Posted on 02/05/2007 8:34:06 AM PST by Cheverus
LAWRENCE - A controversial offshoot of the Catholic religion is planning to hold its worship services in the vacant Sacred Heart Church.
The Willing Shepherds of Jesus Christ, whose members adhere to pre-Vatican II teachings and rituals, has signed a 15-year lease for the church at 321 S. Broadway.
The order, which lists an address in Tewksbury on its Web site, celebrates Mass in Latin with the priest facing the altar instead of the congregation during services.
The order is renting the Gothic-style church and its adjacent rectory from ETC Development Corp. of Boston, which bought the two-acre property last May.
"I think it would be something good for our church if it reopens," said Irene Potvin, a longtime member of Sacred Heart. "God will be in our church again. It's better than having it empty."
But not everybody is happy about the Willing Shepherds establishing a presence in Lawrence.
"We're very concerned for the Catholic faithful up there," said Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. "They are not a Catholic organization."
Rebecca Justin of North Andover, a member of the Lay Dominicans Fraternities of St. Dominic, also has issues with the Willing Shepherds.
"We're concerned because the priests are not properly ordained by the church," Justin said.
The Willing Shepherds, founded in Massachusetts in 1999, is not recognized or authorized by the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI or Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Brother Antony Mary of the Willing Shepherds declined to comment on the group's relationship with the Roman Catholic Church when reached by telephone last night at the order's house in Tewksbury.
"Any questions regarding that will be answered on Wednesday," Brother Antony Mary said, referring to the Planning Board meeting to be held then.
The Willing Shepherds approached ETC Development Corp. several months ago about leasing the church.
"Initially, we were not really interested," said Paula Herrington, executive director of ETC, a nonprofit organization.
Neighbors and former parishioners were concerned about having offices as part of the $15 million project on the site of the former Sacred Heart property, which also includes two schools and a convent.
Herrington said the businesses were scrapped and the rental to the Willing Shepherds was added.
The church rental would be part of a redevelopment project at the former French Canadian parish and school.
The project includes space for a latchkey program to be run by a social service agency, 26 affordable apartments, a 74-space underground parking garage and a 14-space surface level parking area.
Michael Sweeney, the city's planning and community development director, said part of the deal with the Willing Shepherds includes a 15-year lease with ETC Development and an option to buy.
"There's a desire on the part of the community and the city that this is not a short-term deal," Herrington said. "The community does not want to invest money in an institution that may go away; they want to have some stability."
The city's Zoning Board of Appeals approved the lease by a 5-0 vote on Jan. 25. ETC and the Willing Shepherds will go before the Planning Board on Wednesday for final approval.
Regarding the Paulist center chapel: Yikes!
Actually, believe it or not, that picture of the sanctuary at the Paulist Center looks like something of an improvement over previous arrangements. At least there's something that "sort of" resembles a (resurrection) crucifix in the picture. Not so long ago, they had a gigantic white disk mounted on the wall that they used to show slide shows and movies on during Mass. As I recall, a mere stylized cross (no corpus) was superimposed on the disk.
Yeesh!
As another parishioner of Holy Trinity, I will also give witness to the content of this post.
Andy,
In a sense, you might be giving the archbishop and the chancery too much credit with regard to sedevacantist groups. Such groups have been around here for a long time, and the archdiocese has barely even raised an eyelid to notice them. Indeed, the sede CMRI group from Washington State has embarked on a "mission" in the Boston area (waiting like vultures for Holy Trinity to close), and they entice over 300 people every week to show up at their Sunday Mass in a Woburn motel. That's nearly half-again what we can manage at HT. They are openly proselytizing downtown, in the North End, East Boston and other places, and have been at this for at least two years now, yet the archdiocese seems to have been unaware of their presence until members of our parish pointed this out to them last summer! The SSPX and other schismatic or sedevacantist groups have likewise been navigating in our waters without causing a blip on the archbishop's radar. The chancery's response is a yawn.
But! Let this Johnny-come-lately sede group have the temerity to lease a church building that the archdiocese voluntarily sold off, and their hypocritical public angst over "non-Catholic groups" suddenly gets plastered all through the media! The only discernable reason for the sudden archdiocesan "concern" over leading people astray seems to stem from the fact that these folks have set up shop in a recognizable Catholic Church building. They have no discernable concern when such groups set up in storefronts, motels and private homes. This tells me that their "concern" is more about issues of "turf" than the salvation of souls. The scandal adhering to this situation is mind numbing.
Nevertheless, the suggestion that the Holy Trinity Indult community should go into schism itself as some sort of ploy to retain the building is a non-starter. If, in the end, the building is sold out from under us, such action will be a canonical malfeasance resting on the archbishop's head alone; we will not sin ourselves by becoming schismatic in an uber-pragmatic mind game with God to save our church. God forbid! Our situation is not the first in which loyal members of the Catholic Church have been persecuted from within. It doubtless won't be the last, either. We must still have faith that, even now, God will provide the just and equitable solution we have all been praying for over these nearly three years. Legal canonical remedies are still very much at our disposal. In those measures and in less tangible ones, God WILL provide for us; we need to trust His lead.
