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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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.