Part 3 of the S.F. St. Brigid story
Today's San Francisco Chronicle carries Part 3 (click on this post's title) of its three-part series on the long effort by the parishioners of St. Brigid Church (above) in downtown San Francisco to save their 144-year-old parish and their beautiful 106-year-old church from the Archdiocese of San Francisco and from the "arts" entity to which the Archdiocese has sold the church.Again, the story does not make pretty reading, but it is must reading for all church-preservers who want to have their blinders off in knowing how archdiocesan officials operate.
Of course, we have to figure that the Chronicle has run this story partly because of its scandal aspect. The Archdiocese does not come off well, and two leaders of the parishioners' efforts have problems: One got mad and stopped going to Mass regularly, and the other, now deceased, was an open homosexual. Further, the parish's ex-pastor praised the latter leader's Catholicism.
None of that, however, could ever detract from or invalidate the righteous Catholic cause of the parishioners of St. Brigid Parish.
Click on this link to read a letter that longtime St. Brigid parishioner Bruno Morelli wrote to Archbishop George Niederauer on February 8, 2006. Mr. Morelli's heartfelt letter conveys not only the history of the parishioners' effort to save St. Brigid Church but also their great sadness at the actions and attitude of the Archdiocese toward St. Brigid Church and toward themselves.
St. Brigid of Ireland, pray for your parishioners in San Francisco and for all of us, your spiritual children! Amen.
posted by Quintero at 11:17 AM
4 Comments:
Wrong wrong wrong. St. Brigid's was closed because it needed retrofitting (mucho dinero) and its parishioners were not tithing.Yes, it's sad that a beautiful church such as St. Brigid's had to be closed (the school is still in operation, however), but SF has several Catholic churches, all of which are vibrant and primarily funded by its parishioners. God can't pay the electric bill, no matter how hard we pray. Lighten up and stop being so hateful. It appears you see an enemy lurking around every corner!
Dear Anonymous 11 a.m.,
The parishioners dispute everything you say about St. Brigid.
Sure is funny how so many of the closures around the USA are of beautiful, historic churches.
Bad, bad theology, not worry about electrical bills and retrofits, is behind many of the closures.
One proof of that is that dioceses so often destroy the Catholic treasures inside the churches instead of preserving them.
Another proof is that the closures so often involve sales at a loss.
Also behind the closures is the need to make huge payoffs to the many victims of homosexual molester priests.
It is a tired and, yes, hateful argument to accuse traditional Catholics of "hate." Lamenting the unnecessary loss of our Catholic patrimony is not hate.
Dear Anonymous 6:11 p.m.,
Another point I should make is this: WHY should the Catholic Church EVER be closing churches, seminaries, schools, etc.?
We should be GROWING -- opening new churches and seminaries all the time, instead of retreating!
We should be preaching Gospel truth and converting the world to Catholicism -- but no, liberal Catholics do not evangelize, they instead look inward and criticize the Church for being faithful to the way Jesus founded Her.
The priests in question are not homosexual - they are pedophiles. Different pathology. And pedophiles are everywhere, not just in the San Francisco churches. And yes, it was (and is) a huge scandal because of broken trust. And yes, it costs the Archdiocese a lot of money to defend these guys. San Francisco is a VERY Catholic city, regardless of what outsiders think, and if a church is closed it is a huge loss for everyone. Unless you have spoken personally with former parishioners of St. Brigid's, please take the article for what it's worth - the SF Chron is historically anti-Catholic and will write anything in order to sully the Church's image and instill doubt in people's minds.
I know this is a digression, but where do you stand on the bishops' statement on immigration reform? At our parish we try to instill Catholic Social Teaching in all that we do. If that's not evangelizing, what is? Peace.
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