Posted on 07/25/2005 10:44:11 AM PDT by nickcarraway
As parishioners struggle to save the Holy Trinity Church in the South End from closing, they say they are both fighting the loss of their spiritual home and resisting the possible demise of a tradition found nowhere else in the Archdiocese of Boston -- the Latin Mass.
Many said they believed it is because of their traditionalist background that Holy Trinity is on the list, a charge a church spokesman said is untrue.
Terrence C. Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese, reiterated the basic reasons for church closures -- a shortage of priests, parishioners, and money -- and insisted the Latin Mass would continue elsewhere.
''The Latin Mass is going to continue . . . at another church," he said, referring to St. James the Greater on Harrison Avenue, where the archdiocese plans to move Holy Trinity's worshipers by mid-December.
Holy Trinity is the only church in the archdiocese that offers some masses in Latin, parishioners said. All Catholic Masses were said in Latin until the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965 and the church swept in a more contemporary form of worship in vernacular languages.
''The US bishops want the church to be modern," said worshiper Wendy Maynard, 35, of Carver. ''If people are so attached to something that's old, they feel it's a criticism of what's new."
A Latin Mass was not offered in the archdiocese until 1990, when the church allowed the tradition to resume at Holy Trinity Church, said parishioner Kathleen Stone of Hull.
Holy Trinity parishioners say there is little parking around St. James the Greater. Holy Trinity has ample parking for worshipers, which better suits the people who drive from miles away to attend the Latin Mass.
''If they move us down to St. James, that's the end of Latin Mass," said Stone, 57.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
They should just do it in the basement chapel of the Cathedral..that building tends to be very quiet on Sundays.
Easily said, I'll tell that to my folks. Their church closed despite having 2 or 3 priests in residence, and a large congregation. They were told that there was not enough money to keep it open, so they'd have to drive 2 towns away instead.
We'll agree to disagree, but the moneys put out in the various settlements was bound to have a significant impact upon the Diocese as well.
Seamole you couldn't be more wrong about Holy Trinity. Not only do we have priest's kicking down the doors to get in we have 3 ordained priests 2 of who could take over the Latin Mass. We also have 2 diocesan priests request to take over as pastor who were turned down. We also have 3 seminarians as of August. What priest shortage? If the ArchBishop would just free the Fraternity and allow them to come to Boston they wouldn't even have to give us a diocesan priest. We also are solvent and are community has been steadily growing over the past few years.
Bishop Lennon and Fr.O'Regan have misrepresnted us to the ArchBishop. Not once have me ever communicated we were happy to move to St.James. If they had at least asked us of an appropriate Church we might have grumbled but would have done it. It is their lack of consultation and sending us to a Church that has no parking for as many as 350+ people that leaves to assume they are trying to suppress the Latin community.
I agree-the church and the liberals will do anything to do away with the Latin mass, as they do in my diocese and put it on the worst part of town.
And when you complain to the so called Traditional organizations such as FSSP and Una Voce ,they clam up as they have no guts. Unfortunatly it seems the only ones who actually care about the faith is the so called schismatic groups.
I would not be surprised if the seat really is not vacant and the SSPX and SSPV'ers are the real church and those as myself who hold out for the church to come back to the truth and faith and not the bastion of ecumenism and Protestantism that it has becomenare just wasting our time. Boy, I'll tell you I never saw the post V2 popes spend so much time with Jews, rabbis, Protestants at the WCC, Orthodox Patriarchs, ....but when it comes to a so called Traditionalist? Banned! Zapped! Bad word! The church has something to fear and hide as they know that Vatican II and the throwing away of the sacred canon was sinful, against all past teachings, and will have to explain this destruction to almighty God as JPII is doing right now.
God bless
Actually it has more to do with inflated salaries here is a new posting with salary range for a major gifts officer.
Typically someone paid in that range would be expected to raise several million annually...but fundraising is flat and they had three people in that position previously...so where's the money?
http://www.higheredjobs.com/state/details.cfm?JobCode=175140707
Hello,
First I am absolutely no fan of O'Malley, he's either fool or evil...still not sure, but lean towards evil after what he did to Smith-Foster down in Florida.
I also believe Holy Trinity should remain open under the auspicies of the FSSP (as recommended by the preservation comittee but rejected by the Archdiocese).
But in the spirit of looking at new solutions, perhaps the Parish of St. Pius X in Milton should be looked at. The closure date has been rescinded and it has not been wreckovated and could therefore do the tradtional rite.
In addition with the second oldest serving Pastor in the Archdiocese, he would no doubt know the old rite.
On a personal note: I think we should send the big O to live as a cloistered monk where he belongs....Lennon should be laicized.
I concur with Pandora. There will be no more High Masses at St. James. Fr. O'Regan has made no secret of his disdain for High Masses, particularly there length. He has not invited any of HT's choirs to St. James. His preference is a quick Low Mass period.
