Church-owned in San Francisco

Archbishop William Levada's agreeing to waive dimlomatic immunity and be deposed in January in the U.S. overshadowed, at least outside of San Francisco, another of his last official acts as Archbishop of San Francisco, to wit, his signing a letter of intent to sell the church and real estate of St. Brigid Parish to the Academy of Art University.  St. Brigid was closed back in 1994 by then-Archbishop John Quinn as a part of a major closing and re-organizing project that "looked to the future," long before we had heard of "the clergy and pedophilia" crisis and scandal.  Archbishop Quinn, after extensive but troubled and troublesome canonical process, closed some twenty per-cent of the Archdiocese's parishes, a few of which managed to see themselves re-opened in the same or different canonical status within a short time. 

The closing of St. Brigid Parish was among the most fiercely opposed, in part because of canonical irregularities in the process (to name just one, it appears that the pastor of the neighboring parish in Pacific Heights [St. Vincent de Paul], who was formerly was a curate at St. Brigid's, was on the committee that voted to close St. Brigid), in part because of the thriving conditions in the parish (a fact not reflected in, indeed variously obscured in, the report issued by the Archdiocese, but known by me from personal experience as a parishoner there in childhood and then again during law school in Berkeley and widely attested), and in part because of the sheer magnificence of this place of Catholic worship over more than a century.  St. Brigid church is one the most lovely places of worship in a city known for its beauty, a city blessed with such splendid church buildings as St. Mary's Cathedral, Grace Cathedral, St. Patrick's, and St. Dominics, to name just a few). 

The fervent and loyal parishoners of St. Brigid were aided in their multiplex efforts to see their parish re-opend by the San Francisco Chronicle's publishing leaked documents that tended to show that the Archdiocese was particularly eager for the proceeds of the sale of the property at the corner of Van Ness Ave. and Broadway, prime real estate by any accounting, good for almost anything -- except, of course, to house a Catholic parish, a parish that had nearly a million dollars in the bank (that then made its way into the Archdiocese's accounts) and that agreed, in response to arguments of distributive justice posed by Archbishop Quinn, to pay to retro-fit not only St. Brigid but also a "poor" parish of the Archbishop's choosing.  (It is virtually beyond question that the Archdiocese greatly exaggerated the costs necessary to retro-fit St. Brigid church).

After eleven years of prayer vigils and efforts that succeeded in getting the church declared an historical landmark, St. Brigid Church has escaped the wrecking ball now to be used for "community and public assemblies."  Les McDonald, real estate manager for the Archdiocese, assures that the sale will not be concluded if the use to which the University will put the church "goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church."  As Cordelia in Brideshead Revisited knew, there was nothing about closing the chapel at Brideshead that violated Church teaching; it was only that from now on, every day it was to be as on Good Friday.

Archbishop Levada has made no secret of the fact that the church that lasted eleven years after it was closed -- others were razed with breathaking promptness -- will be sold to pay to settle law suits.  My firm conviction is that Archbishop Levada has done his best in an impossible situation.  The church never should have been closed, but it seemed to some who closed it that there was insufficient reason to preserve for another generation a house of worship that comes once in the history of a city.  Quinn was gone not longer after his decisions took effect, lecturing at Oxford on the need to revise our understandings of the Petrine office to conform, in part, to the authority of particular churches throughout the world.  Those who knew St. Brigid on the day the parish closed know now that this was an exemplary parish, a place of worthy worship and devoted service to the local church and city.  Yes, the Archdiocese of San Fransisco suffers from a shortage of vocations to the priesthood, and that shortage was given as a reason militating in favor of closing St. Brigid.  But can we wonder at the shortage of priests when viable faith communities are dispersed to sell real estate and art (and a mighty Ruffatti organ) bought by the faithful at great personal cost to themselves and their families to the glory of God and in service of His worship?  Archbishop O'Malley of Boston is right that the buildings serve, and are not identical with, the Church.  In San Francisco, when St. Brigid opens its doors to "community and public assemblies" after the altar stone has been removed, the Church will be the worse for it.

I report this in sadness, but in the hope that broader awareness of how these things happen will help to prevent repeat performances.  Back when Archbishop Quinn closed St. Brigid, back when I was among those petitioning Rome to review and vacate the decision to close St. Brigid, I was sure that the loss that has come to pass would be prevented.