A reader sent me some good news:
The new bishop of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg, Switzerland, has given the Basilica of Notre Dame in Fribourg, a beautiful and historic church, to the FSSP! [Fraternity of St. Peter] A FSSP priest will be in charge of all pastoral activities, and a diocesan priest will be administrator for the first year, then hopefully a FSSP will be appointed pastor.
Bishop Morerod is a youngish Dominican involved with the SSPX dialogue before he was named bishop. I’m pretty sure he was rector of the Angelicum, too. [Yes, he was.]
WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Morerod.
When it comes to parish closures we need to get out of the box and start thinking.
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Bishop Morerod was one of my profs in the philosophy program at the Angelicum. Not only is he uber-intelligent, multilingual, and hard-working. . .he’s also in possession of a very weird sense of humor. He took great delight in telling us on the morning that the CERN Super Collider broke down that it had done so as the excited atoms traveled through the French portion of the giant circle! He’s Swiss-French, btw.
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
“When it comes to parish closures we need to get out of the box and start thinking.”
Pray His Eminence, Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston (MA) has the courage to offer such an arrangment for the historic Holy Trinity (German) Church in Boston’s South End. I understand both the FSSP and ICCRSS [Institutum Christi Regis Summi Sacerdotis] had previously offered to staff and assume all upkeep of the parish several years ago; however was rejected by the Archdiocese at the time in both accounts, during the massive Diocese Parish Reconfiguration in 2004-2005. Holy Trinity was Boston’s site of the 1988 Indult from 1990 – 2007. Holy Trinity was shuttered.
Powerful secular power brokers have long targeted Holy Trinity and it surrounding context for redevelopment. It is also ironic that Peter Meade who Co-Chaired the Meade-Eisner Reconfiguration Review Committee, provided His Eminence the recommendations that lead to Holy Trinity’s closure.
http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=1420
Peter Meade was appointed BRA [Boston Redevelopment Authority] Chief Economic Development Officer for the City of Boston by Mayor Thomas M. Menino in April 2011. Meade is now positioned to pressure the Archdiocese to sell the historic property. Political allies have since imposed a stiff commercial property tax on the property, justified by the fact it is no longer considered a place of worship. The nearby Cathedral of the Holy Cross has now inherited this tax burden. Only in Boston…
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/HomePageUtils/PeterMeade.asp
Surely there are enemies within and without in Boston. Pray the Cardinal, has the courage to stand up and do the right thing.
http://bostoncatholicinsider.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/boston-church-asks-vatican-to-stop-its-sale/
“When it comes to parish closures we need to get out of the box and start thinking.” Although I’m from the South (USA) where we don’t often see such things, if a church is to be shuttered, especially an older one clearly designed for the traditional form of the Mass, then I just can’t see why a bishop wouldn’t give the ‘traditional’ use a try.
Just because, that in case such a “traditional” use will be successful, all their ideology will prove itself to be false. What will they then do with all “niceties” of NOM liturgies, etc.? In any case, Deo gratias for bishop Morerod. I wish we’d have much more such bishops.
Kudos, indeed. I would love to see this happen more, especially in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. ;)
yes, more of this….
Kudos to the bishop, indeed! God bless him for his courage!
I also wish that there were more like him who show more favor to traditional Orders and the TLM.
Sometimes I wonder whether bishops even realize what closing a parish means—a diminution of the Real Presence from a particular street or neighborhood. I look at dwindled mainline churches that seem to chug along for decades with 50 or fewer people (and high staffing overhead) but the Catholic Church seem to be all about economic efficiencies when it comes to keeping parishes and schools open. The creative thinking displayed in the article (which frankly seems more like a no-brainer) should be commended and imitated.
Dave N. the laity are the ones to blame for parishes closing. In my home diocese in Iowa, in 2015, there will be 15 active priests for 100,000 Catholics. Parents have not encouraged their children to follow vocations for 40 years. The laity get what they have wrought through contraception and the lack of prayer and rosary in the home. Vocations come from the home, and bishops are forced to deal with the reality of priest-shortages.
I am so happy for the FSSP and their congregations. We need more FSSPs as well.