May 2004 letters

May 2004

May 28, 2004
Dear Sisters and Brothers,

This has been the most painful week of my life - and I know that your grief and loss are at least as deep as mine. I have been inundated with email messages, letters, cards, notes and calls of prayerful support and lots of questions. At this point, I’m unable to respond to each one, but please know that every message is deeply appreciated. Please, stay in touch: your words keep me going!

We all have many questions and many of you have directed yours to me. I dealt with some of these matters in previous letters but it may be helpful to review that information here. In this letter I will try to respond to the most Frequently Asked Questions, but allow me, first, a few cautionary remarks: I don’t have answers to all the questions. Some significant issues have yet to be decided by the archdiocese. The answers I do have may not be satisfying but at least I hope they will shed a little light on the situation. In the past several years, many people have lost trust in the church and in its leaders. Some people no longer believe what church leaders say. In my responses below I will
report what I have heard and read and find to be credible. You will find here no condemnation of any individual or group of individuals. I do not believe that bitter language advances anything except bitterness.

As we did several years ago as the story of sexual abuse by priests began to break, we will have a meeting on this Thursday evening, June 3rd, at 7:00 p.m. in the church. This is a Listening Session: a time for people to speak and be heard.

In next week’s bulletin I will address the question: “Why should we remain Catholic?”

Please pray for me as I do for you...
Fr. Fleming

1) Why was reconfiguration of the archdiocese necessary? There were four main reasons presented by the archdiocese for reconfiguration.
- Changes in demographics left many parishes, particularly in urban areas, without a sufficient number of people to maintain a parish community.
- The decline in the number of clergy makes it more and more difficult to staff all the parishes of the archdiocese.
- Many parishes were insolvent and unable to meet their financial obligations.
- Much archdiocesan property was in disrepair and there were no funds, locally or centrally, to remedy deferred maintenance.

I firmly believe that reconfiguration was necessary and had been for a very long time. Waiting too long resulted in this week’s tragic news. The issues cited above are real and compelling.

2) How did the reconfiguration process work? Beginning in January, pastors met with parish representatives at the cluster level. (Our cluster includes the two Concord parishes and the parishes in Bedford, Lincoln and Carlisle.) Cluster meetings included representatives from each parish: the Pastor, a member of the Parish Pastoral Council, a member of the Parish Finance Council, and a member of the parish staff. The number of representatives from a parish may have varied since many parishes sent a few more than the required number of both staff and lay people. About 1,800 lay people attended cluster meetings and about 340 priests.

The cluster group analyzed all available information for the cluster’s mission and outreach. These items include Mass attendance and the sacramental index of each parish, as well as a careful review of all activities accomplished in the cluster: presence of an ethnic apostolate, number and population of parish schools, outreach to the hungry and homeless, programs for the elderly and homebound, nursing home coverage, youth groups, number of children in religious education, adult education programs, RCIA, meetings hosted by parishes, and a number of other activities sponsored by parishes.
The cluster group then looked at the facilities available among the existing parishes in the cluster including parking, disabled access and public transportation, and the financial condition of the parishes and the ability of the cluster to support the work of parishes.

The last step in the cluster process was to answer the Archbishop’s two questions:
1. If the Archbishop found it necessary to close one parish in your cluster, which one would you recommend and why?
2. If the Archbishop found it necessary to close more than one parish in your cluster, which ones would they be and why?

The recommendation was then to be submitted to the Vicar, a pastor who coordinates a group of priests in a Vicariate. (Our Vicar is Fr. Mark Sheehan of St. Michael Parish in Bedford.) Our cluster voted 4-1 not to make any recommendations for closing parishes. The minority vote was cast by the OLHC representatives.

