Boston’s Magnificent Holy Trinity Church Closes

NEWS RELEASE

MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE

(617) 524-6309

CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE MOURNS CLOSING OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today mourned the closing of the venerable Holy Trinity church in Boston’s South End. The parish was suppressed today by a decree of Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston. The last masses were celebrated yesterday, June 29th, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

Holy Trinity was the last German Catholic parish in New England, and was one of only two venues in the Archdiocese which offered weekly Sunday celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass. In a surprise move, the Archdiocese announced that Holy Cross Cathedral will now provide regular Sunday celebrations of the Tridentine Mass.

The Archdiocese did not consider the parish to be financially viable, although it had nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the bank and a weekly income from collections alone of more than a thousand dollars.

The parish, which opened in 1844, introduced the Christmas tree and the Christmas card to Puritan New England. Its parishioners were among the founders of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The present church building, which dates to 1877, was designed by the renowned Irish born ecclesiastical architect Patrick C. Keely, who built scores of churches and cathedrals in the eastern United States.

The Catholic Action League called the closing “another tragic and wounding loss to the spiritual and cultural patrimony of the Catholic community in Boston.”

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: “Magnificent churches of irreplaceable artistic, architectural, and historical value are being plundered for their assets and then sold off in the elusive quest by the Archdiocese to achieve financial solvency through downsizing. Meanwhile, church structures of little or no aesthetic or historical significance remain open. The destruction of our Catholic heritage must stop.”

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