Visitation's closing was heartless

By James Dalton

“It’s only a building,” in the phrasing of a recent weekly bulletin from Visitation Church.
With these words and the simple turn of a lock, the 80-year story of a parish came to an end this week. The anger and the hurt of the past year have found rest in our decency. The tears of disbelief have dried in the breezes of memory. And the thoughtless process that put that key into that lock will remain forever with us, like that of a childhood scar.
I wrote earlier this year that this decision by Cardinal Timothy Dolan was thoughtless in the full and true meaning of that word. I wrote that the decision to close Visitation along with so many other parishes forever will diminish the Archdiocese of New York and that for such a decision to be made at this time in our social history and in the violent and deadly times of this world was beyond reason. Current and continuing events have made that all the more acute.
The purpose of this letter is not to reopen or to reargue the case for Visitation.  For I know that there are eyes that will not see and there are ears that will not hear and that there are voices that remain willfully silent. No. The purpose of this letter is to recount and to remind people how the Archdiocese in the person of this cardinal and his designees have treated the good, faithful and supportive parishioners of Visitation since this decision was announced in early November. The decision was read at the Sunday Masses and its text was inserted in the weekly bulletin. That was how the cardinal saw fit to announce this historic and unsettling decision.
There was no attempt on his part or through his bishop to reach out or to visit the parish so that he could speak to our eyes and to assuage our hurt by assuring us that the worst of options was the only option. No. None of that was given to us. There was only absence and silence. We were but that last leaf on a lonely November branch awaiting the first chill of winter.