Churches toppled like dominoes during years of consolidation
The first wave of closures came in July 2004, followed by dozens more in ensuing months — the shuttering of beloved churches where devout parishioners with deep family ties were first stunned, then propelled into action.
The archdiocese claimed it was the years of declining attendance, sparse collections and fewer priests. Those churches with the weakest showings were going first, merged with neighboring parishes.
But the increasingly enraged and determined congregants — reading the daily headlines about multimillion-dollar lawsuits and payouts in the unfolding priest sex abuse scandal — firmly believed they were being punished for the hierarchy’s sins.
From St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate to St. James the Great in Wellesley, from St. Theresa in Everett and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Boston to St. Jeremiah in Framingham, parishioners began occupying their places of worship. Parishioners sneaked back into locked churches, changed locks, then moved in cots and even TVs.
The vigils would last months in some cases — St. Albert the Great in Weymouth was one of a handful that negotiated reprieves — but in many cases they stretched on for years.
Some, led by a lay resistance group, the Council of Parishes, would appeal to the Vatican arguing Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and his bishops were violating canon law.
They would file civil suits claiming the parishes belonged to the parishioners and not to the church at all. Those efforts all failed.
St. Frances X. Cabrini was the last holdout, with a vigil that had lasted more than a decade, when parishioners lost an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and agreed to leave in May 2016, after 11 1⁄2 years.
For a current listing of Boston-area church closings and parish mergers, go to bostonherald.com.