Dear Archbishop O’Malley,
As a Jew married to a Catholic woman, in a family where we’ve decided to raise our 3 children as Catholics, I’d like to voice my sadness and indignation at the closing of Sacred Heart Parish.
I was drawn to Christianity because to me it seems to say that every person is essentially good and moral at their core. The teachings of Jesus amplify feelings that I feel inside myself when we know I am doing good.
In the Archdiocese of Boston, the good will of churchgoers has been rewarded first with a cover-up of a sex abuse scandal, and now with a gross misrepresentation of why parishes are being closed and how the closings were chosen.
I know the people who worship at Sacred Heart have the kind of Christian values I’ve come to identify with. Sadly these values seem to have been lost on the local church leadership. We bring our trust and faith to the church. Now the church is taking away our community, offering explanations that are so transparently false it’s as if we’re being treated like children.
Jesus was a Jew who spoke out against the politics of the temple priesthood. We could use someone like him today.
Sincerely,