Handmade crosses show parish's will to survive

Andrea Bonfiglio (right) placed rosary beads on a cross outside St. Casimir Church Thursday, as John Drusinkas looked on. The number of crosses has grown to about four dozen and is rising. (WIQAN ANG FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

BROCKTON - Along the sidewalk in front of St. Casimir Church, a plain white cross has been fastened to the chain-link fence with a multicolored plastic rosary.

A few feet down is a cross fashioned from unpainted boards and twist-ties.

In the flowerpots, alongside the pink and white geraniums, are crosses made from sticks and twigs.

And by the back door, on yet another cross, someone has scrawled, "Please, Dear God, have mercy on us, and help us to keep our church and our parish."

After 11 months without a parish closing in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, St. Casimir's, a small parish established in 1898, is slated to close in the next month.

Already, it is a bit of a sad sight. On Friday morning, not a soul was around. The red schoolhouse, shuttered last year, was quiet. The church door was locked. And along the parking lot fence, flies were feasting on the rotting carcass of a bluebird.

But in an unusual expression of resistance, the Lithuanian-American community of Brockton has begun planting crosses in the ground around the church, about four dozen so far and rising.

There are crosses made of boards and planks and fenceposts, of sticks and twigs, some roughly broken and others neatly sawed, attached not only with plastic rosaries and twist-ties, but also with nails and screws and twine. The crosses are mounted on the fence and stuck into the lawn and are thickest around the memorial "to those who died."

For the last 50 years or so, St. Casimir has been an ethnic, or national, parish, dedicated by the archdiocese to serve Lithuanian-American Catholics. The two weekend Masses are both said in English, but one reading and the Lord's Prayer is said in Lithuanian. The parish also celebrates several Lithuanian holidays, holds events such as a recent fund-raiser for Lithuanian children, and claims the first chapter of the Knights of Lithuania, a fraternal order.

The crosses on the church lawn are meant to echo the Hill of Crosses, a popular pilgrimage site in Lithuania that represents resistance to Russian occupation of the homeland, but has become a symbol of Lithuanian Catholicism. Here in Brockton, the evolving collection of makeshift crosses is meant to evoke resistance to the Archdiocese of Boston.

A group of unhappy parishioners has affiliated with the Council of Parishes, a coalition of Catholics protesting parish closings. The council is supporting a variety of forms of legal challenges to the closings, as well as, in five instances, round-the-clock occupations, called vigils, of closed churches by protesters.

The cochairman of the council, Peter Borre, said the group is concerned that the archdiocese is embarking on another round of closings.

"We in the Council of Parishes consider this the opening round of another series of parish closings, and, unlike what happened four years ago with the simultaneous announcement of 83 parishes, this time it is proceeding quietly and stealthily," Borre said. "Four years ago, 274 parishes drew a sigh of relief and thought they had dodged the bullet, but that's not the case today."

But a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, Terrence C. Donilon, said "we are not gearing up for another round of closures."

The archdiocese, citing dwindling numbers of priests and worshipers and financial woes, began a concerted effort to consolidate parishes in 2004 and reduced the overall number to 294 from 357 through scores of often controversial closings and mergers.

But the archdiocese closed just two parishes last year, St. Patrick in Groveland and St. Philip Neri in Newton, and anticipates closing two this year, St. Casimir in Brockton and Holy Trinity in Boston's South End, Donilon said.

The archdiocese says St. Casimir's must close because it is too small. The parish reported an average weekend attendance of 161, low for a Catholic parish, and just one wedding and two funerals in the last archdiocesan census. There are four other Catholic parishes in Brockton.

"There are very low numbers of people attending the church, incredible capital needs, and parishes in the vicinity that can serve the greater Catholic community," Donilon said. "The mission of St. Casimir Parish is complete, and we are working with parishioners to begin to transition them to one of the other parishes."

Parishioners are planning to meet today to decide what to do next. Blue fliers reading, "Help Save Our Parish," are all around the church building.

"Any form of civil disobedience is not on the table," said John Drusinskas, who was the top layperson on St. Casimir 's parish council at the parish until the council was abolished by the archdiocese. "We are a very conservative faith-based community, and even the discussion of a vigil has not come up yet."

Drusinskas, who was baptized at the parish and has been a member throughout his life, is now leading a group of parishioners challenging the closing by appealing for reconsideration by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley. If that fails, they plan to appeal to the Vatican.

"We're a very tightknit group, both with our community and with our parish, and the majority of our parishioners are against going to a larger parish," Drusinskas said.

The closing of St. Casimir would leave just one Lithuanian parish in the archdiocese, St. Peter in South Boston. That parish was slated to close in 2004, but an angry parishioner confronted O'Malley during a visit to the church, at which point, overcome with emotion, O'Malley abruptly left.

The next year O'Malley reversed the decision to close St. Peter's, and now the archdiocese is asking that parish to help Lithuanian Catholics in Brockton.

"The pastor and parish at St. Peter's in South Boston welcome the opportunity to assist and work with the Lithuanian community in Brockton in any way during this period of transition," Donilon said.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

Correction: A story in the City & Region section last Sunday incorrectly described the changed status of the former St. Patrick Parish in Groveland. The parish did not close, but rather was merged with Sacred Hearts Parish of Haverhill. The new parish is called Sacred Hearts, but Sunday Masses and other services continue to take place at both the Sacred Hearts and St. Patrick churches.