The cluster recommendations were then reviewed by the Vicar who added his comments and recommendations and forwarded them to the regional bishop (our regional bishop is Bishop Emilio Allue). The regional bishop reviewed the materials, added his comments and recommendations and forwarded them to the Central Committee which, like the cluster groups, was a predominantly lay group. The Central Committee reviewed the materials and made recommendations which were given to the Archbishop who brought his report to the Presbyteral Council (a body of priests elected by the priests of the archdiocese to advise the archbishop). After hearing the Presbyteral Council’s recommendations, Archbishop O’Malley made the final decisions in the process of reconfiguration.

While I don’t believe this process was perfect, you can see that it did involve significant grass roots consultation with parishioners and their pastors. Granting that this was a consultative process in a hierarchical organization, it is simply incorrect to assert, as many have, that the laity had no voice in the matter. In fact in our own cluster, the majority of the laity voted not use that voice.

3) Why us? Our parish is healthy, growing, vital and fruitful. It had been my deep conviction that such a healthy tree in the archdiocesan orchard would never be cut down. I was very wrong. I had assumed, tragically incorrectly, that parish vitality would override other considerations. It did not. At the meeting on May 27th I learned that these were the criteria for deciding which parishes would close: the sacramental index; mass attendance figures; and the number of children in religious education. I asked if there were fixed numbers establishing a bar in these categories and was told that there were not. These figures were considered subjectively with other information submitted in the process and in relationship to neighboring parishes. I also learned that in towns with two churches of relatively equal size and activity level, double suppression and the establishing of a new parish was employed so that neither parish would feel that it had “lost” and the other had “won.” That St. Bernard’s has greater seating capacity and is the elder sister of the two parishes was obviously of significance in the decision.

The reconfiguration process asked, “How can we continue the mission of the church in the archdiocese and still cut back on the number of parishes?” Communities with two or more churches were obviously “red flags” and so the question was asked of Concord.

I also think that part of the subjectivity involved in making decisions included an effort by the archbishop to make changes “across the board” or, as he put it, not to put the burden only on the backs of poor parishes. That certainly left the Concord parishes in a vulnerable position.

4) Did you see this coming, Fr. Fleming? No, I did not. As evidence, you can stop by the parish center and I will show you two multicolored OPEN banners, fitted on dowels, which I had planned to place over the sign on the front lawn of the church and over the entrance to the center. I was ready to celebrate, not to mourn.

5) Will our parish appeal the decision? Yes. The Parish Pastoral Council is drafting a letter asking Archbishop O’Malley not to issue a decree that would formally close our parish. That letter will be available on the weekend of June 5/6 for parishioners to sign. Fr. Murray has told me that St. Bernard Parish does not intend to appeal. At a meeting on May 27 with the pastors of closing parishes, we learned that such letters should contain concrete evidence, beyond what had previously been submitted, as the basis of the appeal - this will be hard for any parish to come by, because the process has already solicited a broad scope of information from every parish. If the archbishop does not reverse his decision, the parish may appeal to the Vatican but only if there is a clear procedural error to submit as the basis of the appeal. I do not believe that such procedural errors occurred.

6) Do you support the appeal, Fr. Fleming? I do support this effort because it is a step the people of our parish are intent on taking. I do not expect, however, that the appeal will be effective - for us or for other parishes doing the same. With regard to appealing to the Vatican: the reconfiguration process used by the archdiocese went beyond the requirements of canon law it its efforts to be inclusive. The fact of the matter is that the archbishop, with the consultation of the Presbyteral Council, has the right to suppress (close) a parish. This is not something new - it is something we’ve never before encountered personally. (Please note that the information in the media regarding time limits on appeals was incomplete and thus misleading. Our letter will be well within the deadline.)

7) What will happen to the financial resources of our parish? When a bishop closes a parish, the assets and liabilities of the parish become the assets and liabilities of the diocese. In Concord, two parishes will be closed and a new parish created. I learned at the pastors meeting on Thursday that the archdiocese will make a case by case decision on the distribution of monies to begin the new parish in Concord. Our Parish Finance Council has already indicated its interest in being part of that consultation.

