Little Italian Ladies 1, Archdiocese 0

Ok. Maybe that's overstating it, but a midnight deal was struck to avoid the sit-in at Mt. Carmel Church. Sacred Heart agreed to give up one of their buildings (the old St. John the Baptist Church on Saratoga Street) and will receive the Mt. Carmel Convent in return. Thus providing a chapel for church services in Italian for the elderly of the former Mt. Carmel parish, a safe home for the Padre Pio statue, and a way for the Archodiocese to finagle itself out of a little bit more bad publicity. I'm kind of bummed, though, because I would have loved to see the Mt. Carmel ladies get all militant at their sit-in. I can just see them now wearing their Che Guevara berets singing "We Shall Not be Moved."

On a related note, I came across this web site where someone has made a survey of the history and architecture of Boston Catholic churches. Here is a link to the page on East Boston Churches (including pictures).