With youthful energy, a parish holds onto hope
Buoyed by its active kids, St. Albert's fights closing
Second in an occasional series about a parish facing its closing
WEYMOUTH -- OK, so they're in a bit of a slump. An 0-7 slump, to be exact. The junior girls' softball team from St. Albert the Great lost again Tuesday night, this time to St. Brendan's of Dorchester. While they played, the pastoral council sat a few blocks away, in the church rectory, trying to stanch a bigger loss -- the loss of their church.
They're hiring lawyers, holding rallies, and raising money. It has come to this: St. Albert's is seeking legal recourse to keep its doors open. The church is one of 65 targeted to close by year's end in a reconfiguration plan that Archbishop Sean O'Malley says is the result of declining attendance, financial problems, the poor condition of many buildings, and a shortage of priests. St. Albert's meets none of those
criteria; nonetheless, the archdiocese has said that Weymouth can no longer support five Catholic churches and has set a Sept. 1 closing date. Friends of St. Albert's has been formed, with a goal of raising at least $75,000 for a legal and media fund. "We're done exploring. Now is the time for action," says council member Mary Akoury. Indeed, the next morning, real estate appraisers came to the church to take stock of the property.
The girls' softball team playing across the street from the church symbolizes the new St. Albert's, the one resurrected by the arrival of the Rev. Ron Coyne in March 2002. It was a terrible time at St. Albert's and in the archdiocese: The sex abuse crisis had just exploded, leaving Catholics stunned, outraged, and looking at the clerical collar with a newfound suspicion. But Coyne made a point of donning his "Snoopy" vestments and going into every classroom to talk to the kids and their parents.
The parish's former priest didn't relate to children. He'd ban fidgety kids from Mass and chide their parents. He yelled at altar servers. That attitude, coupled with the sex scandal, caused parents to leave the church and take their children with them. But within a few months of Coyne's arrival, the pews were full again, and the religious education program now has nearly 300 children registered.
But when the church announced a workshop for parents on how to protect their children from abusive priests, not one person showed up. "We assumed everyone would come," says John Hammel, the religious education coordinator. "At first, we said, `What's wrong?' Then we figured it out. The parents trusted us. They felt their kids were safe here."
Coyne knows that children are the future of the church. For 31 years, he has run church-related youth athletic programs in Dorchester. The word among the kids is that Father Coyne is cool. He's "the man." "Really awesome." "My very favorite person." Perhaps the highest accolade came from one 11-year-old: "His homilies are interesting." Another youngster said simply, "I love him."
It's true that Coyne has made an effort to know each one's name and their interests. He drops in on most of the parish games and religious instruction classes. But more important, he's started an array of activities: three girls' softball teams, a boys' hockey team, and a color guard. He enrolls the children in intramural "Olympics" and track and field meets. There are lip-synch and karaoke contests, dances with DJs, trips to Water Country and
To Coyne, who as a youngster was president of his parish's Catholic Youth Organization, all of this is a no-brainer. "Older people are worried about their children not going to church and their grandchildren not being baptized. They want to do all they can to attract them. And the children are saying the Catholic Church doesn't speak to their lives. I realized I had an ability to attract young people to the church through activities, through CYO sports . . . that engage them spiritually, athletically, and emotionally. I was brought up that way, so I know what it's like to be able to center your life around the church as a kid, and as a teenager."
Debbie Doyle is in charge of the All Saints color guard, which now has 30 girls, including one of her teenage daughters. The team practices a couple of times a week and competes all over the state, taking third place this year. "The kids get teamwork, exercise, and friendship," says Doyle, unsure of what will become of the team should St. Albert's close.
"I don't want to think about it," she says. Her 13-year-old daughter, Samantha, is set to start confirmation classes in September -- where, they're not sure. "Her class has been together since second grade. The kids are very upset." Says Samantha: "We're going to go to different churches and be all split up. It's going to be difficult to adjust."
It's a refrain heard constantly these days, as the uncertain future causes headaches and heartaches among parents and children. "We just don't know about the ability of the other parishes to meet the needs of providing religious education to hundreds of kids in our program," says Colin Riley, who has two daughters. "It's the ruination of what'd been a growing and improving religious education program." Some of the Weymouth parishes, he says, have recommended home religious lessons for the St. Albert's children.
Kerin Riley and Amanda Nelson, both 14, were baptized and had their first Communion at St. Albert's, but they don't know where they'll be confirmed. "They've sent letters to the other churches in town asking if they can take our class, but some of them are already full," says Amanda. "It's kind of like they're shunning us because we're getting kicked out of our church."
But the children aren't just sitting around waiting to be kicked out. When word came that St. Albert's was to close, they donned their softball shirts, their hockey jerseys, their color guard jackets, their Communion outfits and veils, and their confirmation clothes, formed a circle around the church, and prayed for it to be saved. They held signs: "Save Our Church" and "Let the Children Be Heard."
If their parents are angry, so are they. Jennifer Arens is the teen representative on the pastoral council. She's 19 and just finished her freshman year at Boston College. "It's devastating to have this church close," she says. "It's coming at a time when everyone had such faith in our parish. The kids appreciate all the activities because it's not something their parents are forcing them to do, like religious education."
The parents appreciate it, too. "Parents are just so thrilled to see their children in healthy activities," Coyne says. "It's wonderful to see parents are still willing to trust the church enough and trust me enough as a priest to allow their children to be together here."
At a recent St. Albert's Appreciation Day -- set before news of the closing came -- there was a children's session and an adults-only session. From 1 to 3 p.m., some 600 children and their parents showed up. When the adult party began at 4 p.m., another 1,400 people came. In last Sunday's bulletin, Coyne wrote he began the day eating chicken fingers with the kids and ended 10 hours later "doing the twist to `We Are Family.' "
