Informacja z "Pilota" o zamknięciu kościoła i osoby odpowiedzialne za zamknięcie
Information about closing our church published in "The Pilot", and people responsible for it

Cardinal Bernard Law
Bishop Richard Malone
Father Joseph Manning

List do Ojca Swiętego - napisany w styczniu 2002

Letter to The Holy Father - written on January 2002

Parishioners

Our Lady of Ostrabrama Parish

696 N. Main Street

Brockton, Massachusetts 02301

His Holiness

Holy Father John Paul II

001200 Citta del Vaticano

Roma, Italy

Date: January 28, 2002

Our Beloved Holy Father,

Your Holiness,

We parishioners of the Polish church of Our Lady of Ostrabrama in Brockton never thought that we would need to trouble you heart with our problems, but we are in a desperate situation now, because the Archdiocese of Boston has just closed our church. We feel that You, Your Holiness, should at least know about it and we hope that you will be able to help us.

This is our story:

Our Pastor Monsignor John Missa passed away at age 92 in March 2001. Right after his death we parishioners were told that the church would be closed. It was very painful news for us, however not unexpected, because for the last few years the parish life was negatively affected by the health condition of our Pastor. He tried to do everything he could to keep the church open for decreased number of parishioners, but he never got any help or support from the Archdiocese. After his death we parishioners decided to continue his struggle to keep this church open and to rejuvenate the parish life. We did everything we could to save our parish and prevent it from closing. Our efforts were disregarded and blocked by the Church Officials, under the leadership of His Eminency, Cardinal Bernard Law, and his representatives - Bishop Richard Malone, and Father Joseph Manning.

Bishop Malone met with the parishioners three times, but the purpose of those meetings was not to help us but to pacify us and to make us accept the church closing. The first time it was in May 2001 to announce the sad news that our church will be closed by the end of June 2001. He informed us that the last will of our Pastor was to be the last pastor of this church and in his testament he wanted the church to be closed. Knowing our Pastor, we couldn’t believe that it was true. According to Archdiocese our church would not only be closed, but also dismantled and changed into anything other than the church. Our precious icon of Our Lady of Ostrabrama was going to be taken from the main altar and brought in the procession by us parishioners to a neighboring church of St. Edward’s, and to be placed somewhere in the corner, where we could venerate it if we wanted to. We the parishioners were shocked by this news. When we started to ask questions regarding the ways of saving our church, the Bishop was surprised and not prepared to give us any advise and answer. However, he tried to console us by saying that our church was not the only one closed recently by the Archdiocese of Boston. Our church was going to be the number 51 (fifty one!).

We thanked God and Our Lady of Ostrabrama that the church was not closed with the end of June 2001. Our prayers were answered for the time being. Our spirit was high and our determination was never to give up hope. A group of parishioners met with Bishop Malone on the end of May 2001 to seek his advice, guidance, and assistance. They presented a list of ideas and proposals how to save our church from closing. Bishop Malone seemed to be pleased by our enthusiasm, faith, determination, and strong will to do everything possible to keep the church open. We asked the Bishop to give us time and a chance to save our church. Our main request was to get Bishop’s permission for Polish Franciscans from Our Lady of Czestochowa church of South Boston to celebrate Masses in our church. Polish priests from South Boston offered their assistance and were ready to help us. Bishop told us that our plan was very reasonable and promised to report everything we said to Cardinal Law, and get back to us with an answer. We left the meeting with hearts lifted and full of hope. But, we never received what we hoped for.

Luckily, help came along from Haven and we had an opportunity to have a whole month of Polish Masses, which were celebrated by a priest from Poland, who happened to be vacationing with a family from our parish. His presence increased the attendance significantly, which was a surprise to Bishop Malone, who didn’t expect higher attendance during the summer months. People were very happy to have the opportunity to come to Polish Masses every day for the whole month of July. For us it was a miracle, because the Archdiocese couldn’t close us then under a pretext of lack of priests. This way we survived until September meeting with Bishop Malone.

The second meeting was a great disappointment for the parishioners, because the Bishop repeated the same old story about the small number of parishioners and a shortage of priests. He told us there was no chance for our church to continue as Polish parish. When we confronted his remarks regarding the unavailability of the Polish priests by saying that, according to our knowledge, there are at least several priests willing to help us, the Bishop’s reply was: “even if you were able to obtain those priests, none of them would be assigned to this church” (???). He said that the fate of our church would be determined soon by the board of bishops and priests during their October/November 2001 meetings, when the final decision will be made.

Many of us feel that Archdiocese has shown to the Polish people little if any respect or empathy. “Go to another church!” - was all what we have heard from Bishop Malone and Father Manning. It was September, the beginning of the school year, when we inquired Father Manning about starting Catechism classes in our church. His response was: “It would do more harm than good to initiate such activity since the church will be closed”. Meantime, we tried to reach the Cardinal Law directly to receive the audience to be able to present our case to him. We never received a response.