I suspect Fr. O'Regan is also under pressure for quick turnover by the Tufts New England Medical Center (NEMC) Parking Administration for the TLM community to "get in and out". Sunday is the Hospital's busiest day of visitation and competition for their parking facility will be keen. Validated parking for 2 hours is $8.00. Nice! So much for choir practice, CCD, Holy Name meetings, Lectures and post Mass coffee and doughnuts. On a typical, Sunday it is not unusual for community members to arrive at 10:30AM, departing after activities around 3:00PM. That can easily be 5 hours! Do you honestly think Fr. O or NEMC is going to tolerate this if say 50 of the 200 cars that show up for Holy Mass remain for the afternoon consistantly? I have heard Fr. O'Regan complain that St. James' Chinese Community already "stays forever" for their post Mass agape and afternoon visits with family in Chinatown. This has been historically a sensitive issue with the NEMC Parking Administration. Please note, the vast majority of Chinese Catholics currently attending St. James are also commuting suburbanites.
Despite being designated a territorial parish. St. James can claim only a handful of Parishioners that actually reside within its territorial boundaries. Now let's put our additional demands on an already limited facility and we have a recipe for disaster. It just doesn't make sense, if the Archdiocese wishes to see continued growth. One can only draw negative conclusions about "the deal" Fr. O has made with Jim Foley, NEMC Parking Administrator.
Fr. O has remained completely evasive when probed about concerns about the parking arrangement. All we get is that, "It's been taken care of." On 12 May, I attempted to contact Mr. Foley directly to get specifics, only to be rebuffed by his office administrator and get a scolding the following Sunday from Fr. O. To date, I am aware of no definative parking plan that highlights current parking demand and future load at Holy Trinity.
BTW, the Verizon lot is leased from the BRA and I agree is a tenative arrangement at best that has been working well with the exception of a couple of phone company strikes since 1990. If Holy Trinity remained open, we would have to eventually address a permanent arrangement, perhaps purchasing back this property originally seized by the BRA in the early 1960's.
Parking is a logistical issue that remains very vague. One can only conclude that a workable solution remains to be worked out at this late date and is a touchy issue. Communication with both Fr. O and the Archdiocese has been absolutely abysmal.
As far as Europe goes, what is the percentage of Mass attendance on the continent? Clearly most European urban Churches were built before the automobile as is the case in urban Boston. Have you ever driven in Chinatown? Do you have kids under the age of 5? Are you suggesting we arrive with a family of say 8 or 10 kids for 10:30 CCD at 9:00AM, for a 12 Noon Mass?
How many other Catholics in this archdiocese are expected to make this kind of sacrifice and trek into town in many cases over 50 miles to boot? I think this lost on the decision makers in the chancery. Are you surprised people are upset and frequently conclude that there is ill intent on the part of our shepherds?
Guess what? HT is a commuter parish and road and parking access is critical to the arrangement for the Indult's continued growth.
Holy Trinity is being closed to the deliberate misrepresentation by individuals who have made no secret in there disdain for those who wish to continue worshiping and following a pre-VII Liturgy and ecclesiology. I think its sadly human that there are those in the hierarchy who take this as a personal affront to their priestly ministry over the last forty plus years. It's equally sad that these individuals have compartmentalized the Church into a pre and post Vatican II mentality. For many its inconceivable that Tradition and tradition are a continuum that extends to the present moment in time. We must continue to pray for them as we struggle in an era and place that dissent continues to be rewarded.
Both the FSSP and ICK have offered to take over responsibility for Holy Trinity. We received a rejection letter signed from Bishop Lennon in March 2004, stating that His Excellency prefers to continue the Indult with Diocesan clergy, with no plan for a rotation. In August 2004, the parish council met with Bishop Lennon and readdressed this point. To their amazement, the Bishop was completely unaware of FSSP/ICK option, despite signing the rejection. We promised to answer the parish council’s questions and never responded. In March 2005, Fr. O’Regan received another letter of intent from Bishop Lennon to proceed with plans for suppression, completely ignoring any Lay concern. All I can say is clericalism remains alive and well in this diocese, despite the scandal.
This letter by MaryJane Davis was posted to the Save Holy Trinity Yahoo Egroup and is directed to Terence C. Donilon, the Archdiocesan Spokesman. It is in response to the above Boston Globe article. Thought it may be pertinent to this discussion. - RQ
Dear Boston Archdiocesan Spokesman Donilon,
It is nice you took time from your personal life on a Sunday to comment on the situation at Holy Trinity for the Boston Glob e. Next time, can we invite you to learn more about the situation there before you make public comments?
You reiterated the basic generic reasons for church closures -- a shortage of priests,
parishioners, and money. DID YOU KNOW that Holy Trinity did not meet any of those criteria, is financially self-sufficient, and doesn't need a diocesan priest to keep operating?
