October 24, 2004
There are times when current events in Boston recall earlier episodes in the city's long and convoluted history. Changing attitudes about the closing of Catholic churches bring back memories about the early stages of urban renewal in Boston some 50 years ago.
Back in the 1950s, the concept of urban renewal was completely new and untried when Mayor John Hynes and his administration began the first steps in creating a New Boston on the ashes of what had become an old and rundown city. In an apparently well-intentioned move to clean up the congested area of the old West End, however, the city decided upon a drastic policy of what amounted to total destruction.
The demolition of the entire West End neighborhood, and the terrible grief of the poor tenants who were deprived of their homes, almost brought urban renewal to a halt. Only the promises by Mayor John Collins, who followed Hynes into office, - that renewal would be conducted in a more professional and compassionate manner - allowed the process to continue, but under increasing suspicion by local residents that what had happened in the West End would not happen in their neighborhoods.
Although Old Scollay Square was entirely demolished to make way for the new Government Center, last-minute appeals by historians and local preservations finally persuaded the Collins administration to spare the old Sears Crescent and allow it to remain a part of new City Hall complex.
And later, when many city planners called for the demolition of the old Quincy Market, Mayor Kevin White insisted that the historic site be repaired and restored for future generations to see and admire.
At the present time, the process of closing Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Boston may be following the earlier pattern of urban renewal. The necessity of closing so many churches also was unprecedented and untried. After the initial series of what seems to have been unilateral announcements and abrupt closings, Archbishop Sean O'Malley appears to be in the process of considering whether or not there may be less drastic ways of conducting the process, and more sensitive ways of dealing with those parishioners who face being literally evicted from their spiritual homes.
There are few observers who would question the fact that a reconfiguration is necessary - demographic changes and economic realities make that quite clear. There are many, however, who question whether the way in which the process has been carried out provides sufficient explanations for the closings, and adequate counseling for those who have lost their immediate spiritual identity.
The decision by O'Malley to establish a board of prominent Catholics to renew the process of church closings, and his recent comment that he is reconsidering certain decisions, shows the Boston's archbishop is at least listening. And these days, that is a welcome and refreshing sign.
Thomas H. O'Connor is university historian at Boston College and the author of ``Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and its People.''