(Boston) Archbishop Wants End To Church Closings Tension

[struggle4progress]

O'Malley Must Decide Whether To Remove Protesters

POSTED: 7:01 am EDT June 20, 2005

BOSTON -- Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley wants to move quickly with the next decisions on parish closings so he can turn his attention to other issues facing the church.

O'Malley told the Boston Globe that he thinks it's best to try and end the tension related to the closings and focus on the pastoral mission of the church.

The archbishop faces several decisions -- including whether to ask police to remove protesters from closed churches that the archdiocese believes should not be reopened.

O'Malley's advisers reportedly said the archbishop needs to make tough decisions soon because the year-long controversy over parish closings is damaging the archdiocese. <snip>

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/4628157/detail.html

[lovuian]

1. Same thing is happening in St. Louis by Arch Bishop Burke!!!

the Vatican is selling its land holdings for Mega Bucks!!!

Screw the Parishioners!!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Easy solution:

Quit covering up for the pedophiles and attendance will rise so you won't have to close churches.

[Ian David]

5. Churches being closed are ones with largest Voice of The Faithful chapters

Voice of the Faithful
Statement on Who We Are
Revised Initial Working Document

Voice of the Faithful, Inc. is an organization composed of Catholics striving to be faithful to the teachings of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Joining VOTF is not a break with the Church but a commitment to strengthen and renew it. The following affirmations are not meant to be a complete statement on who we are. They are primarily a response to those who misunderstand us, including members of our Church's hierarchy and lay Catholics who misinterpret our mission and goals.

The Executive Committee of Voice of the Faithful recommended this Statement for action by the VOTF Representative Council, which remanded it on April 26, 2003 to Parish Voice affiliates for discussion and comment in preparation for further action by the Representative Council. The Statement was also reviewed by Rev. Ladislas Orsy, S.J., an advisor to Voice of the Faithful on canon law and theological matters.

* We are faithful Catholics in communion with the universal Catholic Church.
* We love and support our Church and believe what it professes.
* We accept the teaching authority of our Church, including the traditional role of the bishops and the Pope.
* We will work with our bishops, clergy, and other members to strengthen unity and human moral integrity in our Church.
* We believe that sexual abuse by clergy and the response of bishops, protecting abusers and forsaking the abused, have caused great human suffering and damaged the moral authority of our Church.
* We believe that the laity has the graced dignity, intelligence, responsibility and obligation to cooperate in Church governance in a meaningful way according to the norm of law (cf. Canon 129) to correct the profound flaws that have been revealed in the human institutional life of our Church.
* We believe that the council documents of Vatican II illuminate the pathway for lay involvement in the Church.
* We urge that the openness and mutual respect advocated by Pope John Paul II in Ut Unum Sint ("That All May Be One") be the model for meaningful dialog among bishops and laity.

More:
http://www.votf.org/Who_We_Are/statementofbeliefs.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Wow great info

thanks.

[newscott]

3. The church I was baptized in was built the year I was born

It was closed a couple years ago.

Sad thing is the parish my parents belonged to originally had a school that they were able to afford to send my sisters to. When the new parish where I was baptized was created they were told they had to pay an "out of parish" rate. Now 40 years later they're back at that church again. Comes around goes around.

[Ian David]

4. It's about time they worried about issues facing the church!

Maybe now they'll forget about issues that AREN'T facing the church... like gay marriage.

Just think how many parishes they could have kept open with all the millions they wasted on fighting gay marriage?

Not to mention all the billions they paid for the privilege of molesting children.

By the Vatican's own figures, 7% of priests in Massachusetts have been accused of molesting children.

Welcome to The Neverland Ranch... now, please pass me the incense and holy water?

---

VOTF notes NRB reports on bishops’ broken words read National Catholic Reporter story at www.ncronline.org;

Jim Post was quoted to approving readers of the Boston Globe "It is discouraging to see the archbishop Bp. Sean O’Malley/Boston, MA using archdiocesan resources to run this campaign against gay marriage and to speak out in a way that is so divisive." While acknowledging that this is not a VOTF issue, Jim noted, "we can't do our work without acknowledging the deterioration in the environment in the Catholic Church." Read the whole story in www.boston.com.
http://tinyurl.com/ddthc

More:
http://www.votf.org/vineyard/May04/




“We are seeing a pattern of words and actions emerge on the part of some bishops that ignore the wounds of the clergy sexual abuse crisis,” said Steve Krueger, executive director of Voice of the Faithful. “At a time when bishops should especially demonstrate pastoral outreach to all Catholics, recent actions excluding the participation of women in the ritual of foot washing and the divisive rhetoric expressed in our churches surrounding the constitutional debate on gay marriage have only served to create further division in these dioceses, as well as throughout the Church nationally. We need to move forward, not back. The actions and words these bishops have taken are unnecessarily painful for women and men of all ages and persuasions. Such actions are divisive, not unifying.”

More:
http://www.votf.org/Press/pressrelease/041504.html