8) What about contributions made to the capital campaign for the parish center or the more recent Grand Annual Collection? Can individuals get their money back? This is a most distressing situation and my response will satisfy few if any of our parishioners. To the best of my knowledge, such contributions are considered gifts and the archdiocese is not required to return them to the donors. I do not have authority to cut checks for this purpose. Indeed, our present assets would not even cover the cost of paying back donors to the capital campaign for the parish center, let alone those who have been generous over decades. The cost to the archdiocese in failed trust here will be enormous and long lasting.

Some parishioners have indicated that they may consider legal action to get their donations returned. I am not a lawyer, but I am doubtful that the state would rule that a church has a responsibility to return a free will offering. I do not mean to discourage anyone’s plans - I simply want to offer the understanding I have of such matters.

9) So, it really was all about money, wasn’t it? I believe the answer here is yes - and no. As you read in my response at no. 1 above, financial issues are among the reasons for reconfiguring the archdiocese. Although the sale of the Brighton residence and property to Boston College has funded the payment of sexual abuse settlements, it is clear that the crisis is a fiscal burden which affects all aspects of archdiocesan and parish life. From the sale of the property of closed parishes, the archdiocese will both make money and unload deferred maintenance liabilities. Unlike many of my correspondents, I do not believe the archdiocese looked around at parish real estate and then decided on closures based on the value of potential sales. The price paid in the loss of good will would be too steep for such a transaction for quick cash.

10) What will happen to you, Fr. Fleming? It might be good to note here that my assignment to OLHC had 2-3 years left: two years in my term of office, and possibly a third had the archdiocese allowed me to stay an extra year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the parish. My time was already short - now even shorter. The archdiocesan personnel board will send teams of two members to meet with pastors of closing parishes. On the date on which the two Concord parishes are officially closed, I will cease to be pastor of OLHC and Fr. Murray will cease to be pastor of St. Bernard. On the same date, the new parish will be established and its pastor named. Might Fr. Murray or I be named the new pastor? I believe that it is possible but I have no way of knowing at this time if that will happen. As I mentioned at our prayer service on this past Tuesday night, circulating petitions or fueling rumors about bringing back Fr. Dick DeVeer -or any priest- would most likely be counterproductive, no matter how well intentioned.

11) Why don’t we take up a private collection and buy the church? This question has come to me in two forms.
a) Why don’t we buy the church and give the archdiocese the money it hopes to get from the sale of this property. See no. 9 above... While financial gain is part of this process, it’s not the chief end. As I wrote in my letter to the children of the parish, “The archdiocese has too many churches and not enough money to keep them all open and not enough priests to have one in every parish.” The archdiocese is downsizing and there will be cash generated in the process, but the purpose of the downsizing is not simply to raise that cash - it is to respond to several pressing realities facing the church of Boston.
b) Why don’t we buy the church from the archdiocese and install Fr. Fleming, or another priest, as our pastor? Well, that’s been tried, and with much success, but it’s called Protestantism. I intend to remain a Roman Catholic priest. The archdiocese would not assign a priest under the circumstances this proposal suggests.

12) How can they get away with stealing our money? Some of the painful realities we are facing here are situations that have long been the case, and the law, in the Catholic church but we have not encountered them before because they have not touched us personally. A few hard facts will make things more clear here:
- The assets and liabilities of a parish are the assets and liabilities of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, Corporation Sole. The pastor of a parish as power of attorney over the parish funds. Under usual circumstances, parish funds are for the upkeep and development of the local parish. While those funds are deposited with the archdiocese in what’s called the Revolving Loan Fund, the interest on those funds goes to the parish and the funds are always available for parish use.
When a parish is closed, the assets and liabilities (already those of RCAB) remain the assets and liabilities of RCAB.
-The archbishop has the right in canon law to close a parish. In fact, the reconfiguration process Archbishop O’Malley used went beyond the demands of canon law in its efforts to include grass roots consultation.
- Our church has laws and operational methodologies that surprise and offend our democratic orientation and impulses. While it is useful to argue those differences and to suggest change, these are the realities we find ourselves facing in the present moment.

