Dear Bishop Sean O'Malley,

       Sacred Heart Parish Lexington is made up of people of great and varied backgrounds. There are many local parishioners and many who travel to participate in the parish. They chose Sacred Heart for a number of reasons: beautiful liturgies, wonderful choirs, caring and educational religious youth programs, genuine concern for the needy both locally and in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, a very successful Habitat for Humanity program are a few of the visible programs.

        People are also genuinely attracted by intangibles like: sincere friendly people, a tremendous sense of community, a sincere and deep commitment to each other and numerous Catholic causes.

         As well as the model behavior described above, Sacred Heart parishioners have behaved in a fiscally responsible manner. We pay our own way and we contribute to the Archdiocese at a very generous level.

         It is very callous, uncaring, arrogant policy to close a parish with such a wonderful record. The bishop and priests can profess that this is not a money decision but the facts tell a different story. We have all struggled with the incredible abuse scandal and the even more incredible facts of the coverup. The hierarchy further displays their arrogance by appointing the most recent leader of this incredible saga a prestigious position in Rome. Was it necessary to make this announcement less than 24 hours after delivering the fatal Fed-Ex. letters? What kind of flock would ever believe what the Church is selling after two such incredible blows?

        Very personally, these events have shaken my faith in any decisions coming from the administration. I will always believe in God but will never again be able to display unfathomable faith in the church.

         Why is it so difficult to revert to earlier Christianity? Married priests are not the whole answer but they go a long way towards solving two major issues. Why not a radical solution like female priests for obviously radical problems.

                                         Respectfully submitted by a caring lifetime Catholic

Lexington, MA 02421