We have to mention, that the Archdiocese chose the right person for the unpleasant job of facilitating the church closing, Father Manning. On the very beginning he said to parishioners: “This is my church now and I am the boss”. He was very unhappy with a duty of taking care of our church, which was an unwelcome addition to his already busy schedule. His attitude towards parishioners who opposed the church closing was unacceptable and rude. In our opinion his behavior wouldn’t be acceptable for the layperson, never mind a priest. For example: One time, he gave permission for a Polish priest to celebrate Mass with a Christening to a family who just emigrated from Poland and did not understand English. To everybody’s surprise at the last moment he changed his mind and decided to do it himself, in English. The family and the parishioners were shocked and disappointed, because the Polish priest came to celebrate this Mass, as it was arranged, but he was left sitting on the bench and was not allowed to even concelebrate. To us it was one of the many demonstrations of Father Manning’s power. It ruined the whole celebration for the family, who could not understand a word of the whole ceremony. It was an affront to them and detriment to the Holy Sacrament of Baptism. There was no logical explanation for such behavior other the attempt to humiliate Polish attending priest and parishioners. (evidence-video is available)

We don’t know whether it was a coincidence or a plan that Bishop came to meet with the parishioners for the third time in December 8, 2001 to deliver the sad news. It was Saturday and the Holy Day, Immaculate Conception. For the Polish people and especially for the parishioners of this church, who have a great devotion to Our Lady, this Holiday had a special meaning. This day was chosen by Bishop Malone to announce the church closing, which was going to take place on December 31, 2001. He said, that the gremium of 35 priests, six bishops and Cardinal gave their unanimous vote for closing our church, because they decided that this church has already fulfilled its mission as an ethnic parish. The Bishop also said, that Cardinal Law prayed for ten days before making this decision final. We asked if we could appeal this decision, and he said “Yes, write to the Cardinal”. So, we sent hundreds of letters. None of them was answered. This painful news did not crush our hearts, which were filled with joy for the upcoming event. We couldn’t be sad, we were preparing for the visitation of the Mother of God in Her miraculous Icon from Czestochowa., which was going to take place the next day. On Sunday December 9, Mr. Jan Milun, who organized the pilgrimage of the Copy of the Icon in America, brought the Icon to our church. It was a part of celebrations of the Jubilee of Cardinal Wyszynski. This celebration was the biggest event in the history of our parish. Everybody believed that it was not a coincidence, but a gift from the Blessed Mother, that She came to console us in our sorrow and to bring us HOPE. It was not easy to obtain Father Manning’s approval for this event, and his response was: “this picture is not going to help you” (to save your church).

We parishioners are not convinced that closing of our church was the best option chosen by Archdiocese of Boston. Our church is in good physical and financial shape - debt free. We have enough people that are willing to maintain, support, and make personal sacrifices for this church. People are coming back and want to take an active role in the life of this parish again. We cannot agree with the loss of this church because it was built and paid for by our Parents and Grandparents, hard-working Polish immigrants. We strongly believe that in current times the morality and religious life is slipping away from people who are devastated by religious wars and terrorism. One would think, that the number one task of Archdiocese should be to give even the smallest faith community the ability to continue its religious growth. Furthermore, we cannot find morally sane explanation to a question what would be the benefit of closing a community of faith that wants to flourish. Is it because is Polish? Or is it because is debt-free, in good location, and will be easy to turn into cash?

Your Holiness, you know how important to us Poles is the Image of Our Lady of Ostrabrama, Mother of Mercy. You are the one who entrusted your life, the life of our nation, and the whole world to Her powerful protection and intercession. We continue to gather every Sunday in front of the closed door of Her church with the Rosary in our hands and hope in our hearts. Please, say a little prayer in our intention.

You are always in our hearts and prayers,

Faithful parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama in Brockton, USA

Ewa Giro

Teresa Nachtman

Maria Stasiewicz

Maria Weglarczyk

Contact Person for correspondence:

Maria Stasiewicz,

857 Park Street

Stoughton, MA 02072

Tel. (781) 344-9340

Fax. (781) 344-9340

e-mail: mareks@attbi.com

Enclosed is the small portion of our correspondence to Church Officials.

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List do Biskupa Malone

Letter to Bishop Malone

Parishioners

Our Lady of Ostrabrama

696 North Main Street

Brockton, MA 02301

His Excellency

The Most Reverend Richard J. Malone

236 Pleasant Street

South Weymouth, MA 02190

Date: February 24, 2002

Your Excellency,

We, parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church in Brockton, would like to express our great appreciation for your concern with our spiritual needs and for your proposition to grant permission to the Polish priest from South Boston for celebrating a Polish Mass once a month in St. Edward’s Church.

As you know, we have our own church in which we have worshiped God for so many years according to our rich Polish tradition, and which was closed based on your recommendation on December 31, 2001. We would like you to reconsider your decision and reopen our church for us. You are aware that we continue coming and we pray every Sunday in front of the closed door of our church for its reopening. We hope that you read our weekly “reports”, which we send to your attention. We believe that some day one of them will move your soul and change your heart.

Our small church was built on the foundation of deep faith and sacrifices of our ancestors - poor immigrants, who hoped that it would serve generations after generations of people. We are faithful to their wishes and want to continue worship God in this church.

Therefore, although we are very grateful for your generous gesture towards us parishioners, we cannot accept it, because it is contradictory to what we are trying to accomplish and what we pray for, it is: RESURRECTION OF OUR CHURCH.

We do not see the reason why we should go to St. Edward’s church for one Mass a month, if we have our own church, Our Lady of Ostrabrama, when we can have Masses every Sunday.

We would greatly appreciate your understanding of our situation and we hope for a prompt response.

Yours in Christ,