The waiting ends with a letter

MEDFORD -- At Sacred Heart Church, there was first a collective gasp, then shaking heads, then grimaces and tears. By the time he finished reading the letter from Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley announcing that the parish here must close, the Rev. Robert Doherty was crying, too.

"God is good," he told parishioners. "Let's ask for God's blessing to be with us."

At many of the 65 parishes that received bad news in letters delivered by Federal Express yesterday, anger and recriminations reigned, with parishioners and priests alike vowing to fight the closings. Church leaders in Dedham and Marlborough are among those who already have appealed to the archdiocese to reverse the decisions on closings. In other parishes, the mood was closer to resignation, as lifelong church members bowed to the inevitable.

For still other parishes that had been on the list of candidates for closure -- some of which waged aggressive campaigns to save their churches -- yesterday was an amazing reprieve, as bells rang out to celebrate the good news.

"We have been going through weeks and weeks of stress," said Sally Collura, 56, who was baptized at Sacred Heart in Waltham, where parishioners staged a letter-writing campaign against closing. Yesterday, the church found out it would remain open. "It's like having a mammogram and waiting for the results, and finding out you are OK for now."

Collura was already planning for ways to reach out to those displaced by the closing of another Waltham church. "We will hug them," she said. "I will welcome them. Everyone will."

In less fortunate parishes, some saw O'Malley's decisions as fundamentally unfair and accused the archdiocese of choosing to close successful churches because they stand on valuable real estate. Others threatened to leave the Catholic Church altogether.

The bad news may even have led to one heart attack. An elderly parishioner at St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth collapsed shortly after the closing was announced, said other members of the church. Friends took Mary Jackson to South Shore Hospital, where she was listed in fair condition in the cardiac unit.

The Rev. Robert J. Bowers of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Charlestown said he will appeal to O'Malley and possibly even to the Vatican. His said his parish, near the Bunker Hill housing development, serves about 800 people a week, a third of them Spanish-speaking immigrants, and has an active food pantry.

He was bewildered by the order to close, while Charlestown's two other parishes, which he called largely white, will remain open. "We were pretty sure we were what Sean O'Malley described as the church of the 21st century," he said. "In fact, we know we are that."

Robert Penta, a city councilor and parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in Medford, pointed out that his parish has a vibrant community and no debt. Forcing such parishes to close, he said, is "almost like an attack, to some degree, on the faithful."

"The Archdiocese is asking people to bear the brunt of their ineptitude," Penta said.

At St. Susanna in Dedham, the Rev. Stephen Josoma said he would also appeal the closing order.

"Since the sex scandal, we've seen a reverse trend in attendance: It's gone up 20 percent in two years," Josoma said. "Now were told we're closing due to low numbers, but St. Bartholomew's down the street [in Needham] has seen even lower numbers, and they're staying open."

The Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform group, held a press conference at St. Susanna yesterday afternoon, where parishioners made a plea to the archbishop to make public financial statements justifying the need to close the 65 parishes, including records of proceeds from the sale of closed parishes.

"Are there really financial health problems within our parishes and our diocese? Without answers and information, how can we accept the mass closings of our churches?" said Ed Wade, a member of the Voice of the Faithful's archdiocesan steering committee. "The archbishop says he is seeking trust. We are seeking meaningful reassurance."

Parish Council members at Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Parish in Brookline planned to meet tonight to work on an appeal. Parish Council member and architect Carlos Ferre questioned the motives of the archdiocese.

The closure "leaves Brookline with one church in this town of 60,000 people," said Ferre, 45. "I'd hate to think that the motivating reason is money. This location is prime real estate, and Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence has money."

Members of the Pastoral Council at St. Albert the Great Parish said they also planned to meet tonight to decide whether they will ask O'Malley to reconsider closing their parish, one of five in Weymouth.

If St. Albert closes, hundreds of parishioners will leave the Catholic Church for good, predicted Donald Gustafson, a Pastoral Council member. Many were disgusted by the abuse scandal, but inspired to return to Mass by a reform-minded pastor, he said.

"All the criteria they gave as reasons to select a parish to close, we didn't meet any of them," Gustafson said. "We would love to hear an explanation from the archdiocese, but I don't think we're ever going to get one."

The fight has just begun in Marlborough, said Ted Rabidou, whose Italian immigrant grandparents helped found St. Ann Parish 80 years ago. Yesterday Rabidou learned that the parish will close, but that the building will be used to house other Catholic ethnic communities.

"I have concluded that Marlborough no longer requires the presence of an Italian national parish," O'Malley wrote to Father Michael Bercik, one of the Franciscan Friars who runs St. Ann. The letter did not say which congregation would be given the 300-seat sanctuary.

Bercik already has notified the archdiocese that the parish will appeal the closure, Rabidou said.

Under canon law, parishioners and priests have 10 days from the time that they get an official decree of closing to appeal; O'Malley then has 30 days to respond. If the parishes are not satisfied with O'Malley's response, they can then ask him to forward their appeal to the Vatican for reconsideration. The archdiocese said the parish-closing schedule will not be affected by the filing of appeals.

In the past, appeals to overturn parish-closing decisions by bishops in Boston and elsewhere have almost never been successful.

And with the joy in the churches that were spared came sympathy for those who weren't so lucky.

The FedEx truck brought good news to St. Mark in Dorchester, one of the most diverse parishes in the archdiocese and one that fought against closure.

One parishioner, Cape Verde native Roberto Oliviero, 73, planted kisses on those around him. "Are you happy?" he asked, his eyes welling up with tears.

The church rang its bells, but the celebration didn't last long. As the gathering tapered off, a group of 14 filed into the church to pray the Hail Mary for those whose parishes are to be closed.

"Not everybody's getting good news today," said Carol Nesti, a teacher in the parish school.

Christine McConville, Joanna Massey, and Kathy McCabe of the Globe staff, and Globe correspondent Kellyanne Mahoney, contributed to this report.