Area Catholics appeal directly to pope about church closings

LYNN – A group of Roman Catholics asked Pope Benedict XVI Tuesday to reverse the 2004 decision by the Boston Archdiocese to close their churches, including one in Lynn and one and Revere, an action which in some cases sparked six years of round-the-clock parishioner vigils.Peter Borre, of the Council of Parishes, walked through the bronze gate at Vatican City and delivered the long-shot appeal to a Vatican guard on behalf of nine closed parishes, saying, “This is the end of the road.”In the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal and subsequent heavy financial judgments handed down against the archdiocese, St. Michael The Archangel, a Polish-American Church on Summer Street in Lynn, and the Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Endicott Avenue in Revere were two of the 66 churches ordered closed.St. Michael finally shut its doors on June 27, 2006, after parishioners celebrated its centennial that April.Borre all but dismissed chances for “a miraculous Hollywood ending,” but said the appeal was important as a final recourse and to perhaps prevent protesting parishioners from forming breakaway groups.”It’s not an idle threat,” Borre said. “It’s a likely development in at least a couple cases.”Five churches have been occupied since 2004. The archdiocese has not moved to take the buildings because Cardinal Sean O’Malley said he would not act until all appeals were exhausted.The archdiocese said that happened earlier this year, after what archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon called “a lengthy and thorough” review.Tuesday’s appeal, which will likely be dealt with by papal assistants and never read by the pope himself, decries the “veritable massacre” of parishes in the archdiocese and questions its logic and legality under church law.Donilon said the archdiocese wants a peaceful resolution to the vigils, but said they can’t go on indefinitely. “The cost in time, talent and treasure to our archdiocese is not something we can continue to sustain for an extended period of time.”(Associated Press material was used in this report.)