Canton parish to be renamed as St. Oscar Romero

The Reverend Thomas Rafferty, the pastor of Canton Catholic Community, which saw the merger of St. John the Evangelist and St. Gerard Majella churches into a single parish in October of 2020, announced last week that the new combined parish will be known as St. Oscar Romero. The new name of the parish is likely to take effect in February. Both St. John’s and St. Gerard’s church buildings and facilities will continue to be used; however, one of the churches will close at some point in the future.

Oscar Romero on a visit to Rome in 1978 (Arzobispado de San Salvador; Congregatio de Causis Sanctorum / Public Domain)

“I’m very excited about it,” Rafferty said of the parish’s new name. “(Oscar Romero) is a saint of our era. He’s a saint of the Americas. He was canonized in 2018.”

In a letter to Canton Catholic Community parishioners, Rafferty shared information about the life story of the Central American Archbishop who was nominated for the Noble Prize for Peace in 1979 after years of working on behalf of the poor and advocating for human rights in his native El Salvador. Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980, as he was saying Mass. His feast day is March 24.

“Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador, the capitol of El Salvador in the 1970s,” Rafferty wrote. “He was an outspoken proponent of the rights of the poor and marginalized. He was a pacifist who opposed violence on all sides of the political divide. He was assassinated by a military hit squad while saying Mass in 1980. It was widely believed that it was in reaction to his support for human rights. He was canonized in 2018. We can and will learn more about our new patron saint in the months and years ahead. There are lots of good websites with information about him, his life and martyrdom.”

Due to declining attendance at Masses and other factors, over the last several years, some Catholic parishes in the Boston Archdiocese have formed collaborative parishes as a way to save on finances and to make better use of resources, such as staff, religious education and music programs, and the use of buildings. In June of 2018, the two Catholic parishes in Canton entered into a collaborative known as the Canton Catholic Community. Each church kept its name and offered religious services to members of the collaborative. At that time, Rafferty did not envision that the two churches would merge into a single parish. But the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on church attendance and financial support forced Rafferty and members of the administrative councils at both churches to look at their options.

Seven months after the pandemic shuttered the doors at both churches and Masses were offered online, Rafferty formally requested that Cardinal Sean O’Malley authorize a merger of the two parishes, and the request was subsequently approved. In his letter to parishioners, Rafferty included information about the selection of the name, St. Oscar Romero, and the process going forward with regard to the closing of one of the churches. (Saint John the Evangelist School is slated to remain open.)

“We have also entered into an agreement with an architectural firm, Habeeb and Associates, to conduct an assessment of our facilities,” he wrote. “At some future point we envision consolidating into a single worship site. We are confident that either facility is sufficient to accommodate worshippers.”

Rafferty added, “If we were not confronted with the COVID crisis we would probably have delayed the choice of a name and engaged in some form of parish consultation. However, the inability to gather made meetings impossible. Importantly, we did not have the financial capacity to delay the merger until after the virus is behind us.”

Rafferty has purchased several DVD copies of the 1989 film Romero, starring Raul Julia, to share with staff and administrative council members of the Canton Catholic Community and wants to encourage parishioners to watch the film to learn more about the saint. He said that Cardinal Sean knew Romero personally and he hopes to invite the cardinal to speak to the parish about the man who is now a saint.

In his letter, Rafferty said that the eventual closing of St. John’s and St. Gerard’s churches and the renaming of Canton Catholic Community may be confusing for some, but stressed that St. Oscar Romero will be one parish comprising the two churches, St. Gerard and St John.

“I love the message it sends,” Rafferty said of the new name, “to be an inclusive, welcoming parish focused on the dignity of every person. He spoke up for the voiceless, for social justice. To have a parish named after him should be a source of pride.”

The Canton parish will be the first St. Oscar Romero in the Archdiocese of Boston.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Jan 22 2021. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.