NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: March 26, 2005
Contacts: Peter Borré, 617-448-3850, pxb3@rcn.com
Fr. Ronald Ingalls, 508-881-5380
Fr. Terry McDonough, 781-834-6903

Celebration of Easter Mass at Shaw Park in Natick, Organized by Friends of Sacred Heart in Natick
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There will be an Easter Mass in South Natick at Shaw Park on Sunday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m., organized by the Friends of Sacred Heart, a group of Catholics from the suppressed parish of Sacred Heart in Natick.

The Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. Ronald Ingalls, and con-celebrated by the Rev. Terry McDonough; Fr. McDonough had been asked to celebrate an Easter Mass in Quincy, until Archbishop Sean O’Malley intervened and pre-empted this by agreeing belatedly to send a newly ordained diocesan priest to Quincy. Fr. Ingalls and Fr. McDonough are married Roman Catholic priests. These arrangements were made through CITI Ministries of Framingham, a group that advocates for married priests.

The Council of Parishes strongly supports the efforts of parishioners to resist the flawed reconfiguration policies of the Archdiocese of Boston. The Council is disturbed by the favoritism displayed recently by the Archdiocese, where some parishes in vigil were granted a diocese-approved priest for the Easter Mass, while similar requests by other parishes in vigil at Christmas and at Easter were denied or ignored.

While the Archdiocese granted a priest for Easter Mass to Quincy worshipers from a closed parish, the Archdiocese did not extend this consideration to the Easter Mass planned for South Natick “apparently because they [the Archdiocese] expect a smaller group there.” (Boston Globe, March 26, 2005)

Peter Borré, co-chair of the Council of Parishes commented: “This shows that the Archdiocese makes priests available to grieving Catholics based on its estimated size of the crowd, not on the spiritual needs of the faithful; using priests and Holy Day Masses as bargaining chips is a regrettable bargaining tactic.”