13) When will our parish close? I do not have that information. I have been told that we will receive word by mid-June of the dates of the closings. The closings are to happen in three groups. I do not know which group we will be in but I’m led to believe the closings will begin in early fall.

May 28, 2004
Dear Boys and Girls,

You have probably heard your parents and others talking about some big changes that are going to happen in our church. I want to talk to you about these changes, too, so I’m writing this special letter to you.

Sometimes change makes us happy and sometimes change makes us sad. When a friend at school moves away, that’s a change that makes us sad. (Or maybe you have moved away and left old friends behind.) But when we make friends with someone new at school or in our neighborhood - that kind of change makes us happy. I’m sorry to have to tell you that the changes in our parish may make you feel sad. These changes make me feel sad, too.

Our Lady Help of Christians is just one parish in what we call the “archdiocese” of Boston. The archdiocese is made up of all the Catholic parishes in the Boston area put together, and Archbishop O’Malley is our leader. There are many problems in the archdiocese and Archbishop O’Malley has decided that some parishes will have to close. The sad news is that our parish is one of them. The archdiocese has too many churches and not enough money to keep them all open and not enough priests to have one in every parish. Our parish hasn’t done anything wrong - as a matter of fact, we have a great parish! But Archbishop O’Malley has decided that one church will have to be enough for the Catholic people of Concord. So a new parish community will be formed from the people of our parish and the people of St. Bernard’s. The new parish will have a new name, too, but we don’t know yet what that will be.

This news might make you cry - I know that it makes me cry, too. Anytime we lose something we love, it makes us feel sad - and I know you love our parish as much as I do.

I have been the pastor of our parish for ten years. Even if our parish were not closing, I would be moved to another parish two or three years from now, but now I’ll be moving earlier than I expected. As children grow up in a parish, they move on, too, when they go to college, leave home for a job, and if they get married. Like you, I’m sad that we’ll be moving from Our Lady Parish a lot sooner than any of us thought.

Here are some answers to questions that you might have...

1) When will our parish close? I don’t know the date yet, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be here together through the summer.

2) Where will we go to church? The place for us to go to Mass will be the Catholic church in Concord center. All the Catholic people in Concord will belong to one parish and pray together on Sunday mornings in one church.

3) Where will Fr. Fleming go? Well, I don’t know yet! Soon, the archdiocese will talk to me about being a pastor in a new parish. I might be very close by, or I might be farther away. But the archdiocese is only the Boston area so I won’t be going too, too far.

4) What will happen to our Church building? After the parish closes, the church buildings will be sold, but I don’t know exactly when that will happen, and I don’t know who will buy the property or how they will use it. We’ll have to wait and see.

5) Where will I receive my First Communion? Where will I be confirmed? Can I still be an altar server? Where will I receive religious education? All of these things will be there for you in the new parish and there will be even more children to share in those programs and celebrations with you.

6) Will the new parish in Concord be as nice as Our Lady Parish? Well, I really think it could be, since all of the wonderful people of our parish will be invited to join the new parish. And the great people of St. Bernard Parish will be joining the new parish, too. It might be a little crowded on Sundays with all those people - but we’re already used to that here at Our Lady’s. (Sometimes, we even brag about that!)

7) But Fr. Fleming - I just don’t want to leave Our Lady’s and I don’t want to go to the new parish! I know how you feel. Before I came to Concord, I was a priest at St. Joseph Parish in Medway. I loved the people at St. Joseph’s - and they loved me, too. When I was leaving Medway, some people told me, “Fr. Fleming, church just won’t be the same without you - maybe we’ll leave St. Joseph’s or just stop going to church!” Well, I’m happy to tell you they didn’t stop going to church and those families are still growing up at St. Joseph’s. It was very difficult for me to leave there and come to a new place with all new people. But I grew to love the people of Our Lady’s and they grew to love me, too. If I hadn’t had the sadness of leaving Medway, I would never have known how much joy was waiting for me in Concord! Sometimes change makes us sad, and sometimes it makes us happy - and sometimes, it makes us both!

