To the Editor:

Beginnings and endings are so very important to how we live and move and have our being. Change is challenging. Significant changes are very challenging.

It's Monday August 30th. This morning I celebrated daily Eucharist here in Waltham where I am Pastor. Yesterday a great many of us gathered to celebrate the last Eucharist at our beloved parish and church, Saint William's.

Today, after mass in Waltham, I returned to Savin Hill and continued the grieving process spending some time with my mother Kay White. Her family, her home and Saint William's are the center of her life. How she grieves the closing of the parish will, in many ways, determine how her days, months and God willing her years ahead will be lived out. How she deals with all that has taken place since May 25th, the reconfiguration announcements of parish closings, will mark her remaining time on earth. At 81 years of age her entire life has been connected to Saint William's. That's 81 of Saint William's 95-year history.

Kay White is but one of many. She is but one of many Saint William's parishioners and parishioners throughout our Archdiocese who are mourning and grieving the closure of their parishes. The one major difference is, I am blessed that Kay White is my mother. She is a mother who has nurtured me and my vocation and those of my sisters and brothers since our births and baptisms. Faith, family and church have been the mainstay of her wellbeing all of her days. Through great joys and through horrific tribulations she has turned to her God with humility and trust.

Yesterday, at the final Saint William's liturgy, I witnessed Kay White (and the hundreds like her) and the faith she exemplifies in and through her five generations of family who have lived in Saint William's Parish.

The remarkable strength mingled with a zest and a stubbornness that my mother possesses will allow her to encourage her 7 children, 20 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren to carry on in faith. Of her 7 children, today 5 live in Saint William's with most of her grandchildren also living within the parish. Prior to the White family, the Glavin family of which my mother is the eldest of 9 also lived in Saint William's.

Wednesday September 1, Saint William's Parish ends 95 years of being the center of the lives of many faithful individuals very much like Kay White. Wednesday September 1, ends a Vietnamese community welcomed and officially connected since 1993.

On Sunday, September 5, the newly formed parish of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta begins. The two parishes of Saint William and Saint Margaret will become one. Although two parishes are officially closing the reality is only one church is closed. This is not the first time these good people have lost their church. Fire destroyed it in 1981. That horror was witnessed by Kay White and thousands like her. In tears shed then like those of last Sunday they greived for their beloved Saint William's.

Since beginnings and endings are as important as we all know them to be, then we all need to grieve with the many Kay Whites' throughout the Archdiocese. We all need the humility, the strength, the zeal, the zest and the stubbornness of other generations. We need their faith.

Young and old alike need to grieve before we can be expected to move on. Sadness, anger, confusion, uncertainties, unanswered questions and frustration are some stages of our grief. May I recommend a book, which I suggested, to my mother over a month ago?: Praying Our Good-byes written by Joyce Rupp. The book alone won't lead any of us to new beginnings. We must be Christ to one another. May I make one other suggestion? Go to mass and be connected. Every time we gather to worship we remember the future.

Kay White has been Christ's living presence to me and to each of us in her family during times of joy, sorrow or grief. Parishioners of Saint William's have been the very presence of Christ to one another for 95 years. Thank God. Thank You Saint William's. Thank you Ma.

-Appreciation & Prayers

Fr. Joe White

P.S. Now Archdiocese: Hurt and pain is all around, Saint William's as others. Humbly answered and sacrificed help is needed iun every parish, as we grieve and try to begin anew.

Without good grief there can be no good or new beginning. Please don't just expect us to do it, or that it just happens. Professionals are needed for this one for sure. Since only one church structure is to close throughout Dorchester those in pain are easily indentified. They cry, "Why us. Why us, again."