Local
Reconfiguration continues

By Father Robert M. O'Grady
Posted: 10/8/2004

Another set of decrees was released this week and the list affects parishes and several parts of the archdiocese.

In Concord the two existing parishes — Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Bernard will be suppressed on Oct. 25 at noon; on the same day at 12:01 PM a new parish, Holy Family, will come into existence in the Boston suburb. The new parish will worship at St. Bernard Church.

Decrees have also been signed affecting the following parishes:

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, an Italian national parish in East Boston, served by the Franciscan Friars will be suppressed on Oct. 12; parochial records will be kept at Sacred Heart Parish, East Boston.

St. James the Apostle parish will close on Oct. 18, the territory will be divided between two neighboring parishes: St. Camillus, Arlington and St. Eulalia, Winchester. Parish records will be maintained at St. Camillus, Arlington.

In the Squantum section of Quincy, Star of the Sea parish there will be suppressed on Oct. 24 and joined to its mother parish, Sacred Heart, Quincy where the parish records will be preserved.

Immaculate Conception Parish, Everett will become larger in territory on Oct. 27 when its neighbor St. Therese Parish closes, Everett’s mother parish will be the new home to the records as well as the parishioners of St. Therese.

In Scituate, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the only parish in the archdiocese named after the first American citizen to be a canonized saint, will close its doors on Oct. 29 and the parishioners there will be welcomed at St. Mary of Nativity Parish which will also become the new home of the parish’s records.

A parish that just a few years ago resulted from the merger of two Brookline parishes will be suppressed on Oct. 30 when Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Parish becomes part of St. Mary of the Assumption parish. The closing of this parish leaves St. Mary with the pastoral care of the whole town of Brookline as well as being the new home for Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence’s parish records.

In one of the southernmost towns of the archdiocese, Rochester, St. Rose of Lima Parish there will be suppressed on Oct. 31 and become part of Sacred Heart Parish, Middleborough. The parish records will be kept at Sacred Heart, and the Middleborough parish will be maintaining the church building of St. Rose “to be used solely as a site for worship.”

On that same day, Oct. 31, St. James the Great Parish in Wellesley will close. Having sections of both Natick and Wellesley, the parish will be divided along town lines with its Natick section going to St. Patrick, while the Wellesley section will be part of St. Paul Parish. St. Paul will be the home to the parish’s records.

In addition to assigning the locations of the parish records as well as new borders, the decrees determine the destiny of the “goods and obligations” of the various parishes.