BOSTON -- Knowing the layout of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross has served Kelly Thatcher well.

At the height of the clergy abuse scandal, the cathedral's lesser-known entrances and exits allowed her to go to and from Mass without confronting the throngs of angry protesters who gathered at its main doors. Most of the faithful who came to the cathedral each Sunday were not as familiar with the building. Thatcher and other parishioners served as escorts, leading and protecting worshipers heading to Mass every Sunday. Thatcher remembered that the protesters could be "very, very angry and sometimes abusive."

"I'm not judging, I'm just saying the way it was," she told The Pilot on Dec. 16. "It was not a fun time, but it was a toughening time. These visitors had a right, and we had a right to worship where we wanted to worship."

Thatcher was not alone. The rest of the cathedral's parishioners had the same experience during the scandal, and she believes it strengthened their faith.

"I mean, let's face it," she said, "walking through a crowd of angry people, being cursed, spit on, wasn't pleasant, but it sure doesn't compare to a 33-year-old guy carrying a cross through the street and being whipped and spat on."

At the time, Thatcher was close friends and business partners with fellow parishioner Alden Thatcher. In 2009, they were married at the cathedral by its rector, Msgr. Kevin O'Leary. The Thatchers have volunteered at the cathedral longer than Msgr. O'Leary has been there.

"She was a dedicated, extraordinary minister of the Eucharist," Msgr. O'Leary told The Pilot on Dec. 6. "Her husband was involved and volunteered in so many ways. He was an usher for so many years, very supportive of the parish for so many years."

He said that Kelly would be at the cathedral "at a moment's notice" whenever she was needed. She is a lector and a longtime faith formation teacher. Alden would prepare the materials she used for teaching and was the head usher at the cathedral for 10 years. He told The Pilot that he considers himself the silent partner in his and Kelly's ministry. For their service, Kelly, 72, and Alden, 78, were two of 151 people who received Cheverus Awards in 2023 for service to the Archdiocese of Boston. As parishioners at the cathedral, the Thatchers had a close relationship with Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley and Cardinal Bernard Law.

"The cathedral, as Cardinal Law would insist, isn't just for the parishioners," Kelly said. "It's the church of the Archdiocese of Boston. It's everybody's cathedral."

The cathedral impresses many with its grandeur, but to the Thatchers, it's simply their home parish.

Alden grew up in New Bedford, where his grandmother made sure he was at Mass every Sunday, and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He was stationed at the Fleet Intelligence Center in Hawaii, drawing maps and diagrams.

"It was all top-secret work, so I can't tell you," he said.

Alden is a "semi-retired" graphic designer and Massachusetts College of Art graduate. He met Kelly at the advertising agency where they both worked. Kelly was born in Detroit and moved to the suburbs when she was a little girl. There was no Catholic school there, so her family bused her into the city every day so she could get a Catholic education through high school. She studied sociology at Wayne State University. Her first husband was a chemist named William Clark, who moved with her to Boston for work. Clark died in 1986 at age 40. Upon his death, Kelly moved into their condo in Boston's South End, became a parishioner at the cathedral, and went into business with Alden under the name Alden + Clark. Thatcher became a parishioner at the cathedral in 1997. Before they married, they would attend Mass but didn't pray together on their own time. After they married, they did so constantly.

"Praying together has been an absolute joy, and I'm sure it strengthened our marriage," Kelly said.

Outside of her work in the cathedral, Kelly taught Bible study at St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center.

"There was a number of people who were interested, and it grew," she said. "And we would have people stopping. They were shopping at the mall, and they stopped in."

One man who joined Bible study asked her what denomination she was. When she said she was Catholic, he replied: "What are you doing reading the Bible?"

"He was under the impression that Catholics just did not read the Bible at all, and was so moved that he began to cry, and I'll never forget that," Kelly said. "And there was a number of incidents like that."

Kelly taught Bible study until the pandemic forced it to close in 2020.

"It was a way of evangelizing that none of us would have even considered," she said. "But it was very, very, very rewarding, and I couldn't have done it without the materials that Alden prepared for us. He works behind the scenes."

The Thatchers now live in Roxbury. Alden builds model ships in his spare time, and Kelly creates crossword puzzles, which she sells to newspapers. Her crosswords have been published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She has found that building crosswords can be a spiritual activity. She recently designed a puzzle with a man who will be entering full communion with the church this Easter. The puzzle was published in The Wall Street Journal.

"We had to restrain ourselves from making every single clue somehow related to the faith," Kelly said. "You know how people coming into the church are. They're so psyched, they really, really are. I had to stop him. We can't make every single clue Catholic-oriented. I don't think The Wall Street Journal would buy that."

The Thatchers have no children, but the cathedral has become a family to them. Their fellow parishioners were there for their wedding and for the funeral of Kelly's aunt Priscilla, who was her maid of honor.

"People were so supportive of us," Kelly said.

That same parish family was there to see them receive the Cheverus Award from Cardinal O'Malley. Kelly said that she and Alden were shocked to have won and were "sheepish" at the ceremony, surrounded by the "amazing" people who also won the award.

"We kind of just did what we had to do and what we were supposed to do, and had fun and still have fun doing it," she said.