"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
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Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
Christmas Midnight Mass, the German Church, less than a mile from the Cathedral, Boston
Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker recently wondered how anyone could continue to go to Mass at Cardinal Law's cathedral.
How can any sane person worship at an altar presided over by a cleric who provided the support - I refuse to call it moral support - to sick, depraved priests that Cardinal Bernard F. Law did?
Why would anyone walk into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday and worship at his direction?
A good question.
Why, outside of a diehard, Rabbi Korff-like affinity for Cardinal Law, would anyone keep going to the Cathedral, given the pick of churches in the vicinity?
Here are some nearby alternatives, along with the distance of each from Holy Cross Cathedral, and driving directions:
Holy Trinity German Church, 140 Shawmut Ave. Distance: 0.7 miles. Drive time: 1 minute. Directions. Historic South End church, home to the indult Latin Mass Community, less than a mile from the Cathedral.
The Mission Church, 1545 Tremont St. Distance: 1.9 miles. Drive time: 4 minutes. Directions. "A Lourdes in the Land of the Puritans," the Basilica on Mission Hill is perhaps the grandest church in the city.
Our Lady of Victories, 27 Isabella St. Distance: 0.8 miles. Drive time: 1 minute. Directions. A Faberge egg of a church tucked amid the brownstones.
Arch Street Shrine, 100 Arch St. Distance: 1.2 miles. Drive time: 2 minutes. Directions. A downtown institution, where the pressmen of old Newspaper Row used to pray after their shifts were over.
It really doesn’t matter who the presider is. If he’s an ordained priest, he will replicate the Holy Sacrifice made by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. It could be Bernard Cardinal Law, Father (“call me Walter”) Cuenin, or, were he still in ministry, Paul Shanley.
So why go to the Cathedral when there are so many other fine churches – beautiful and orthodox – in hailing distance?
Getting a seat at Christmas Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral traditionally has been difficult. One suspects it will not be this year.
Not attending Mass at the Cathedral – like not donating to Lake Street – sends a useful and necessary message, that the cardinal must go if a broken archdiocese is to begin to heal.
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