Is it about the Mass...or sexual orientation?

Boston's Jesuit Urban Center announced its upcoming closing today. Oddly enough, the church that "serves many gays" offers one Mass a week -- let's give 'em credit, it's on Sunday -- and attracts maybe 200 tops worshippers. It's closing because of money problems.

New England Jesuit superior Father Thomas J. Regan is "incredibly disappointed."

I don't blame him...I would be too. But this comment gives me pause:

"A lot of people are still in the church because of the Jesuits," he said. "We do not want to abandon these people. But there's a spirit among this group, and I think that's going to be lost, and that's very sad."

What's sad to me is that because a church that caters to active homosexuality is closing, its worshippers are going to "lose a spirit." Why?

It's not that there isn't other places to participate in the Holy Sacrifice!

As I've said before, many times in fact, Boston is a city with hot-and-cold running holy water! You can't walk a few blocks without coming across a Catholic Church.

Father Regan is quoted as saying:

...the Jesuits would continue to welcome gays and lesbians to worship at St. Ignatius of Loyola , the parish they oversee in Chestnut Hill, and that there are two other downtown congregations that have been reaching out to gay Catholics, the Paulist Center on Beacon Hill and St. Anthony Shrine, operated by the Franciscans, near Downtown Crossing.

Well, yeah, but there's a parish -- a real one -- a mere 3 or 4 blocks away.

Regan also said members of the congregation may choose to worship at the nearby Cathedral of the Holy Cross, also in the South End, but many gay Catholics are likely to balk at that option because the cathedral is the seat of Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage.

How weird is this?

The Roman Catholic Church Herself is an "outspoken opponent of same-sex 'marriage'" for Pete's sake...what makes Cathedral so unique in that? What, after all, is the purpose of Sunday worship? A self-affirmation? No! It's about Jesus Christ, not about any particular "lifestyle." And you JUC congregants know this as well as I do and if you don't, then some shepherd's been feeding you arsenic, rather than the life giving Word you sheep ought -- no, deserve! -- to be fed.

Sheesh.

Come one, come all!

As a parishioner of Cathedral, I can tell you Jesuit Urban folks something -- you're more than welcome to join the parish. We need you. Jesus doesn't...but He loves you and wants you.

You know that, don't you?