They have a prayer, but no parking http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=221017&ac=PHnws BILL NEMITZ November 9, 2008
Like most Sunday churchgoers, the good people of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Portland will pray for all kinds of things when they gather for Mass this morning: world peace, President-elect Barack Obama, a light at the end of this long, dark economic tunnel ... And, oh yes, a place to park. "I'd so much prefer using my homilies to talk to my congregation about moral and spiritual issues," lamented the Rev. James LaFontaine last week. Instead, the parish's pastor finds himself warning his flock these days that just beyond the church's doors, tow trucks are lurking. Why? First, a little background. Since St. Patrick opened in 1965, parishioners have used the adjacent Westgate Shopping Center to park. They even had a letter from the shopping center owner allowing them to do so – a good thing since the church has no lot of its own and street parking on outer Congress Street is out of the question. Enter Charter Realty & Development Corp., a New York-based firm that last year acquired Westgate and wanted to buy St. Patrick Church for $1.5 million as well. It was a tempting offer. St. Patrick, whose elementary school closed in 2007, had fallen on such hard financial times that the parish had to borrow $500,000 from the Diocese of Portland to stay afloat. "Long story short, we all dug a little deeper and put a little more in the collection plate," said Tom Connolly, who has worshipped at St. Patrick for more than 40 years. That generosity, combined with the recent sale of the old school and convent, allowed St. Patrick's congregation to pay off its debt, get back in the black and hang on to its beloved church. But alas, not its parking spaces. First came the chain-link fence – erected by Charter Realty while it spruced up the Westgate plaza. For months, the fence has cut off the two paved sidewalks leading directly from the church to the parking lot. Then a week ago Friday, a somewhat apologetic tow-truck operator stopped by the church office. "He told our secretary that he'd been instructed (by Charter Realty) to have his trucks ready, that they were to tow (church parkers) every single day – including Sunday," LaFontaine said. Last Sunday, LaFontaine deployed ushers to wave off parishioners as they turned into the lot. Instead, the faithful were directed to a grassy area behind the church, a small lot at a nearby medical office building and on-street spaces along the side roads in the surrounding Libbytown neighborhood. Ted Borduas stood at the door to the church handing out bulletins when he saw an elderly man park on a side street and then try to cross four-lane Congress Street to get to the church. "The cars all stopped – except one on the inside lane. It missed him by an inch," said Borduas. "It's scary. I mean it's not good." And it's apt to get worse. Borduas, who married his wife, Sue, at St. Patrick 43 years ago, said much of the congregation is elderly. Add this winter's snowbanks to the current parking mix, he said, and someone's going to get hurt. "It's just not a healthy situation," Borduas said. Nor, when you think about it, does it make a lot of sense. For starters, the 700 or so families who belong to St. Patrick all patronize the businesses in Westgate – at least they have until now. What's more, they generally use the lot for church parking when most of those businesses are closed – and when the stores are open, say, during Saturday afternoon Mass, the unwritten rule has always been to park as far away from the storefronts as possible. (Hence no complaints, ever, from the retailers.) Finally, while nobody suggests that Charter Realty doesn't have the legal right to call in the tow trucks, its willingness to do so while an entire congregation worships next door feels just plain wrong. calls last week to Charter Realty co-founder Paul Brandes were not returned. But if you look at the company's Web site, you'll see that "Charter prides itself on and continually strives to maintain the integrity of its relationship with both landlords and tenants alike." And its good neighbors? They can take a hike. Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom!<*}}}>< Prayer for Unborn Life: O GOD OF LIFE AND LOVE, You have given us the gift to participate with You to bring new life into the world. But, all too often, the mother's womb, which should be a nursery of life, becomes instead a place of it's destruction. Help us to remove this evil and ensure respect for all life made in Your image and likeness, called to fulfill its promise on this earth, and destined to find a home with you for all eternity. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our God, Our Savior, and Our ALL. Amen. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Please note that I do not send or open attachments sent to this list. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Catholics on Fire" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Catholics-on-Fire May the blessing of Jesus and our Blessed Mother be with you -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
