The church closings in Boston are underway, and it's getting harder to see them through. Some congregations are being transferred in their entirety to neighboring parishes, so at least they have somewhere to go -- a "welcoming parish" that will take in the people and some of their church furnishings -- serving at least as a commemoration of the old parish.
In contrast, members of some ethnic parishes - churches unique in the Archdiocese for their ministry to a specific nationality group - are being told: your parish's ethnic-specific mission is completed, so you should join your geographical parish.
Of course, there is a problem with this. Regardless of whether we think separate ethnic parishes were ever a good thing at all, these communities exist. They are real groupings of the faithful with a shared history. And unlike the parishes being merged into specific neighbors, they are being told: your community is to be dissolved. This is about as far as you can get from "strengthen your brethren".
No wonder the faithful of the Lithuanian, German, and French parishes are distressed: those communities are not experiencing the change as closing one door and opening another. For them, it's just a closing.
If I remember right, the rebellious non-ethnic parish in Weymouth whose parishioners are occupying their old building is in an analogous position: instead of being merged into some other parish as a group, their territory has been carved up and dispersed.
I guess this can serve as a "lesson learned" on how not to set about closing parishes.
