At St. Ambrose, will the beat go on?

On Adams Street, tucked away from the bustle of Fields Corner, St. Ambrose Church gives off a quiet vibration, says the Rev. Vincent Von Euw, its pastor.

''If you have any kind of intuitive knowledge, you feel it," Von Euw says of the building, which is the hub of Dorchester's Spanish-speaking Catholic community.

But following the harrowing cluster meetings between Catholic churches in the neighborhood, in which lay leaders and pastors were asked by the archbishop to decide which among them should close, St. Ambrose now finds itself at the center of a storm. There are conflicting reports about which churches are on different closure lists, and, in total, fully 10 out of 12 of the neighborhood's parishes are being recommended to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley as candidates for shutting down or merging.

When the archdiocese's northern Dorchester cluster -- which also includes St. Margaret's, St. Christopher's, St. William's, and St. Peter's -- voted in February to rank the churches in order of which two should close first if necessary, St. Ambrose just missed being one of the two. Last week, the archdiocese released a second list, of 37 churches being considered for closing in addition to the 100 previously named. The only church of the five from northern Dorchester spared from that second list was St. Ambrose.

In a confusing twist, two of the Dorchester churches that had been on the original list were named again on the slate of supposedly new listings. Also, despite reports to the contrary by cluster members who had voted on the original list, the Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocesan spokesman, says St. Ambrose name was placed on that first listing of 100 parishes.

The only two Dorchester parishes that have never been on any known closure list are St. Gregory's and St. Ann's. The archdiocese is expected to announce which churches will close May 25.

But Von Euw says he hasn't gotten word from the archdiocese that St. Ambrose was ever on any list, and is not worried that his church will be closed.

''There's something special about this place," says Von Euw, seated in an armchair in the sunny front sitting room of the rectory. ''It's an oasis in the inner-city --cars slow down when they drive by."

A former missionary in Peru, the West Roxbury-born, Spanish-speaking Von Euw was assigned to the church 13 years ago to serve Fields Corner's burgeoning Latino community.

He says the first St. Ambrose church was built in 1914 on the ashes of a former nunnery, which had been razed by arsonists from the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party. That building was leveled, also by arson, in the 1980s. The good vibes Von Euw attributes to the building, he says, are a spiritual byproduct of this sad history.

But the cluster meeting process, he says, was not for the sensitive of heart.

''We always opened up the cluster meetings with a prayer, but we never really prayed. We never got into the real washing of each other's feet. We never got past our own agendas," says Von Euw. ''We all left disillusioned, unfulfilled. The voting process was manipulative and rushed."

Von Euw says he was troubled by what he felt was a racist undertone in the proceedings.

It especially upset him that St. William's was ranked the first to close by the cluster, because he says that Vietnamese parishioners there are ''on the brink of becoming integrated" into church leadership.

Von Euw says several of his own flock came to St. Ambrose in the early days after being told by parishioners from other neighborhood churches that they ''belong at the Spanish church down the street."

The church's Sunday Spanish-language Mass nearly fills the 500-person capacity church, according to Von Euw. And many of his longtime Spanish-speaking parishioners are now bracing to welcome newcomers, should their church stay open and others around them close.

''I don't know if we have a lot of space," jokes 41-year-old electrical contractor Marcio Fonseca, a Honduras native who has been worshipping at St. Ambrose for 16 years.

''I don't want them to feel ignored," says Fonseca. ''I want to say, 'Hey, this is your house, your home. If you come, let's walk the same hallway. Have some time in the building for your youth group.' I wouldn't hide anything. I'd say, 'This is where the utensils [are].' "

But Fonseca imagines a non-Latino might have trouble adjusting to his Spanish Mass, despite the warm welcome. The babies ''aren't put in the 'cry room,' " says Fonseca. And the songs, played on guitars and drums, are a little longer, and infused with meringue.

The time allotted during Mass for the ''Kiss of Peace" has been abbreviated though, due to a recent decree by church officials to cut it short, Fonseca says sadly.

''Altar boys want to come down to see their parents. And we want to give a hug and 'How are you?' Now we try to go right to the left, front, and back," he says. ''I think it shouldn't bother Jesus. He wants us to greet each other and give a kiss. Maybe our enemy is sitting there."