Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

No Closure: Catholic Practice and Boston's Parish Shutdowns

2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jahist/jar618

1945-2314

Thomas Rzeznik,

American Constitutional Law and Politics

In 2004, with the wounds of the sexual abuse crisis still fresh among the faithful, the archdiocese of Boston announced plans to close or merge more than eighty parishes in the city and surrounding suburbs. In this work, John C. Seitz tells the story of those who responded to that decision by occupying their churches in round-the-clock vigils, some of which remain ongoing. By conducting fieldwork within these parishes and at times participating in the vigils, he explores the deeper meanings of these protests for those involved. Delving into the “inner histories of resisting Catholics,” he captures their personal struggles to make sense of their situation and justify their actions, and sees in their experiences a collective effort to discern the demands of faith (p. 17). By exploring the “relevant pasts” that conditioned their responses to the parish closures, Seitz convincingly demonstrates how resisting Catholics were engaged in much more than a lay revolt against church authority (p. 33). Their decision to occupy their parishes was shaped by the parishes’ earlier theological formation, which emphasized notions of sacrifice and stressed the inherent sacrality of church buildings and the objects they contained. The legacy of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), with its pronouncements on the primacy of individual conscience in moral decision making and its call for a more active laity, likewise weighs heavily in Seitz’s analysis, though one might wonder to what extent his subjects took recourse in theological arguments only after the fact.