St. Casimir Catholic Church will have its final Mass on Sunday, but parishioners won’t allow the regional bishop and other clergy to attend. Parishioners voted recently to not allow Bishop John A. Dooher, the Rev. Allan Butler, administrator for St. Casimir Church, and the Rev. Francis J. Clougherty, regional vicar and pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, to attend the final Mass at the church, said the church’s cantor, Maryte Bizinkauskas.
“We ask that they don’t show up because we just don’t want them there,” Bizinkauskas said Wednesday.
“They’re the manufacturers of this closing,” she said. “They were instrumental in the closing, and we as a parish community feel strongly that we don’t want them there.”
Dooher, who was attending a meeting in Detroit, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Butler could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Clougherty, pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Brockton, did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
In an e-mail to The Enterprise, Terrence C. Donilon, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, said he hopes parishioners and the archdiocese can work together.
“We have great respect for the parishioners of St. Casimir and we fully understand how they are feeling at this time,” Donilon said. “Our hope and prayer is that in the course of the days and weeks ahead we can continue to work together as they transition from St. Casimir and that together we can work for the common good of the church.”
The Archdiocese of Boston issued a decree of suppression on Tuesday for St. Casimir Catholic Church, Donilon said.
The decree was mailed to all registered parishioners of St. Casimir Wednesday, he said.
“Out of respect for them it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment until they have received (the decree),” Donilon said.
Parishioners will have until July 14 to respond to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Donilon said.
“We’re definitely going to appeal,” said Bizinkauskas, but “appealing does not mean (Archdiocesan officials) don’t change the locks.”
The appeal process, first to the archdiocese, and if denied at that level, then to Rome, could take years.
Bizinkauskas said other clergy have been invited to attend the final church Mass on Sunday.
The Rev. John P. Prusaitis, who served as pastor of St. Casimir from 1994 to 2006, and the Rev. Stephan Zukas, pastor of St. Peter Lithuanian Church in South Boston, have been invited, she said.
Birute Silvia, a lifelong parishioner, said she was not among parishioners who voted June 18 to ban the bishop and other clergy from Sunday’s Mass, but she “fully” understands the reasoning of that vote.
“With all due respect to their position in the church and as human beings, they did not show a great deal of empathy (in closing the church),” Silvia, 69, said of Archdiocesan officials. “So where’s the milk of human kindness?”
The church on Sawtell Avenue, built by Lithuanian immigrants, celebrated its 110th anniversary earlier this month.
Originally named St. Rocco, the church boasts a rich history of faith and culture and is the founding home of the national Knights of Lithuania.
Outside, on the lawn at St. Casimir, signs of the opposition to the closure can be seen.
Parishioners have erected several wooden crosses on the church’s “Hill of Crosses,” which emulates a pilgrimage site in Lithuania.
“We’re grieving over the loss of our parish. There’s going to be crying, sobbing, everywhere,” Bizinkauskas said of the final Mass on Sunday.
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