Motown takes a leaf from Beantown's book

I live in Boston, but I was born and raised in Detroit. Much of my family still lives there, or in the surrounding areas. Given that, an article on possible parish closings in the Archdiocese of Detroit interested me, particularly this quote:

"We will have some control of our destiny," said Tom Kyle, secretary of the Elephants in the Living Room, one of the two groups that plans to replicate some of the vigil strategies used in the Boston Archdiocese, which reversed three church closures announced in 2003.

Way to go, Boston! Sheesh.

Read the whole article if you want to, but allow me few observations.

Some other quotes of note:

[Rev. Tom]Lumpkin is among more than 300 Metro Detroit priests, nuns and parishioners in two groups who are rallying to prevent what they fear will be another round of church closings in Detroit and older suburbs.

And from the Rev. Norman Thomas:

"The greatest sacrament of all is community."

(No, I didn't make that up. Yes, I know what, or rather Who, the greatest Sacrament is.)

This one cracked me up:

[The dissident's document] questioned whether the planning was also driven by white residents' flight from the city and racism.

Huh? "White flight" began in Detroit in the late 1950s, for crying out loud! By the 1960s the city was mostly black. Where have these people been?

But the Rev. Robert B. McGrath wins the award for the most "huh?" inspiring quote:

"...the church shouldn't take away its churches simply because its parishioners are no longer there."

I've read it six times and still can't figure that one out.

It took about 15 seconds of googling Fathers Lumpkin and Thomas that led me to a group known as "Catholics for the Common Good"... which evidently packed up its toys and went home after Bush won the last election.