IMPACT OF CLOSING ST. PETER LITHUANIAN CHURCH, SO. BOSTON
Rev. Msgr. Albert J. Contons, Pastor Emeritus, June 13, 2004

As a parishioner of St. Peter Lithuanian Parish, So. Boston, I was baptized and confirmed here. As a priest I celebrated my first Solemn Mass in this church. I was a curate, resident priest assistant, pastor, and now retired pastor. Today I share the deep pain of the Lithuanian community of Greater Boston, devastated by the Archbishop's decision to close St. Peter Parish and School. Parishioners feel a sense of abandonment by their Archbishop. They are in consternation at the loss of their ancestral church, and the termination of effective evangelization and outreach by the Archdiocese to Lithuanians in Greater Boston.

 

ST PETER: STILL AN ACTIVE PARISH
During a centennial of parish life thousands of Lithuanians can trace their religious roots and upbringing to St. Peter Parish. The Parish is still respected as a pillar of the Lithuanian Catholic community in New England. Parishioners comprise hundreds of American born Lithuanian Catholics who value their Lithuanian heritage. Many post-World War II refugees from Lithuania and their families choose to worship in the Lithuanian language at Mass each Sunday and socialize at the luncheon that follows. Lithuanian liturgy is enhanced by the Lithuanian choir. More than 300 attend the Lithuanian liturgy Easter Sunday and on special occasions. The Knights of Lithuania Council 17 with 130 members, and the Boston Lithuanian School enrolling some 100 children and youths for Saturday classes have religious and cultural functions at St. Peter.
It is estimated that more than 2,000 new immigrants from Lithuania work or study in the Greater Boston area. Most are poor. Few have automobiles. They are often lonesome. They come from a country that endured severe Communist persecution of religion. They need evangelization. Many find their way to St. Peter's. One of them, a young mother, Aldona, with her husband and two small children settled in Boston. Aldona writes in Lithuanian, "My true home in America is the Lithuanian parish in So. Boston - St. Peter. Here the liturgy, prayers and hymns are in the Lithuanian language, the only language that I speak and understand. Here are the only people who extend much-needed help to us. I have met other immigrant families and students from Lithuania and they have the same experience. "

 

SACRIFICIAL GENEROSITY OF PARISHIONERS
Parishioners have been loyal supporters of the Archbishop's Annual Appeal. In 2002 the parish pledged $163,445 to the archdiocesan fund raising campaign called “Promise for Tomorrow”. This was 148% of its assessment. The closest any other South Boston parish came was 55% of their goal.
To aid Church renewal in Lithuania, St. Peter Parish donated $25,000 in the year 2002 to repair Calvary Church in Vilnius, Lithuania. Parishioners in 2003 donated $15,500
to publish a Lithuanian language prayer book for clergy and religious of Lithuania.
Last year the Parish Grand Annual Collection totaled $49,328. The parish has more than $165,000 in savings and has no outstanding debts or bills.
MUTUAL TRUST OF ARCHBISHOP AND PARISHIONERS
This year St. Peter's celebrates a centennial (1904-2004) of mutual trust. St. Peter Church was built by a Lithuanian Catholic lay committee with no priest or bishop in the picture. Lay Catholics raised funds, bought the land, hired an architect and contractor, and completed the church building in 1901. It took three years for the lay committee and Archbishop Williams to agree upon a Lithuanian pastor, who celebrated the first Mass Jan. 31, 1904. By 1906 the pastor had convinced the laymen who owned the church building to trust the Archbishop and sign the church property over to the Archdiocese. The church was solemnly dedicated Labor Day, 1908. This trust between Archbishop and Lithuanian Catholic community has brought mutual blessings during a centennial of fruitful parish life.
From 1990 to 2003 parishioners spent $1,700,000 rebuilding, renovating, and repairing St. Peter church to make it, in the mind of many, the most beautiful church in the Archdiocese. An engineering study commissioned by the Archdiocese last year estimated replacement value of St. Peter church and rectory at $10,600,000.

 

DECISION TO CLOSE: A PASTORAL DISASTER
To close St. Peter parish and evict parishioners from their beloved church for the
material gain that might accrue to the Archdiocese from the sale of property is widely seen as a grave injustice to the Lithuanian Catholic community. It was this community that built the church and sacrificed with a generous heart to maintain it.
The decision to close the parish and school was made contrary to the recommendation of the leader of the Archdiocesan Lithuanian Apostolate, Father Zukas, present pastor of St. Peter's. There was no prior discussion with parish council, finance council, parishioners, school principal, school board or parents. This seems to imply that the Archdiocesan decision making process has nothing to do with parishioners, school parents, and Lithuanian Catholic community. The closing seems a violation of the mutual trust that should exist between Archbishop and parishioners. Two years ago the archdiocesan fund raising campaign called “Promise for Tomorrow” offered bright hope. Today it is a campaign of Broken Promise and Dark Despair.
Evangelization is the very essence of the Catholic Church. The decision to close St. Peter Lithuanian Parish is alienating many faithful, generous, devout Catholics as though they were redundant to a reconfigured Archdiocese. This is ultimately a decision to terminate effective outreach and evangelization to parishioners and youth immigrating from Lithuania. New immigrants will find St. Peter Lithuanian church with doors locked, windows shuttered, reminiscent of what atheistic Communist authorities did to many churches in Lithuania.

 

PRAYER FOR RECONSIDERATION OF THE DECISION
What joy Lithuanians experience when the Gospel is proclaimed "in their native
language" as it was by the Apostles to residents of Jerusalem Pentecost Sunday! How welcoming to the many young Lithuanian immigrants who now find their way to St. Peter Church, make it their "true home," and are enriched by the liturgy and hymns in their own language!
St. Peter parishioners earnestly pray for a reconsideration of the Archbishop's decision. They look with hope to their Archbishop to fulfill for them today the words proclaimed by Jesus: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me." (Jn 10, 14)