Back in law school days, I lived in Brighton, Mass., where St. John's Seminary of the Boston Archdiocese was my silent, aloof neighbor. The seminary was set in a large wooded park, and from what I could see of it on my way to and from the T, it appeared a tranquil, tastefully designed campus, typical of many other pre-Vatican II church properties. A few years back, the whole kit and caboodle was sold to neighboring Boston College in order to raise cash to pay victims of priestly sexual abuse. The property included a Chapel to the Blessed Virgin containing the remains of Boston's Cardinal O'Connell, who died in 1944. The sale closed quickly, and provisions for the Chapel's future were left vague. Boston College never wanted the Chapel, and they have unceremoniously demolished it. Compared with the horrors of the abuse scandals, this sad sideshow is small potatoes. Nevertheless, photos of the Chapel's angels and cross lying in pieces make for melancholy viewing.
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