If you have other questions, you can write to me or email me, or ask your parents to email me for you, and I’ll answer them in another special letter.

Please pray with me that God will help us make these changes and help us see that after the sadness, new joys will come our way.
Peace,
Fr. Fleming

May 21, 2004
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As you know, this past Sunday night we held a special Vigil of Prayer for our parish as we wait for May 25th and the announcement of parishes to be closed. The Vigil was one of the most profound moments of community prayer that I have ever experienced. The service was simple, musically exquisite, scriptural, personal, powerful and prayerful. While I was disappointed in the number of our parishioners who came to the Vigil, I was deeply touched by the people from First Parish, West Concord Union Church, Trinitarian Congregational Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church who came to be with us in prayer. Our parish was supported in compelling fashion by the ecumenical community of Concord.

What made the evening so powerful? Let me share some of that with you... All of our music ministries were involved: the senior choir and our music director; cantors and instrumentalists, the children’s choir, and the strong song of those assembled for prayer. We began with the senior choir singing, Plenty Good Room, a spiritual inviting everyone to come in and sit down to prayer! Our opening song was Gather Us In. After some words of introduction, I invited all present to consider prayerfully the reasons we are grateful for Our Lady Parish in our lives. To support this moment of prayer we heard a selection from Beethoven’s Pathetique. After this reflection time, I asked if any present would be willing to share some of what they had thought of during the prayer time. This occasioned a beautiful, spoken “collage” illustrating the work and spirituality of our parish life. Especially moving were the children in the choir who spoke up, sharing with us the reasons they love our parish. This time for sharing personal reflections was perhaps the heart of the evening.

We moved then to the scriptures: two passages from Ephesians (2:19-22 and 4:30-5:2), pausing in between to sing Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble; be with me, Lord, I pray... Then, Halle! Halle! and a passage from John’s gospel (15:1-10). In my remarks, I invited people to consider what it is that makes us branches of Jesus who is the vine, and for us to remember that apart from the vine, we can do nothing - so important is our relationship to Christ. Picking up on St. Paul’s words, I urged us to prune away, even now, any bitterness or harsh words, noting that such as these do nothing to encourage the vine’s growth or the fruitfulness of the branches. Another musical interlude, Brahms Liebeslieder Walzen, followed my short homily, and here I invited those present to consider what it is that we as individuals, and as a parish, need to “prune” in order to be a healthier, more fruitful church.

Then, holding individual, lighted candles, we sang the Litany of the Saints. You might know this piece from the Easter Vigil or from our celebration of All Saints Day. It was a musically beautiful and ritually impressive plea for the saints to hear our prayer for our parish and to intercede for us with God. Following the Litany, the children’s choir sang Ave Maria, particularly appropriate because our parish patron is Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Help of us Christians. After joining in the Lord’s prayer we shared a sign of peace. The senior choir then sang the spiritual, Good News! and we closed with a sung blessing and the hymn, Lord of All Hopefulness.

Reflecting on the evening’s experience, I remembered how true it is that perhaps the most important benefit of prayer is that it changes US more than the things around us. And changed we were by prayer on Sunday night: uplifted, encouraged, strengthened and closer to God and one another. A mother of several children spoke to me afterwards and said how grateful she was for the evening in many ways, but especially because this prayer time modeled for children a way to deal with sad and difficult news in their lives.

We will gather together again for prayer at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night, May 25th, to lift up to God whatever the day’s news has been. Please join us.

I have heard from several sources that some in the parish are frustrated because they believe I’m not doing enough to counter the possibility of our parish being closed. The following information may be of interest to all - please note that:

•Several weeks before the “list of 37” was published (and two months after the end of the cluster-level process in which I and parish representatives participated) I responded to an invitation to all pastor’s to write once more to the archbishop regarding reconfiguration. In that letter I used the image I have used in this space: having the wisdom not to cut down a strong, growing, healthy, fruitful tree in the orchard.