That is just so strange. I can't imagine what they were thinking.
You should see their icons (I kid you not!) of "Saint" Oscar Romero, "Saint" Martin Luther King, and several others! Why, if I were the cardinal archbishop of Boston, I'd throw the Paulists out of my diocese bodily, tear down the Paulist Center, exorcise the ground it sat on and build something "nice" for...say... the Fraternity of Saint Peter!
But, then, I'm not the archbishop! The Paulist Center will likely survive all of us by 500 years at the rate things are going in Boston to the present. Yet hope survives!
Don't try. It's impossible. Just remember that this is the place John Kerry ran to for his photo-op, sacrilegious communion stunt in '04, and things will fall into place for you as well as one could hope.
*************
Why am I not surprised at that?
You can read more about Romero's proposed canonization HERE, if you can read Spanish.
As for MLK --- naaah. For one thing, wrong denom.
They began in 1999 they say as a missionary society but did not become a Domincan Third Order until 2005.
With the group becoming Dominican, and being from New England, did they hook up with Bp. Robert McKenna from Monroe, Connecticut? While he was ill a couple years ago he had a a priest assisting him at the chapel who did celebrate Mass also in Massachusetts.
Bp. McKenna is not sedevacantist but rather sede-impeditist.
Good golly indeed. Not to worry, this group is operating with permission of the Bishop so there is no need to be concerned. /sarcasm
Understood about Romero's cause. But this icon appeared at least 15 years ago, and, in any case, it's not a "done deal" yet where the "Saint" title can be presumed.
Do you give us a link or two on Pax Christi dissent --- not just political wrongheadedness, which is stupid but not heretical --- but actual offenses against the Catholic faith?
You and I often disagree but NOT on the Paulist Center. God bless you and yours.
This might be a start for you. I haven't done a web search yet.
| Pax Christi (cited in Renew 2000) |
This group may be the most widely recognized leftist organization to American Catholics. Long a proponent of nonviolence, Pax Christi promotes "action to transform structures of society." Aligned with liberation theology, "ecological justice," and the usual litany of modernist demands. A member of Catholic Organizations for Renewal. |
The Archdiocese is quite aware. They just don't care enough to do anything other than fulminate back to these groups if they bother to write the Archbishop a letter calling him to task. In fact, they like it that all the "trouble makers" are voluntarily leaving, which leaves them a much freer hand to implement the continued destruction of God's vineyard.
the suggestion that the Holy Trinity Indult community should go into schism
It was a joking suggestion. But also half-serious to point out the sadness of the situation.
we will not sin ourselves by becoming schismatic
Its impossible to be in a situation of the sin of schism when it involves people like Bishop Lennon who are themselves clearly not spiritual members of the vine of Christ which is the Church, even though these dead limbs have yet to be visibly pruned, because their every action aims towards the decomposition of the Church. One should not fear a lack of communion with the reprobate. Lets not forget that these men are the coddlers of child molestors, the lovers of homosexual Priests, the implementers of "talking about touching", the closers of Churches, and the facilitators and encouragers of iconoclasm and eucharistic blasphemy, and the enablers of abortionists and their political supporters. To be their enemy is a badge of honor.
The Archdiocese is quite aware. They just don't care enough to do anything other than fulminate back to these groups if they bother to write the Archbishop a letter calling him to task. In fact, they like it that all the "trouble makers" are voluntarily leaving, which leaves them a much freer hand to implement the continued destruction of God's vineyard.
the suggestion that the Holy Trinity Indult community should go into schism
It was a joking suggestion. But also half-serious to point out the sadness of the situation.
we will not sin ourselves by becoming schismatic
Its impossible to be in a situation of the sin of schism when it involves people like Bishop Lennon who are themselves clearly not spiritual members of the vine of Christ which is the Church, even though these dead limbs have yet to be visibly pruned, because their every action aims towards the decomposition of the Church. One should not fear a lack of communion with the reprobate. Lets not forget that these men are the coddlers of child molestors, the lovers of homosexual Priests, the implementers of "talking about touching", the closers of Churches, and the facilitators and encouragers of iconoclasm and eucharistic blasphemy, and the enablers of abortionists and their political supporters. To be their enemy is a badge of honor.
It would be nice if the protesters protested their pro abortionist pols as strongly in the Commonwealth including their two senators.
Good point.
The archdiocese of Boston wants us to believe that:
Extremism to retain reverence and clear doctrine is evil.
But
Extremism to belittle reverence and muddle doctrines and confuse the faithful is not evil?
And I write this as one who has only been to 2 Tridentine Masses in my entire life, years ago - so I am no devotee of that Mass.
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