MASSACHUSETTS
The Independent (UK)
Parishioners in Massachusetts vow to continue their 11-year sit-in and save their church from closure
DAVID USBORNE SCITUATE Sunday 14 June 2015
It was bad enough that the Archdiocese of Boston had included their church, with its full pews and healthy finances, among the 70 it was eliminating in the name of streamlining. Worse was how, when the moment came, they broke a promise to let the parishioners stay put for just a few extra days. To say goodbye.
“They came in under the cover of darkness, they ransacked the place and then they changed the locks,” parishioner Jon Rogers recalled, pointing to outlines on the brick walls of the main sanctuary where statues used to watch over the congregation. “The Blessed Mother was there, and Joseph over here, both gone.”
It’s hard to believe, even for him, that this was back in October 2004. Had the folk from the Catholic Archdiocese in Boston, 20 miles north of the town, showed just a fraction more forbearance – or locked the doors a bit more securely – they may have spared themselves a whole lot of aggravation. Nearly 11 years of it, in fact.
From that day until now the St Frances Xavier Cabrini church in the picturesque seaside town of Scituate has been under occupation by its own parishioners who refuse to see it closed. And that doesn’t mean their dropping by on and off, or holding the occasional lay Sunday service. No, someone from this most stubborn of flocks has been here every minute since. That’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No breaks, not even in winter blizzards.
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