•On the day I received the letter informing me that OLHC had been listed as a possible closing, I spoke personally with Bishop Richard Lennon who is Archbishop O’Malley’s point man on reconfiguration.

•I have spoken several times with our Vicar, Fr. Mark Sheehan, regarding our being on the list of possible closings. Fr. Sheehan is very supportive of our parish and concerns.

•I have spoken with Fr. Bob Connors, the Cabinet Secretary for Ministerial Personnel, seeking his advice on other ways to address the issue. Fr. Connors commended me for the letter I had written to the Archbishop and told me he believes we at OLHC have done all that we can do.

•In addition to my efforts, Chuck Clough has spoken with other archdiocesan leaders in the Chancery.

Be assured that in each of these instances Chuck and I have spoken vigorously for our parish and for its continuance. The advantage of such conversations over other approaches is that Chuck and I had direct access for personal conversations with individuals with authority in the reconfiguration process. While I do not know what impact these conversations have had, I do know that we had the opportunity to speak and that we were heard.

Please join me in hope and prayer that on May 25 our parish will be listed among those remaining open.

How will we find out the news on May 25th? As of now (I write this on May 21), pastors have been told to expect a letter on Tuesday morning, May 25th. Our understanding is that this will be delivered by FedEx or courier. The plan is that pastors will receive word prior to the list of closings being released to the media. As soon as we receive word, we will post that on our parish website at www.olhc.org. We will also email the news to those who have signed on to our parish email list. (Unfortunately, we will not have time between this weekend and Tuesday to add new names to this list. Another sign up opportunity will be offered soon.). Those who do not have internet access may call the parish number and the recorded message will indicate what we have heard - as soon as we have heard it.

Good News! We have counted all the cash, coin and checks in our Lenten Offering Boxes. This offering will be given to the Saint Boniface Haiti Foundation for building new homes in Fond des Blancs where our parish helps to support a hospital and parish. The grand total is $17,028.85! This amount will build FIVE new homes in Fond des Blancs, offering employment to the builders and shelter for five families who presently live in hovels with thatched roofs. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

MORE good news! Upon the recommendation of the Fr. King Scholarship Review Committee, I am happy to announce that this year’s recipients are: Mark Brozek, Erin Galgay, Michael LaBrie, Ted Busiek and Peter Manzelli. We had many good applicants and the Review Committee struggled to reach its decisions. To these recipients and all who applied we promise our prayer as they pursue their studies.

Sincerely,

Fr. Fleming

We will gather together for prayer at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night, May 25th, to lift up to God whatever the day’s news has been. Please join us.

May 14, 2004
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Time can certainly pass slowly... That’s my experience as I wait for May 25 and the announcement of parish closings in the archdiocese. I have a new and special affection for some words we pray every time we celebrate the eucharist:
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and in your mercy keep us free from anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope...

I am so very grateful that our waiting coincides with our celebration of First Communion! Our welcoming newcomers to the Lord’s table, making room for the next generation, is, alone, enough to lift my spirits. But my seat on the Hope Train is confirmed when I see the joy in the children’s faces and in their parents -and in yours- as these children come to receive the eucharist for the first time.

Our parish being placed on the list of possible closings has elicited a variety of responses from us who call Our Lady Parish our spiritual home: anger, disappointment, shock, disbelief, and a feeling of helplessness. In varying degrees, I have all the same responses myself - but as you know, I also have hope. The news about the church in Boston over the past several years has been devastating and disappointing, leading to a serious mistrust of those whose ministry in the church is leadership. Our experience of the church through the crisis of sexual abuse by priests offers no solid ground on which to stand as we receive the word that our growing, healthy, fruitful parish is on a list of possible cuts. Indeed, some have simply decided that it’s all about “us” and “them,” we being the “us” and archdiocesan leadership being “them.” Things are seldom so simple and our present situation is a case in point.

