Archdiocese defends bid to stop fund-raiser

The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston yesterday defended its failed attempt to stop a party last Saturday night at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in East Boston to raise funds for the campaign to keep the church open.

Terrence C. Donilon, the chief spokesman for Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, said the fund-raising party was an inappropriate use of the parish hall in a church that the archdiocese has closed. In addition, he said, information received by the archdiocese indicated that the number of participants at the party would exceed the permitted capacity of the hall, raising safety and insurance issues.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is one of five churches in the archdiocese where parishioners have physically resisted closure orders by occupying church buildings and holding vigils. Others are in Framingham, Wellesley, Scituate, and Everett.

''The archbishop has said, `I am not going to do anything with those pending the outcome of canonical or civil appeals and processes,' " Donilon said, ''but these are closed buildings, buildings that should not be used for anything but prayer and their vigil.

''We're not trying to be a bully," Donilon added, but ''they have to understand that some things are permissible under these circumstances, and some things are not permissible."

Members of the organization Our Lady of Mount Carmel Survivors said they were outraged at the archdiocese's attempt to stop the fund-raiser and pleased at having raised $4,500 to help keep the parish operating.

Controversy about the party began when the archdiocese's risk management and insurance office sent a letter to Gina Scalcione, president of the survivors organization, warning that there were safety problems with the building.

The archdiocese sent copies of the letter to the city health and fire departments, sparking inspections of the church by police and fire officials, though neither department shut down the party. Spokesmen for both agencies refused to comment yesterday on the archdiocesan complaint or their inspections' results.

The story was first reported in the Boston Herald.

The archdiocese is engaged in harassment, Scalcione charged yesterday, and ''is using the police and fire departments to do its dirty work."

''They didn't want us to have a party," she said. ''They didn't want us to succeed. They want us to go away, and that is not going to happen."

She asserted that the permitted capacity of the parish hall is far larger than the archdiocese says.

She also asserted that the survivors' organization has raised $30,000 and invested it in the church, making the facility far safer than it was before the final official Mass was said there last year.

The churches where vigils are in place are among 62 parishes and 40 churches that the archdiocese says it has closed because of severe economic problems, population shifts, declining attendance at Mass, and a shortage of priests. It plans to close another 14 churches but has not set dates for those closures, archdiocesan officials said yesterday.

In four of the parishes where there are vigils, including Mount Carmel, parishioners also have brought suit to have the churches declared the property of local parishioners, preventing its sale by the archdiocese.

Scalcione said the survivors organization made repairs, contacted city inspectors, and obtained a permit before the archdiocese stepped in. But they were unaware that another permit, which she called a place of assembly permit, was required from the Fire Department to hold the party.

Questions from police were resolved Friday night, she said yesterday, but ''Saturday night during the party, while we were eating, the Fire Department came in."

A Fire Department officer ''said to me, 'You're in violation, I'm going to have to clear the place,' " the 65-year-old Scalcione recalled, estimating that 190 partygoers were present at the time. ''I said, 'You just try.' He went out, called his boss, and the next thing you knew the fire commissioner was on the phone." She said a fire official stayed until nearly 11 p.m., and left without issuing orders.

''Now that we know, we will always go and get the proper permit," she said yesterday. ''They are not going to lick us."

The next event, a Christmas party, is scheduled for Dec. 2, but, she added, it may not be in the church or parish hall because of the amount of work involved in arranging an event there.