by Carole Anne Scott

The process of parish closings in the Archdiocese of Boston began in 1985 under Cardinal Law and ultimately resulted in downsizing by 47 parishes. Continuing this practice due to perceived necessity, Archbishop Sean O'Malley has appointed Bishop Richard Lennon to oversee a committee that will mandate further shutdowns.

The Archdiocese has cited a number of factors as the rationale behind the proposed reconfiguration, including shifts in population, the shortage of priests, the lack of vocations to the priesthood, the decline in attendance at Mass, and the costs of upkeep for church buildings currently in disrepair.

For generations, Boston Catholics have lived and breathed at their parish level. They struggled to keep up with the mounting costs of maintaining stately and beautiful church-es, Sacred Heart included, that were built with the sweat-equity and financial sacrifices of those who have gone before us in faith. In fact, for many years, devout Catholics, when asked where they were from, would answer with the name of their parish, not their address or section of the city!

Given this backdrop, any closings will be incredibly painful. Fully understanding that fact, the Archdiocese decided to give the people some say as to which parishes will close. hi a letter on this subject distributed to all, Bishop Lennon stated the Archbishop's wish is "to address the issue in a way that affords opportunity for input from parishes and clusters and at the same time to realize an outcome in a timely fashion so that we, as the Church of Boston, may begin to move for-ward revitalized and energized."

In response to this Archdiocesan mandate, representatives of parish clusters have been busily meeting to answer the following fundamental questions by a March 8th deadline: (1) If one parish in your cluster had to close, which one should it be?; and (2) if more than one parish needs to close, how many should be closed and how would you reconfigure your remaining cluster?

Our own "Parkway Cluster" consists of Holy Name, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Theresa of Avila parishes in West Roxbury, along with Sacred Heart in Roslindale. No stranger to such difficult deliberations, Sacred Heart has already gone through a similar process when it met with St. Andrew's to work out the details of the parish merger a brief four years ago.

Sacred Heart members of the current reconfiguration committee were selected by the pastor Msgr. Kelley to represent the major segments of the parish. They are Sr. Virginia from the Parish Council, Adriana Cillo from Development, Nery Mancebo from the Spanish Community, John O'Connell from the Finance. Committee, Ellie Yuen from St. Andrew's School, Mary O'Hara from Sacred Heart School, and of course, the Monsignor as the pastor.

With each parish bringing a similar num ber of representatives to the table, a total of 28 people met each week to try to hammer out an answer to the above-mentioned questions posed by the Archdiocese. Opinions were expressed in both the large group setting and in four focus groups. The latter were comprised of members from each church and met independently to come up with recommendations. In answering the questions, the groups were asked to take into consideration factors such as the number of people receiving the sacraments at a given parish, a parish's financial health, its geographic location, and the presence or lack of a parish school, along with various intangible characteristics.

At the reconfiguration meeting held on Monday, February 23, at St. Theresa's Pavilion, the focus groups presented their reports. The session began with voices raised in prayer, singing the traditional hymn, "Come Holy Ghost." Members then stated their name and parish affiliation, also sharing with each other a gift they perceived as given them by God. Msgr. Kelley served as moderator of the meeting.

As a spokesperson for each group presented the results of their deliberations, we heard each of the four, one by one, stating the same conclusion with respect to the first question. They found it impossible to consider closing any one of the four parishes in the Parkway Cluster because they believe that each one is viable, vibrant and "essential to the greater good of the Archdiocese."

They determined that each parish was living up to its mission statement and that each one had a healthy number of people attending Mass and receiving the sacraments. The groups were unable to single out St. John's for closing simply because it does not have a parish school, citing that seemed unfair to them or to choose Sacred Heart because its financial condition was weaker than the others, citing its ethnic diversity as a strong reason for it to remain open.

The consensus was perfectly summed up in the following remark, "We complement one another and to take out one would serve no benefit "

Having heard reports from all four focus groups, as an observer, I was amazed by the level of civility and cooperation among the churches. Rumors from cluster meetings with a very different tone, held in several other parts of the Archdiocese, had reached me. Members of those groups had told me that a spirit of open warfare had prevailed, with people arguing long and hard against one another as they tried to decide which church should close.

The fourth group expressed what seemed to be the common consensus of the Parkway Cluster: "Don't divide and conquer." Being realists though, they also presented their fear that if the Cluster does not recommend a parish for closing, then the Archdiocese will have to do so without the benefit of any input.

As a possible solution against closings, members suggested making a firm commitment not to be territorial but to work together. Options included pooling of staff resources, hosting of more Cluster events, consolidating Mass schedules so that parishes offer alternating times, hiring a youth minister to work with all four churches, combining religious education programs while not necessarily holding a combined First Communion or Confirmation service, sharing space for CYO programs, and creating Cluster programs for marriage preparation, for outreach to the divorced and for bereavement. Another creative concept included working with civic organizations, such as Healthy Roslindale, to reach out to the community, and especially its youth.

Playing the proverbial devil's advocate as moderator, Msgr. Kelley then asked some difficult questions, including what would happen if the parish numbers continued to decline over the next five or ten years? Should a parish be closed at that point? He suggested, "Maybe we shouldn't be so civilized."

He also politely pointed out that the Clusters have been around for about a decade and continually talk about working together without making dramatic strides toward that end. He stated his fear that despite the proposals on working together, this too might just turn out to be "the same old thing," with no real changes made.

In the final challenge of the evening, Mon-signor requested the members to go home and pray about the answers to the questions, He provided them with a handout containing a "Prayer of Discernment Explaining how the process works, he asked them to consider quite honestly and fearlessly the reasons against doing some-thing and to make a list of them. Then reflect and pray, placing the problem before God while sorting out true inner feelings.

The same exercise is then repeated only with a listing made of the reasons for a certain course of action. After praying again, the pros and cons are reevaluated, again in a prayerful mode.

Msgr. Kelley explained that the members nominated to serve on the Parish Pastoral Council at Sacred Heart go through this discernment process and find that it really works in reaching a decision.

After a week of discernment, the Committee members returned, resolute in their decision that no one of the four parishes in the Cluster should be closed, but that all four should continue to explore new options for optimally working together. The reasons they cited for not closing included the following: "Each of our churches is high on the list of pastoral activity in the entire diocese. The four parishes are in the top 20% of parish activity [with respect to] baptisms, marriages, and funerals. We have four parochial schools with 1,823 students in grades K-1 to 8 and four education programs with 1,330 young people [enrolled in] grades 1-12." Also cited was the common consensus that the presence of small and large parishes is complementary.

In taking this stance, the Parkway Cluster was not all that unique. It seems that a full twenty percent of the Clusters decided on a similar position, refusing to recommend any parish for closing, either because all seemed to be viable, as in the case of our Cluster, or because reconfiguration committee members were unable to agree on which one should be singled out for shutdown. .

Which parishes will survive remains to be seen, but should be unveiled about two months from now. Regardless of what decisions are made, many longtime parishioners and devout Catholics will be wounded to see their parish church closing.

In a November conversation with Archbishop Sean O'Malley, I pointed out that people live at their parish level and losing their parish would be incredibly painful for them. He replied that they can still live at that level, but that he might be asking them to live there at a different parish.

Hopefully, everyone will be able to make that transition. In these difficult days, that is our most heartfelt prayer.