Anger over our circumstances will seek a target and the easy bull’s eye is the administration in Brighton. Without defending a process which I think was not equal to the task, there is no doubt that a pruning of the archdiocesan orchard has been needed for a long time - predating the sexual abuse crisis by at least a decade. The reality that “reconfiguration” of the archdiocese comes at this point in the church’s history makes it all the more difficult to bear. Cardinal Law established the cluster system with the hope that clustering would lead to sharing of resources and personnel among parishes such that parishes themselves would begin to see that duplicating efforts and expenses suggested a pruning for the greater good and growth of the whole. Unfortunately, parishes had never been asked to work in such fashion before and the task proved to be beyond the capacity of most clusters, our own included. Archbishop O’Malley, faced with declining archdiocesan income, the expenses of settling abuse cases, and fewer and fewer priests has been aggressive in facing the problems head on. I honestly don’t know that he could have done otherwise, although the process has left many things to be desired. I rehearse all of this neither to defend what has happened not to prepare us for bad news - I am still hopeful that the archdiocese will not fell a healthy productive tree - but rather because we cannot let our anguish over our local circumstances blind us to the harsh realities facing the larger church. These realities will be there for a long time and will need to be embraced by all parishes standing after May 25th. Once the announcement of closings is behind us, our parish will need to find reasonable and fiscally responsible ways to support both our own parish and the work of the larger church whose ministry is our responsibility, too, and whose work touches lives beyond our reach.

Will you join me in hopeful prayer? in prayerful hope? Come this Sunday night, May 16, at 7:00 p.m. for an hour long Vigil of Prayer for Our Lady Help of Christians Parish!

REMINDER: May 20 is Ascension Thursday, a holy day of obligation. We will celebrate Mass at 9:15 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. (Mass at St. Bernard Parish will be celebrated on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and on Thursday at 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon.)

Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming

May 6, 2004

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

By now you may have heard that our parish is one of 37 added to the list of parishes suggested for possible closing in the reconfiguration of the archdiocese of Boston. This letter will offer you some background and try to put that announcement in perspective. (Those of you who faithfully read these letters will already be aware of much of this information.)

In the process of reconfiguration, five representatives from each parish in the Concord Cluster (St. Bernard in Concord, St. Irene in Carlisle, St. Joseph in Lincoln, St. Michael in Bedford and OLHC) participated in a series of meetings to determine our response to the two questions posed by Archbishop O’Malley:

1) If the archbishop needs to close a parish in your cluster, which parish would you recommend for closing?

2) If the archbishop needs to close more than one parish in your cluster, which parish(es) would you recommend for closing?

The Concord Cluster was one among a number of clusters which voted not to recommend any parishes for closing, thus bypassing the process the archbishop asked us to follow. Of the pastors in the Concord Cluster, I was the only one who argued for responding to the archbishop as requested. Of the representative groups from the five parishes, the group from OLHC was the only one to vote for responding to the archbishop as requested.

The reports from the clusters were forwarded to our vicars (Fr. Mark Sheehan of Bedford is our vicar). The vicars added their own comments and recommendations to the cluster reports and forwarded them to the regional bishops (Bishop Emilio Allue is our regional bishop). The regional bishops added their comments and recommendations to the reports and forwarded them to the Central Committee (inclusive of a large representative group of lay people) which has now made its report and recommendations to the archbishop. The archbishop will now consult with the Presbyteral Council (a body of priests elected by the priests of the archdiocese). After consultation with the Presbyteral Council, the archbishop will make a final announcement of closings on May 25.

At some point in the process detailed above, the “homework” that clusters like our own failed to complete was completed for us by others. At whose desk this was done, however, I do know know.

Thus, on Wednesday morning I received the following in a letter from Bishop Lennon (vicar general of the archdiocese): I am writing to let you know that in the intervening process since the time of the cluster recommendations being made and now, Our Lady Help of Christians Parish has been named as a parish suggested for closing. This does not mean that your parish will close; only that it is among those named for consideration for closure. Thus, our parish has been added to a much longer list of parishes which have been suggested as possible closings.

