The Archdiocese of New Orleans, with help from the New Orleans police, ended a 10-week occupation of two closed churches with the arrest of two people.Police gained entry into Our Lady of Good Counsel Church to ask parishioners to leave or face arrest Jan. 6.
Two people were arrested and another, a cancer patient, was escorted home.
About 12 blocks away at St. Henry Church, police charged one parishioner with criminal trespassing.
New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes made the decision Jan. 5 to request police intervention when it became apparent that the people occupying the closed churches would not leave after being asked to do so by archdiocesan officials.
The archdiocese had changed the locks and secured Our Lady of Good Counsel Church Jan. 3 after asking one man to leave and not seeing anyone else on the church property.
A few hours later, a group of former parishioners regained access to the church.
It was not clear if they had been hiding inside when the locks were changed or if they had entered through an unsecured door or window.
During a Jan. 3 press conference at the archdiocesan administration building, the archbishop said his decision to close Our Lady of Good Counsel was in response to safety issues uncovered during previous inspections.
The archbishop also mentioned that the archdiocese's insurance carriers required a change in its insurance coverage because the buildings were no longer being used for their original purposes.
Then on Jan. 5, archdiocesan building officials doing a routine inspection were denied access to Our Lady of Good Counsel Church.
"We as owners were being forbidden entrance into our own property," Archbishop Hughes said.
He noted that the former parishioners had barricaded the newly secured door from the inside after gaining access to the building.
The archbishop said that action prompted him to ask for police help in ending the occupations.
"We explored every possible alternative to persuade people to leave the building and to respect the integrity of the church building, and, if not, what alternatives were there to ensure that that happened," Archbishop Hughes said.
The archdiocese announced the closing of both parishes Oct. 16, and the last Masses were celebrated Oct. 26. The occupations began later that day.
Archbishop Hughes began a plan to reorganize the archdiocese in April. Under that plan, parishioners at St. Henry's and Good Counsel became part of the newly formed Good Shepherd Parish at the former St. Stephen Catholic Church.
Msgr. Christopher Nalty, the pastor appointed to Good Shepherd Parish, has visited parishioners at the two closed churches several times and welcomed them to Good Shepherd.
After the events Jan. 3, Alden Hagardorn, a former St. Henry parishioner, said he and others from the closed parish were not giving up.
"Our plans are to continue to petition the archbishop of New Orleans and have the opportunity to sit down and have a respectful dialogue to come to a compromise to conclude these vigils and go forward in the spirit of Catholicism," Hagardorn told the Clarion Herald, archdiocesan newspaper of New Orleans, Jan. 5.
In the Boston Archdiocese, 24-hour vigils have been taking place at closed Catholic parishes for four years.
Last summer, the Catholic Church's highest court, the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, rejected appeals of the closures of eight Boston-area parishes.
Parish representatives have asked the court to reconsider their appeals and Boston church officials have said they will not take action on the occupied parishes until the appeal process is completed.
Parish reconfiguration in the Boston Archdiocese began in January 2004.
In a statement following the ruling of the Apostolic Signature, archdiocesan officials acknowledged the difficulty of parish closings.
"We recognize that the process of closing a parish and transitioning to a new setting is very challenging for all who are involved," the statement said.
"In the Archdiocese of Boston, as in many other places, the connection to our familiar place of worship can be very strong."
The statement added, "Going forward, we continue to hope and pray that through productive dialogue and mutual respect we can work together to strengthen the church, carry out the mission given us by Christ and be his witnesses in the world."
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(Source: NYP)