At churches, an 8th sit-in begins amid hope, closing

Anger, hope, and sadness pervaded at Boston-area Catholic churches yesterday, where parishioners staged more sit-ins at closing churches, prayed to stave off shuttering at another, and accepted the inevitable ending at a third.

Parishioners at St. James the Great Catholic Church in Wellesley, marked for closure by the Archdiocese of Boston, refused to leave their church after its last Mass yesterday. One of 83 parishes scheduled for suppression by the archdiocese this year, it became the eighth whose members are physically protesting closure.

Parishioners at St. Peter Lithuanian Church in South Boston built a shrine and prayed for deliverance, while members of nearby St. Augustine Church wiped away tears and shut its doors, perhaps forever.

Also yesterday, the archdiocese announced that it would ultimately create one parish in Charlestown to replace the three existing parishes in that neighborhood.

The new parish would be headed by the Rev. James Ronan, which means that one of the toughest critics of the parish closing process, the Rev. Robert J. Bowers, would be removed as pastor of St. Catherine of Siena.

Ronan would head St. Mary's Parish in the short term, but the announcement also said he would take the helm of St. Francis de Sales Parish, whose pastor is near retirement age, and St. Catherine in the next year. The archdiocese had initially planned to close St. Catherine and leave St. Mary's and St. Francis open.

At St. James, parish council vice chairwoman Suzanne Hurley said parishioners are generally frustrated with the way the archdiocese is making decisions on parish closings. Like protesters elsewhere, about 40 people plan to take turns staying in the church for ''as long as it takes," she said.

St. James parishioners remain faithful to their church, but are upset with leaders, she said. ''They still don't listen, and they're still incapable of change."

Church officials will not attempt to physically remove parishioners, said Ann Carter, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

''The archdiocese is aware of the situation," Carter said. ''There is no plan to take any action at this time. As with every closing parish, the archdiocese will attempt to talk to parishioners, so they understand the reason for the closing of the church."

On Friday, about 50 parishioners at Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Parish in Brookline started taking turns keeping a vigil, a day before their church was set to close.

''The plan is to do this until something changes," parish council member Warren Hutchison said. ''We hope the archdiocese realizes this reconfiguration process is a failure. They have to go back and just stop the process."

Parishioners at St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, St. Anselm in Sudbury, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Boston, St. Bernard in West Newton, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, and St. Therese in Everett are locked in a similar standoff with the archdiocese.

Carter said she did not know when officials might visit St. James or the status of the church's appeal. The archdiocese has 30 days from Oct. 12, when the appeal was sent, to respond.

Members began planning the vigil last weekend, Hurley said. She posted signup sheets around the church, but they were taken down, she said. A group of independent members met Thursday and decided to take action.

Church members are upset with the suppression because the half-century-old, Colonial-style church is financially independent and sits on 8 acres of prime Route 9 land, near the Natick line, Hurley said. Members suspect that the archdiocese wants to profit from the land, she said.

Hurley is also upset that the archdiocese appointed an administrator for the parish, rather than a new pastor, in July 2003, after the church's previous pastor retired, long before its local cluster recommended it for closing.

Many families have left the church, reducing its roughly 560-person membership to 260, because the church cut its religious education programs, she said. ''They didn't leave St. James; the archdiocese left St. James."

Hurley said she is not sure how long parishioners can sleep in the church, but she knows what they want. ''We would like to see St. James remain a place of worship," she said. ''We would like to develop an archdiocese that is capable of change . . . and that is empathetic to its parishioners."

St. Peter Lithuanian Church in South Boston, also on the list of churches to be closed, is seeking empathy from the archdiocese as well. Yesterday, hundreds gathered at the church for a candlelight vigil and prayed.

Members have not yet received an official closing date, said Mirga Girnius, a parish council member. She hopes they won't get one, but they're prepared to occupy the church if they do, she said. The century-old church is self-supporting and was built by Lithuanian immigrants, she said. Parishioners hope it will be spared because it is a community center, as well as a religious home, she said.

Children and adults covered the church's front railing yesterday in wood, straw, and flower crosses covered in rosary beads, depictions of Jesus, family names, pictures, and pom-poms representing the colors of Lithuania. A few blocks away, at another South Boston church that is closing, longtime members accepted their fate.

St. Augustine Church, established in 1868, held its final Mass yesterday afternoon. Hundreds of worshipers filled the pews, many dabbing their eyes during Communion, given by the Rev. Richard Casey, the church's pastor. St. Augustine's will combine with nearby St. Monica Catholic Church to form St. Monica-St. Augustine Church on Old Colony Avenue.

The old church, with its food pantry and former school, has served the poor and handicapped for years, Casey said. ''It is with a very heavy heart that we say it is time for this church to close," he said.

A Saturday afternoon Mass will continue at the church's cemetery chapel, mostly for elderly residents who cannot walk the half-mile to the new church, he said.

Yesterday, outside St. Augustine's, with its peeling paint and blackened bricks, many members said they planned to give the new church a try.

''I think it's a sad day, a disappointing day," said parish council member Ed Flynn, 36, of South Boston. ''But people want to continue to go to church."