I spoke with Bishop Lennon on Wednesday afternoon to inquire about which other parish in the Concord cluster had been suggested for closing. He told me that it has been suggested that St. Joseph Parish in Lincoln be merged with St. Julia Parish in Weston. (Please note that this is a change from an earlier edition of this letter.)

Had the Concord cluster done its homework assignment, I believe that the answer to the archbishop’s first question would have been St. Joseph in Lincoln. A response to the second question would have focused on Concord because it is the one town in the cluster which has two Catholic parishes. How the cluster on its own initiative might have dealt with the “Concord question” is an opportunity which has passed us by.

Keeping in mind that this news does not mean that we will be closed but only that our parish, like many others, is being considered for closing,
and remembering that this week’s announcement only puts in print something that was already possible in theory,
allow me to anticipate and answer what might be some of your questions at this point.

1) Fr. Fleming, do you continue to be confident that our parish will not be closed? Yes, I do. The news this week puts on paper what has always been a possibility. It certainly is not uplifting to see that possibility in print but neither am I shocked by it. Here’s the way I look at it. Imagine an orchard of apple trees. Some of the trees are dead and decaying. Some of the trees appear healthy but have stopped bearing fruit, and some still yield a modest harvest. Finally, there are trees which are healthy, growing, abundantly fruitful and large enough to offer shade to any who come under their branches for nourishment and respite. Now, should the time come for thinning this orchard, which trees should fall to the ax? How will the wise orchard keeper decide? I continue to have confidence that the archdiocese will not fell a healthy tree.

2) In considering the “Concord question,” why would the archdiocese name OLHC as a possible closing rather than St. Bernard Parish? It is my guess that such a decision would have been made in large measure relative to the size of the church building in the Concord center parish which seats more people than our West Concord structure. I do not suggest that this is the most appropriate or best measure for making such a decision but I believe it is a significant factor.

3) What is the significance of having our parish added to the list so late in the process? The archdiocese is crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s before the final decision is made. For a fair review of all the parishes in the archdiocese, all the clusters need to be on a level playing field. Clusters like our own which failed to respond as requested are now “in the game” on an equal footing, even if on terms decided by those outside the process of our cluster’s consultation.

4) Is there something we parishioners can do? Yes. The first thing we should do is to pray for the archdiocese of Boston. I cannot begin to imagine what will be the aftermath of the announcement of closings at the end of this month. We are already a weary, wounded church in the archdiocese: no other diocese has been hit as painfully in the sexual abuse crisis as has ours, and no other diocese has ever moved to close so many parishes at one time. (Estimates of potential closings range from 40 to 60+ parishes.) The second thing we should do is to pray for our own parish. We should pray in thanksgiving for the healthy, fruit bearing, shade giving tree the Lord has nurtured us to be in the church’s orchard. Then we should pray that we will be allowed to continue to grow, flourish and yield that rich fruit God’s Spirit has ripens within us. Finally, we should pledge even now that once the closings are announced we will devote ourselves more fully than ever to supporting our parish with our time, talents and treasure. (Some may want to write to Archbishop O’Malley concerning these matters. While that’s fine, I’m not organizing or encouraging others to organize a letter writing campaign. I believe that at this point in the process letters will have little influence on the decisions being made. Here I am being realistic, not defeatist.)

I encourage you to share this letter with others in the Concord community who value the presence and ministry of our parish in a variety of ways. I have already sent a copy of this letter to the Concord Journal for their information. If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to write or email me (FrAustinFleming@aol.com) and I will respond as quickly as I can.

If you are wondering how to support me through this process, please know that your asking is a blessing and the answer is simple: join me in my confident hope and prayer that Our Lady Parish will continue to stand tall and fruitful in the orchard of the Lord’s work.

Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming