Boston Archdiocese Pulls Holy Trinity Off the Market

Some good news for a change - the Archdiocese has pulled Holy Trinity off the market.

In mid-February, Cardinal O'Malley reported that he was considering selling closed Churches.

There was a big process where everyone could tell him what they thought. "Consultation" they called it, and he was going into the process with no predetermined decisions mind you.

There's a first for everything.

Considering he hasn't even been here, it certainly leaves a lot to be desired in the credibility department, but here's what the Vicar General said: "It is a very dramatic step and one that should and can only be taken with grave reason,"

But, the next thing you know, Holy Trinity was listed at Southeby's for sale and was being shown twice a week by real estate agents.

As readers and Boston Catholics are well aware, Holy Trinity Parishioners asked the Holy See to intervene in the sale, saying the Archdiocese had not completed the process to convert this magnificent jewel to profane use.

A spokesman said the archdiocese knows it can’t sell the property until that process is completed.

When the listing was yanked today, the spokesperpetrator said when the Archdiocese listed the property for sale with Southeby's, they were not going to sell it. Heaven's no.

They were simply testing the market and looking for a buyer.

On Friday, spokesman Terry Donilon said the listing meant to gauge the market or attract a buyer from a Catholic organization.

Do I have a red ball at the end of my nose?

Honesty at 66 Brooks Drive is like clams. Sometimes, you'll find a pearl but most of the time, it's just slime.

**UPDATE

Check out Pinnochio's Nose at BCI, where they make some very astute observations:

If you want to find a Catholic buyer, what in the world makes Terry Donilon, as spokesperson for Cardinal O’Malley, think anyone would believe that you would list the property for sale with Sothebys, a residential real estate broker, who has no reach whatsoever with a Catholic audience. Where is the listing in a Catholic newspaper, like, say our own Pilot, the “America’s oldest Catholic newspaper”? Did anyone place listings to find a Catholic buyer in Our Sunday Visitor or the National Catholic Register? Heck, even publications like America and the National Catholic Reporter call themselves “Catholic” too.

They were looking for Catholic buyers with Southeby's. If they found a Catholic buyer they did not mean to sow the confusion that it was their intention to sell Holy Trinity. I am sure came as a complete surprise to Southeby's who has spent money running advertisements and with whom they have signed a contract.

Another exploitative agreement entered into in bad faith?

Holy Trinity Parishioners Try Final Appeal to Stop Sale

The scoop at BCI in a story written by Monica Servidora.

Read it and weep.

“Two religious orders (the FSSP and the ICRSS), have previously expressed interest in maintaining the property and the Cardinal has showed no interest…A utilitarian understanding of ‘worship space’ seems to have been prevailed upon at least two generations of Catholics in Boston, reducing sacred architecture and the theology of the Domus Dei to a managed asset,” the parishioner said. “This has paved the way to massive church suppressions in Boston with little or no outcry from clergy or laity alike. Does anyone question the secular model of Church, currently peddled by the corporate wizards at the Pastoral Center?”

Lots of people question it. Over the last couple of years, one hundred thousand of them simply walked out of their parish.

The Cardinal Archbishop continues to dismantle and sell off the assets and structure it took three hundred years of Catholics to build.

The sale of this beautiful Church will barely cover one year of salaries for five of his grossly overpaid employees.

Cardinal Come Home

The Charles Kurault of the episcopal conference has made a pit stop in his diocese for a few days to 'reach out to inactive local Catholics'. He's shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the Dallas charter is a joke and the good old boy network had pedophiles in active ministry in Philadelphia.

I think we counted something like 8 days that the Cardinal was going to be present and accounted for in Boston from the end of January to May 1st. Naturally, we are delighted the Boston Globe was there to record one of the moments.

Here's one of the things he said:

At yesterday’s news conference, a reporter asked O’Malley about Catholics who feel alienated from the church because of disagreements over social issues, such as gay marriage.

O’Malley replied that if the church can “lead people to Christ’’ it makes it easier to discuss “the challenges and hard words of the Gospel,’’ but he said that “the Ten Commandments are not up for grabs.’’

He added: “We need to do a better job to explain what the church’s teachings are and how they are connected in the very consistent life ethic. But obviously we can’t have that opportunity if those people aren’t talking to us.’’

That's all true of course. But as he well knows, all of his appointees and administrators are unfaithful to Church teaching. The last thing they are going to do is teach it to people in the pews. His administration is teaching people who show up to reject Church teaching. Consequently, in the last three years, we have lost close to one hundred thousand Catholics who "came home".

Catholics are not 'home' until they're living their lives in a pursuit of a state of grace every day. To accomplish that fiat, transgressions against God have to be named so that people will recognize the things they're doing that disconnect them from God's grace. Then priests have to sit in the confessional a half hour before every Mass on the weekend so that those of us who are gone 12 hours a day working have the Sacrament available to us.

It's sad to watch the man say he wants to accomplish something and in practice lead all the parties into the abyss.

n.b. Parishioners of Holy Trinity are requesting prayers to stop the sale of the Church. Take a moment to look at the pictures - it's a tragedy to see this beautiful Church sold to pay for the corruption and ineptitude.