You said the archdiocese is trying to work with worshipers. ''We are trying to take a difficult process and turn it into a positive and spiritual process," he said. ''We'd ask them to help us
in that and join us in that." DID YOU KNOW that Holy Trinity was specifically excluded from the lay input and the cluster recommendation effort across the archdiocese last yer? DID YOU KNOW Holy Trinity asked more than 60 times for a meeting with the Meade-Eisner Commission, and they never responded until after their commission's work was done? DID YOU KNOW Holy Trinity's Parish Council is looking to meet with the Archbishop now?
DID YOU KNOW two social services organizations housed in the church--a homeless shelter that serves 100 people daily and a housing program for at-risk youth--are being evicted, and one is now spending 10% of their precious limited funds--$50,000--desperately trying to find a new home?
DID YOU KNOW it could cost Bridge over Troubled Water more than $2M--money they don't have--to find a suitable new home for their ministry?
DID YOU KNOW dumping 100-120 homeless people and at-risk teens out on the street from a Catholic shelter would look almost as bad on the 6pm news as locking out 4 and 5-year-olds from a Catholic school?
DID YOU KNOW moving the Latin Mass to an inaccessible location translates to the death of that Mass?
DID YOU KNOW that Archbishop O'Malley just approved a plan to keep St. Susanna's in Dedham open for at least 3 more years--with no explanation whatsoever offered, except so the pastor could stay until his term is over? DID YOU KNOW this is the same pastor who advocated for homosexual marriage, has heterodox speakers present under the guise of "Adult Formation," helped publicly lampoon our own Archbishop O'Malley at a roast earlier this year, and did something so untoward at St. Brendan's in Dorchester a few years ago that the Youth program was shut-down and he was booted from the parish--and the Archdiocese wants that church open for 3 more years so he can be pastor of the flock? DID YOU KNOW that same pastor also talked about his relationship with a male lover (another priest) from the pulpit a few years ago? DID YOU KNOW this very same pastor gave $500 to state Sen. Marian Walsh, who opposed church efforts to protect marriage, opposed the church on stem cell research, and is sponsoring a bill that retaliates against the Church for the possible closing of her preferred parish by forcing financial reporting on the Catholic church--a bill that all of the bishops oppose. DID YOU KNOW the Archdiocese is keeping that church open for 3 more years (reason: so he can be pastor) and is closing Holy Trinity for no justifiable reason?
DID YOU KNOW several parishes whose pastors advocated for homosexual marriage in public that were slated for closing have had the closings reversed, and another pro-gay-marriage pastor's parish was never considered as a candidate for closing?
DID YOU KNOW the decision to close Holy Trinity was simply wrong?
Please note: I am speaking for myself in this message--not as an official representative of the Holy Trinity community, but I am sure others feel much the same way. Maybe someone will write to you officially.
Thank you for giving Holy Trinity the chance to better inform you. I hope you learned a few things maybe you did not know before. Now that you know all this, thank you also for sharing THIS information the lnext time you are called on to comment.
Sincerely,
MaryJane Davis
Fr. Belschner is a nice enough guy, about 38-40 years of age, only been a Priest about 8-10 years.
I would suspect he was appointed because he would be more fearful that the Archdiocese would ruin his life and bar him from exercise of his Priestly ministry if he didn't tow the company line.
An older man has less to lose.
Point of information is that he was the Pastor involved with the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel situation in which the Parishioners were promised a Mass at the Convent. A promise which in turn was recinded thus causing the "sit in" at that Parish.
If you watch the trends of Pastoral appointments you will see that a significant number of men Ordained less than 10 years are being elevated to Pastorates, a good number of these guys have reputations for towing the line, while men with reputations for orthodoxy remain Parochial Vicars 10-15 even 20 years after Ordination.
Machiavellian ain't it?
Tricky Dick Lennon and his hold overs from the previous administration are the guys who really runs the Archdiocese so those are the minds you need to change.
As for Holy Trinity, open or close is not so much the point as the treatment of the community there (which I am not a part of). They have long since been promised a meeting that would more carefully outline the Archdiocesan plan, but it does not materialize.
In addition the solution of St. James the Greater is a bit unreasonable considering the plant and considering the fact that the community is not geographically tied to the area.
I would argue that a Parish in the Merrimac or West Region would actually have a better location considering where the parishioners draw from (primarily north and west due to an indult in Providence and Fall River but none in Manchester or Worcester).
To sum it up O'Malley should skip his dinners out, get of his high horse and take a night to talk to these people, I don't doubt that they could be satisfied with some reasonable Pastoral care.
In his defense though, maybe Dick Lennon won't give him permission.
I must admit that I do hope and pray that now that McCarrick has retired O'Malley might move on to greener pastures.
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