By Brian Denitzio
News Editor

A two-year-old campaign waged by parishioners of the St. William Parish in hopes of reopening the shuttered church reached its effectual end last month. As a result, Father Paul Soper, the pastor at Blessed Mother Teresa Church, has scheduled a community meeting for May 23 at the St. William School at 7 p.m. to discuss the future use of the St. William church site on Dorchester Avenue.

"It's not going to be all that formal," said Soper in a phone interview this week. "The idea is that it will be an opportunity for people from the community to express their thoughts about the future use."

At the same time, the realtor handling the disposition of the site, The Codman Company, will solicit proposals from buyers or lessees of the site. Soper said that he's agreed to have the property on the market for 90 days beginning this week.

"At the end of those two processes, we'll put together the bids with people's ideas," said Soper, and determine what will be the best fit for the site.

If the site is to be sold, Soper will have final authority in choosing the buyer. If instead the site is leased, the Archdiocese of Boston would have a role in the decision. The only restriction placed on him in choosing a buyer, Soper said, is that he can't sell to someone who would "clearly use the site for a degenerate use."

Soper says he is not obligated to sell to the highest bidder and hopes to have the sale completed by Christmas. If the community wishes, he will hold further meetings about the disposition of the property. The funds from any sale of the site have been designated to follow former St. William parishioners. In 2004, the Archdiocese suppressed St. William, combining it with nearby St. Margaret Parish. That church was renamed Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish.

A subcommittee of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association has met several times to discuss the potential re-use of the block, which is bordered by Dorchester Ave., Auckland, Belfort and St. William streets.

Mary Hogan, a member of the committee that pursued the appeal, expressed disappointment this week that their efforts yielded little in the way of specific explanation from the diocese as to why their parish was closed.

Late last year, the Vatican denied the initial appeal. Hogan and other parishioners consulted an attorney and ultimately determined that to continue fighting the appeal would be too costly, and that they had little chance of victory.

"We were told that it was a foregone conclusion and already decided," said Hogan. Nonetheless, Hogan said, the group continues to question the process that led to the suppression of St. William.

"The goal at this point is to get the most positive action going forward as possible, and our continuing concerns that the long term goal would be the kind of transparency and accountability that we've worked for all along," said Hogan.

As for the future of the site itself, Hogan said she wants the community to work to have its desires heard, and hopes that future uses can help in the healing.

"I really hope we can salvage something that replaces the resentment," said Hogan.