Church closings
May. 25th, 2004 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodihttp://www.boston.com/news/specials/parishes/closings/
My grandmother's church is safe, phew! They are closing St. Joseph's i.e. the French church. This is going to be a huge blow to the large Haitian community in Waltham . . . I'm not sure where they'll go for masses in French. What I'd consider my "home" church (where I went to school for 5 years, made my confirmation, and was married) is safe. I figured that St. Patrick's in Watertown would make it through (the other Catholic one in Watertown, Sacred Heart, will be closed).
On another note, the church I was baptized at and made my first communion at, St. James the Great on Rt 9 in Wellesley will be closing. That was our parish until we moved (I was 9) and we were pretty active, going to mass each week, joining the congregation for breakfast in the lower church after mass, participating in fund raisers, and attending many a holiday craft fair. Its these craft fairs that make me so sentimental for church fairs come holiday-time, and make me want to go to them. Damn. I guess its a good thing they were still open 5+ years ago when we got married . . . I had to get my baptismal record from them to get married (and even *with* the church open, it took forever to get it). My brother and sister were baptized there too - I wonder where the records will go after closing?
I'm sure they have been having problems for a while - they leased out a large part of their parking lot to a nearby car dealer for storage. I spent a lot of time of my youth riding my bike in that parking lot.
My grandmother's church is safe, phew! They are closing St. Joseph's i.e. the French church. This is going to be a huge blow to the large Haitian community in Waltham . . . I'm not sure where they'll go for masses in French. What I'd consider my "home" church (where I went to school for 5 years, made my confirmation, and was married) is safe. I figured that St. Patrick's in Watertown would make it through (the other Catholic one in Watertown, Sacred Heart, will be closed).
On another note, the church I was baptized at and made my first communion at, St. James the Great on Rt 9 in Wellesley will be closing. That was our parish until we moved (I was 9) and we were pretty active, going to mass each week, joining the congregation for breakfast in the lower church after mass, participating in fund raisers, and attending many a holiday craft fair. Its these craft fairs that make me so sentimental for church fairs come holiday-time, and make me want to go to them. Damn. I guess its a good thing they were still open 5+ years ago when we got married . . . I had to get my baptismal record from them to get married (and even *with* the church open, it took forever to get it). My brother and sister were baptized there too - I wonder where the records will go after closing?
I'm sure they have been having problems for a while - they leased out a large part of their parking lot to a nearby car dealer for storage. I spent a lot of time of my youth riding my bike in that parking lot.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-25 01:23 pm (UTC)now that church is also closing. (immaculate conception parish, cambridge)
guess they'll all be heading over to tip o'neill's old church in cambridge.
what a shame...
my bet is that the records will go to the new parish that takes on the closed ones.
From his speech
Date: 2004-05-25 03:59 pm (UTC)From www.rcab.org
Date: 2004-05-25 04:03 pm (UTC)From among the 357 parishes of the Archdiocese, there are 126 Ethnic/Hispanic Worshipping Communities. These consist of 41 “personal parishes” (parishes that were established to serve the needs of a particular group of people) and 85 “ethnic communities” (recognized communities of various ethnic backgrounds that worship [usually in their own language] within a territorial parish or a personal parish that was established for a different group.
Thirteen personal parishes are being affected at the present time by this reconfiguration process; in only 2 of those parishes is the language of the ethnic community still used for worship. These 2 communities will need to be welcomed into a “receiving parish,” while the future needs of the other affected parishes will be discussed and those needs responded to by a neighboring parish community.
Another 18 “ethnic communities” are being affected due to the closure of the parishes in which these communities worship and carry on their pastoral life. In 9 of these cases, the local clusters made specific recommendations for the continued ministry of these communities: in one case the “combining” of 3 neighboring Hispanic communities, in another the “combining” of 2 neighboring Vietnamese communities. They feel that bringing these communities together will serve to strengthen their worship life as well as their pastoral programs and outreach. In the other instances, the clusters recommended a new parish community eager to extend hospitality and to welcome the ethnic community as a part of their parish community.
For the remaining “ethnic communities” further consultation will take place among the lay leadership of the local community, the neighboring pastors, area vicar and regional bishop. This consultation will be facilitated by the staffs of the Offices of Ethnic Apostolates and Hispanic Apostolate, under the direction of the Secretary for Pastoral Services.
In all of the above cases for both personal parishes and ethnic communities, at the conclusion of the consultation, recommendations will be brought to the Archbishop who will make pastoral decisions concerning the future care of these faithful of the Archdiocese.
Re: From www.rcab.org
Date: 2004-05-25 04:14 pm (UTC)The Ethnic Apostolates page for Haitian.
MASSES:
Sacred Heart Parish Brockton - Sacred Heart to merge and form a new parish Brockton, St. Colman of Cloyne
Immaculate Conception Church Cambridge- Closed
Our Lady of Grace Parish Chelsea - Open
St. Matthew Parish DOrchester -Open
St. Joseph Parish Hyde Park- Closed
St. Mary Parish Lynn- Open
St. Angela Parish Boston/Mattapan - Open
St. Ann Parish Somerville- Open
St. Joseph Parish Waltham -Closed
Re: From www.rcab.org
Date: 2004-05-25 05:02 pm (UTC)~Corwin
Re: From www.rcab.org
Date: 2004-05-26 05:29 am (UTC)Heh, so I guess Haitian people from Waltham will need to treck to Somerville if they want to hear a mass in French. Nice. I wonder if the community wasn't large enough to warrent making arrangements for. There are a lot of Haitian residents in Waltham, but the 'majority minority' includes Hispanic (Mexican and Puerto Rican) and Indian people. The church that holds spanish masses (St. Mary's) is probably the most well attended and most active in the city, so there was no risk of them going away.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-25 10:07 pm (UTC)Heh,
Date: 2004-05-26 05:33 am (UTC)Heh, parish? Waltham's got 5 of them (well, 4 after St. Joseph's closes).
Time will tell. The Archdiocese spelled out what would happen in other communites where French churches were closing but didn't do so for St. Joseph's. I'm wondering if they are going to just leave people on their own (perhaps in the grand scheme of Catholics in the city the Haitian population isn't large enough to worry about).
Ah well - I'm sure the residents will speak up about it, either way.