,let them close it if they can't AFFORD IT FOR THEIR JOB AS PRIESTS is to save souls..opps guess they forgot again!
Have the flock put up a tent in a nearby field,for Christ was born in a stable,humble and simple,the Mass can continue without the building..although its pretty sad!That money should stop the MASS!
As for JPII saying its ok to return to the LAtin Mass-POPE SAINT PIUS V wrote a bull,and gave NO one the right ever to change the old Latin Tridentine Mass!!!and he was a SAINT proclaimed so !! look up QUO PRIMUM!

[american colleen]

Welcome to Freerepublic, noste paire!

While I am heartsick about Holy Trinity closing down and the Indult being moved to nearby St. James, I have to agree with noste paire. To have each community maintain their own (or a group of parishes) parish is scary. I look around at the situation in Boston and see the parishes that are now running their own show and those parishes are not teaching Catholic doctrine, they are a community unto themselves. I know most traditional Catholics are not likely to set up big screen tv's (as they have in a few of the closed but parishioner protesting via sit ins parishes) and have 'communion services' but they are possibly apt to move away from the larger Catholic community due to a slight bunker mentality (which current circumstances tend to aggravate). In effect, both the traditionalists and the progressives end up in the same place - out of sync with the bishop and the larger Catholic community of believers.

The situation at HT is volatile - parishioners are filing a suit against the parish priest accusing him of mismanaging funds. This is falling right into the hands of the local VOTF and causing scandal as it is all over the news.

What a mess. I wouldn't want to be Archbishop O'Malley for anything.

[Siobhan]

Hi and welcome to FreeRepublic.

[Siobhan]

In the end it will end up as Cardinal George prophesied anyway.

So let's all be grateful to Cardinal Law whose stellar leadership would never lead one to try to imagine another way of doing things but to be utterly obedient.

[Siobhan]

Having joint ownership of title is not the conversion of the Church to a democracy. It is simply a different model of governance, and throughout the world there have been a number of different models.

Also, obedience is not a blanket you through over your head and say like a zombie, 'I see nothing, I can do nothing, I obey the bishop.' On the contrary, obedience means that there is constructive engagement of issues and ideas and assent with integrity to authority within its legitimate scope of canonical authority. Otherwise obedience may come to mean simply the "Yes, master." of an unwilling slave.

[american colleen]

Ouch!

I remember that we disagreed on the St. Stanislaus's debacle as well. I guess no one can agree with someone else 100%

It's such a mess here I am at the point where they could close every parish and I wouldn't care. I feel horrible about thinking that but I can't shake it.

I only wish the bishop would be just as stringent closing down the chancery employees and the different 'ministries' as well.

It would be good to start from ground zero in Boston. I honestly believe most things Catholic here are in serious disarray.

That said, I don't think most of the chancery appointees have the indult Mass as a serious concern. Holy Trinity is just a beautiful parish and it is a sin to lose it to the developers.

[metfan]

That said, I don't think most of the chancery appointees have the indult Mass as a serious concern. Holy Trinity is just a beautiful parish and it is a sin to lose it to the developers

To American Colleen; I am tired of begging for a Mass that is rightfully mine and not the bishop's.

I get my mass where I can find it with so called schismatics or not.

[american colleen]

Siobhan, if they keep all the closing parishes open, those parishes will devolve into a laity led congregation as there are not enough priests to staff the existing parishes - not to mention a dearth of parishioners. Neither situation looks hopeful in a positive way for the future.

Given the poor leadership found here for the past 40 years or so, we are facing a crisis. I would rather see parishes closed than have laity led parishes. Also, fewer parishes means the ability to focus on a mustard seed laity led by fewer but more faithful priests. No need to reassign the many priests who are really Anglicans and not Catholics.

I don't know what the answer is.

I do wish one of the more traditional priest groups (like the FSSP) would be invited in but apparently that is not going to be. The last few leaders (and their auxilaries) have said that diocesan priests should lead the indult community.

[american colleen]

"I get my mass where I can find it with so called schismatics or not."

Good luck to you. I don't know what else to say.

[charliemarlow]

The author said
Mass was celebrated in Latin across the world until the mid-1960s, when the Second Vatican Council ruled it could be celebrated in native languages. Twenty years later, however, Pope John Paul II granted permission for it to be celebrated in Latin again.

How much research would it take for a reporter to get this right?

[charliemarlow]

Boston has ONE Indult Mass and it is now being moved to a church with a NO altar in permanent place. Does the priest climb over that one to ascend to the traditional
altar?
"Wide and generous," indeed. When these bishops disobey papal decrees, how are we to understand their decrees to
us?

[murphE]

sad bump and ping

[AAABEST]

I don't know what the answer is.

One answer would be to shave O'Malley's beard and toss him into the Boston harbor, like the rebels did with the tea a while back.

This is a self-supporting parish, O'Malley has no good reason to shut it down. Then again he had no business forcing the "Talk about Touching" program on the children - which was concieved by a leftist prostitution advocacy group (I'm not kidding)- , then threatening their parents with witholding of the sacraments if they didn't comply.

St. Ignatius was referring to holy bishops, not worldly fools overseeing a crumbling diocese.

[Mike Fieschko]

The option, once discussed, of selling Holy Trinity to the FSSP and allowing the FSSP to continue the Latin Mass at Holy Trinity would, under Ecclesia Dei, actually require the Archdiocese to hold a second TLM somewhere else.

I'm not aware that Ecclesia Dei actually requires ordinaries to do anything at all.

It's close to 17 years now since Ecclesia Dei was issued, and I've never heard of a single instance where clergy or laity used it to compel an ordinary to allow an indult Mass, by the FSSP or otheriwse.

If you claim it requires an indult Mass or that it grants or recognizes some right in the clergy or laity, why are there so many diocese in America where petitions for an indult have been denied?

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