A Ground-Level View of Catholic Dissent Sparked by Crisis, by Arthur McCaffrey, Boston Globe, July 26, 2011

A Ground-Level View of Catholic Dissent Sparked by Crisis

By Arthur McCaffrey
Boston Globe
July 26, 2011

http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-26/ae/29817287_1_parish-closings-vigils-protesters

Cardinal Sean P. OMalley in 2004 implemented a program to close more than 80 church parishes. (CHITOSE SUZUKI/AP/FILE 2005)

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has probably undergone more turmoil and transformation in the last 10 years than it had in the previous 100. In 2002 Boston became ground zero for disclosures of institutional criminality shorthanded as clergy child abuse. Facing financial pressures in the wake of lawsuits over allegations of misconduct by priests, newly installed Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley implemented in 2004 a program of downsizing to close more than 80 parishes around the archdiocese, sparking anguished protests by congregations.

John Seitz was a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School between 2004 and 2008. His studies there gave him a ringside seat as O'Malley's parish closings rolled out, and, most importantly, allowed him to observe and record the birth and growth of a grass-roots resistance movement, as many parishioners formed round-the-clock vigils in attempts to keep their churches open. For the first time in the 200-year history of one of the most important Catholic archdioceses in the United States, parishioners rebelled against the diktat of Boston church leaders. Seitz's thesis project became an ethnographic study of the resisters on their home turf, documented through interviews, recordings, and actual participation in vigil shifts.