Thursday, 4:30 PM
Local Catholics align with others to keep churches open
By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff
Dissident Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston have joined parishioners in New York in the struggle to keep open some of the 21 churches slated to be closed there and are working with groups in Ohio and Arizona to encourage resistance to parish closings nationwide.
The Council of Parishes and Voice of the Faithful, two Boston-based organizations critical of the Catholic hierarchy, are providing information and advice to some of the parishes scheduled to close by March 1 in the Archdiocese of New York.
Peter Borre, cochairman of the Council of Parishes, is credited by New York parishioners with helping them prepare to resist the closings, based on the Boston-area protests. how many in Boston have done it??
"We called Peter to help us in this because he has experience," said Carmen M. Villegas, one of six women arrested Monday night at Our Lady Queen of the Angels in East Harlem, where police and private security guards terminated attempts by about 40 parishioners to start a Boston-style occupation.
"Peter is helping us get organized; he is instrumental," said Villegas, who added, in a phone interview, that one of the police officers who helped break up the vigil told parishioners "the diocese is furious at us that we brought that man in."
Though the vigil was broken up, the parishioners scored what they consider a public relations coup, as New York television stations broadcast black-clad private security personnel pushing poor Hispanic parishioners and journalists out of the church.
A vigil at another New York church, Our Lady of the Rosary in Yonkers, was broken up Sunday. Two people were arrested there.
John Moynihan, spokesman for Voice of the Faithful, said his organization has been heavily involved in organizing New York parishes, since a long list of proposed closings was announced there last spring.
He said that Voice of the Faithful worked particularly closely with the two churches where parishioners launched vigils and were thwarted last weekend, helping them make practical preparations for what were expected to be long occupations.
Borre said the Council of Parishes, Voice of the Faithful, and several organizations that seek to reform the Catholic Church from within are discussing how they can cooperate to help local parishes resist closure orders from the church hierarchy.
Some of them plan to hold a public event outside the now-closed Our Lady Queen of Angels on Feb. 25.
Before the protest and arrests, that was the original date of the last Mass to be celebrated in the East Harlem church.
The event is expected to feature statements of solidarity from other parishes throughout the country, a speech by Villegas, the leader of the closed church, and prayer.
If a priest can be found to officiate, a Mass will be held in the street outside the closed church, Borre said.
Sister Christine Schenk, executive director of the Ohio-based organization FutureChurch -- which advocates preservation of parishes, ordination of women priests, and voluntary celibacy for male priests -- said Tuesday that she was in discussions with Borre but that the organization "almost certainly" would back the effort.
Robert Kaiser, founder of the Phoenix-based organization www.takebackourchurch.org, said his group would not participate in the New York event. He said but that he agrees with Borre and the other groups demanding that Catholic parishioners be empowered and that the powers of the clergy be curbed.
Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com.
