The messages above are advertisements independently selected and placed by this website's web host Netfirms, to compensate for their provision to us free-of-charge webhosting, and therefore the viewpoints and suggestions therein do not necessarily coincide with those of the this website.

From the Boston Globe, March 31, 2005 Boston Archdiocese closes 51st Parish, Our Lady of Mercy in Belmont There were no noisy protests and no vigils last night, just a "quiet saddness," when Our Lady of Mercy in Belmont became the 51st and final parish to be closed by the Archdiocese of Boston this year. "We have older people. They're sad. Of course they're sad," the Rev. James J. McGowan said before the final Mass last night. McGowan has been pastor at Our Lady of Mercy for nearly 20 years. "But they're not screaming and hollering. It's a quiet sadness." At the beginning of last night's service McGowan advised his parishioners, most of them senior citizens, to think of the closing of Our Lady of Mercy after 78 years as a retirement, not a death. "We're here tonight to give thanks for 78 years of service to this community, to this building," McGowan told them. "It isn't where we are, it's who we're with and who is with us," he said. Most of the parishioners at Our Lady of Mercy are expected to join St. Luke Church in Belmont, about a mile away. There was a standing ovation, followed by tears, handshakes, and hugs, as McGowan and the worshipers filed out of the church for the last time. But most of the parishioners appeared to be following McGowan's advice. "Father wanted us to handle it gracefully, and I think as a result we're not bitter," said Elinor Twomey , who has been attending Our Lady of Mercy since 1965. But even as they criticized the vigils and protests that accompanied other closures, some parishioners could not contain their anger. Eighty-five-year-old John Salvo , who has been going to the church since it opened in 1926 and served as an altar boy, criticized Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley for not attending last night's Mass to speak to the parishioners in person. Instead, O'Malley sent a bishop to represent him. "He's not a man because he should have talked to the people," Salvo said. "I thought I would be buried from this church everyone in my family was. I don't know if I'm even going to go to church anymore." The archdiocese issued a statement describing last night's Mass as "a peaceful and prayerful closing liturgy." Spokeswoman Kelly Lynch said that Our Lady of Mercy originally was supposed to close on Nov. 18, but that the archdiocese granted McGowan's request for an extension so parishioners could celebrate a last Christmas together. O'Malley has said the parish closings are a necessary response to the dwindling number of priests, changing demographics, reduced attendance and a financial crisis brought about in part by the clergy sex abuse scandal. But parishioners have resisted in some places: Parishioners held 24-hour vigils in five churches in late October. After a period of relative calm, two parishioners who refused to leave Sacred Heart Church in Natick this past weekend were arrested on trespassing charges. Earlier this week, the Middlesex district attorney's office dropped the charges at the archdiocese's request. Our Lady of Mercy's is the final parish closure for this year, but more parishes will shut down in the coming weeks. Six parishes are scheduled to close on the second weekend in January. Four parishes on Cape Ann are scheduled to close on Jan. 8 and will be replaced by one new parish. Sacred Heart in Watertown is scheduled to close on Jan. 9 and Immaculate Conception in North Cambridge is scheduled to close Jan. 10. The archdiocese has postponed a total of 30 closings into 2005. Decisions regarding parishes in Charlestown, Newton, and Stoughton are also being reconsidered.