New Orleans Police Clear Parish Vigils, by Michael Paulson, Boston Globe

New Orleans Police Clear Parish Vigils

By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe - Articles of Faith
January 7, 2009

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/01/new_orleans_pol.html

[Blogging an article in the Times-Picayune.]

For more than four years, the Archdiocese of Boston has quietly (more or less) stood by as some Catholics have resisted the closings of their beloved parishes by refusing to leave the pews. Five parishes closed by the archdiocese are still occupied -- in East Boston, Everett, Framingham, Scituate and Wellesley -- while several other round-the-clock vigils have ended in response to concessions by the archdiocese. The archdiocese here is now waiting for the Vatican to rule on appeals of the closings filed by parishioners; church officials have not said what they will do if, as expected, the Vatican upholds the closings.

But the New Orleans archdiocese -- headed by Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes, a West Roxbury native who served as vicar general of the Archdiocese of Boston under Cardinal Bernard F. Law --- has taken a decidedly different approach. Last night the New Orleans archdiocese allowed police to clear two occupied parishes. Here's an excerpt from the Times-Picayune story:

"New Orleans police evicted parishioners from two Uptown Catholic churches Tuesday and delivered the buildings back into the hands of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, apparently ending a 72-day standoff that began when parishioners moved into the churches and occupied them around the clock to save them from closure.

Accompanied by lawyers from the city attorney's office, police arrived almost simultaneously at Our Lady of Good Counsel on Louisiana Avenue and at St. Henry Church, about a mile away on Gen. Pershing Street, around 10:30 a.m.

People at St. Henry said police knocked at the locked door, were allowed entry and told three protesting parishioners to leave or face a civil summons or arrest. Among the three was Madeline Morris, the widow of former Police Superintendent Henry Morris, said Alden Hagardorn, a St. Henry leader.

However, police and church officials had to force their way into Good Counsel, either battering down or sawing an opening in a side door, parishioners said."

In Boston, three people were arrested in 2004 -- one for refusing to leave Immaculate Conception Church in Winchester, and two for refusing to leave Sacred Heart Parish in South Natick. And in New York, six people were arrested for resisting the closing of an East Harlem church in 2007.

(Photo above, by Alex Brandon/AP, shows a New Orleans police officer (at left) placing a parishioner (at right) in the back of a police car outside Our Lady of Good Counsel parish yesterday.)