Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, in an acknowledgment of the widespread unhappiness
that has greeted his effort to close 82 of the 357 parishes in the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, announced yesterday that he has asked eight
prominent Catholics to review the closing process.
O'Malley did not suspend the church closings. In fact, an
The committee's leaders yesterday offered a general description of their
mandate, but said that they expected to begin making recommendations quickly
and that they expect their advice will lead to changes in the timing or other
specifics of some closing decisions. They said they could not say whether their
work might prevent the closing of individual parishes, but strongly suggested
they could recommend that O'Malley rethink some planned closings.
''I would be surprised if the archbishop didn't reconsider some," said
Peter Meade, chairman of the board of Catholic Charities in Boston, who is executive
vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
The committee is to be led by Meade and by Sister Janet Eisner, president of
In a joint interview yesterday, they stressed that they are independent of
O'Malley and are prepared to tell him that he has made mistakes if they
conclude that he has done so.
''He doesn't expect us to say he did a really great job," Eisner said.
Meade added, ''I don't think anybody thinks this group is going to be a
hosanna chorus."
No timetable has been established for the panel's review. Meade and Eisner
said they do not expect to revisit closing decisions that have been implemented,
a posture that is expected to draw criticism from some Catholics whose parishes
have closed. Meade and Eisner said they do not expect to intervene in talks
between the archdiocese and protesters in
The two added that they chose the other committee members and that O'Malley
neither rejected nor added anyone. The panel members include Jack Connors Jr.,
a major Catholic philanthropist who has become an outspoken critic of
archdiocesan management and who serves as chairman of a Catholic university,
The other members are Neal Finnegan, chairman of Citizens Bank of
Massachusetts and a former chairman of Catholic Charities; Marylou Batt, vice
president of Lesley University; and Donna Latson Gittens, chief executive of
the advertising firm Causemedia. The committee includes two archdiocesan
employees -- Monsignor Dennis Sheehan, pastor of St. Paul Church in Cambridge,
and Jeanne Lafond, the pastoral associate at St. Patrick Church in Brockton.
At least one member of the committee, Latson Gittens, belongs to a parish
that is scheduled to close. Latson Gittens worships at St. John-St. Hugh in
Roxbury, which is scheduled to be closed in a de facto merger with another
closing Roxbury parish, St. Francis de Sales-St. Philip.
O'Malley declined to be interviewed yesterday, but said in a written
statement: ''I have known from the beginning that the consolidation of parishes
would be painful to the people directly affected. I believe at this point in
the process that I can benefit from an external review of the reconfiguration
begun last January. I hope that an assessment of the past by this committee
will lead them to make suggestions that will help us to improve the
process."
Critics of the closings were taken aback by yesterday's development and
questioned how much influence the panel will have over a process that is well
underway and is scheduled to be largely completed by the end of the year.
''The problem is the current schedule is so accelerated, with all the
closings to be completed 2 months from now, that this is putting an awful lot
of pressure on the committee," said Secretary of State William F. Galvin,
whose own parish, Our Lady of the Presentation in Brighton, closed Aug. 30.
''Clearly, there is discontent, and that's obvious to everybody, including the
archbishop. But you'd have thought you'd review it earlier than this. I'm more
puzzled than anything else."
The process to close parishes began last December, when O'Malley, then five
months into his tenure as archbishop, launched what he calls a ''parish
reconfiguration," saying that a shortage of priests, worshipers, and
dollars necessitate the closing of a large number of parishes. He announced in
May a list of parishes to be closed and closed the first, Sacred Heart in
Medford, on July 25.
Thus far, the archdiocese has closed 28 parishes, largely without incident.
Parishioners at St. Alphonsus in
But two closed parishes,
A spokesman for the
''We understand from news reports that the review won't include parishes
that have closed," he said. ''For someone who's supposed to be so
sensitive to people's needs, I can't imagine that Archbishop O'Malley can't see
the cruelty inherent in establishing a committee to review the reconfigeration
process, which explicitly excludes those parishes which have been harmed and
have suffered so much. It's another form of abuse."
Many closing parishes have filed canonical appeals to O'Malley, who has thus
far declined to overturn any decisions to close, and some parishes have
appealed to the
Meade and Eisner said that because they have not yet met with the full
committee, they did not know exactly how the panel would conduct its review,
how often it would meet, whether it would issue written recommendations, how
laypeople and clergy might interact with the committee, and whether any
recommendations would be public.
But they said they expected to meet with the other members of the committee
soon, to act quickly, and to communicate with O'Malley regularly. And they said
the expect to have an immediate impact.
Both said O'Malley is right to close parishes, even if the specifics are
debated.
''The archbishop would be irresponsible in the extreme if he weren't looking
at how we resize the diocese. There is no rational way we can continue with the
number of parishes we have," Meade said.
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
Bella English of the Globe staff contributed to this report.