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Originally posted by arthur

EVERETT -- One thousand days ago, Carol Tumasz spent her first night sleeping in the closed St. Therese Church , the Roman Catholic parish that always felt like home.

Now it is her home.

Tumasz, 49, has moved into the church, which parishioners have occupied around the clock since a closing Mass was held on Oct. 26, 2004 , the day before Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley officially closed the 77-year-old parish. Tumasz returns to her family home a few times a week to shower or do laundry. By her count, she has slept in the church all but 20 nights since the protest started.

"I like it back here," Tumasz said, standing beside her corner of the chapel, under a colorful stained glass window depicting St. Therese, patroness of the humble parish in north Everett. "It's peaceful."

Tumasz's decision to uproot her life and move into her lifelong church illustrates how the protests have become part of the daily lives of Catholics keeping vigil in five churches, hoping to persuade O'Malley to reopen them.

This month, four of the five shuttered parishes are marking 1,000 days in vigil.

They have sat through joy and sorrow. Parishioners at St. Therese in Everett and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate started their vigils the night before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, and they were in their churches while Pope John Paul II lay dying in Rome in April 2005.

"Our faith is unwavering," said Suzanne Hurley , an organizer at St. James the Great in Wellesley, which parishioners occupied on Halloween of 2004. "Almost three years later, we're still here."

The question today is how long they will remain. O'Malley, who has closed 62 parishes since 2004, has not moved to end the protests, and has no plans to force the parishioners occupying the remaining churches to leave, said his spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon. But the archdiocese has also made it clear that O'Malley, who has met with some of the protesting parishioners, will not reopen the churches.

"Our position has always been, 'We're willing to talk,' " said Sister Marian Batho, a secretary in O'Malley's cabinet whose duties include parish outreach. "But the cardinal will not change his mind. The parishes will not open."

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in East Boston marked their 1,000th day on July 9. Those at St. Frances marked theirs yesterday ; parishioners dedicated their weekly Communion prayer service to the occasion. St. Therese and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini hit the milestone today. And last Friday , St. James the Great will start a two-day event, marked by a Communion service, picnic, buttons, and a new banner outside the church on Route 9. Parishioners in St. Jeremiah in Framingham have kept vigil for more than 800 days.

The archdiocese still owns the churches, pays the utility bills, and maintains the grounds, but the parishioners control the buildings.

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel changed the locks, installed an alarm system, and opened a thrift shop. At St. James, a room off the altar has been converted to a "vigil room," equipped with a television, DVD player, and a futon.

"The marble altar is not comfortable," said Hurley, 44, who has slept over with her two children, ages 9 and 13.

Participation in the vigils is hard to measure. Parishioners at St. Frances say they have about 150 active participants, while those at St. Therese say about 35 regulars rotate shifts each week. Thousands of Catholics whose churches were closed have moved on to new parishes.

"Sometimes I'm dragging myself here," said Charlie Gibbons , 62, of Saugus, who used to attend Sunday night Mass at St. Therese. "But I think it's worth it."

The five vigils were among several started after the archdiocese started shuttering parishes in the summer of 2004. The archdiocese now has 295 parishes.

Three vigils, including the one at St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, the first parish to be occupied by parishioners, ended after several months, when O'Malley reversed the closings on the recommendation of a review panel. Attempts by parishioners to occupy shuttered churches in Winchester and Natick were thwarted when local clergy had protesters arrested after they refused to leave the church.

The five remaining vigils are the longest-running and broadest-based resistance to Catholic church closings in recent United States history, said Thomas Groome a theologian and director of the Religious Education Institute at Boston College.

"This is unique in the history of the American church," he said. "Nobody has sat in a church for 1,000 days. It's amazing that they've kept it up."

On most days, the parishioners say the rosary and offer prayers to favorite saints.

"We pray this church will open," four parishioners said together, after saying the rosary one afternoon at St. Therese. "Lord, let us always be guided by you."

O'Malley has allowed some religious services to be offered at some of the parishes. St. Jeremiah Church is allowed to have Sunday Mass. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel has had two Masses for saints' feast days in the last month, including one celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Robert F. Hennessey. St. James the Great has had priests offer Christmas Eve Mass. But O'Malley has not granted requests from St. Therese or St. Frances Xavier Cabrini for priests to say Mass .

"We're the forgotten parish," said Joan Shepard , 74, an organizer at St. Therese.

But even those who have services say they feel lost.

"We're operating as a parish, but we're closed," said Mary Beth Carmody, a leader at St. Jeremiah, where the sit-in has lasted 809 days. "It is very bizarre."

The services are not permanent, and were offered to encourage a "prayerful transition" for parishioners hurt by the loss of their church, Batho said.

"The cardinal cares for these people who are Catholics," she said. The services "do not signal there is a weakening" of his decision, she said.

The occupations continue at a time when the archdiocese faces multiple lawsuits and canon appeals to the parish closings. Nine parishes, including St. Frances, St. Jeremiah, and St. James, are awaiting decision from church courts at the Vatican. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which is suing the archdiocese in civil court, missed a deadline to appeal to the Vatican. St. Therese did not file an appeal or a civil lawsuit.

The archdiocese, recovering financially from the clergy sex abuse crisis, is confronting a severe priest shortage. A new planning report estimates the number of active priests will drop from 500 today to 292 in eight years. The report, which acknowledges the "harsh legacy" of parish closings, also calls for new models to staff parishes.

Some parishioners occupying their churches say the archdiocese should look to them.

"After 1,000 days, I think we know what we're doing" said Maryellen Rogers , an organizer at St. Frances in Scituate. "He could end the vigil, and reopen us as lay-led parishes."

Batho, who sat on the committee that prepared the report, said that is not likely. "What's happening in these vigils does not relate in any way to our pastoral planning," she said.

At St. Therese, Tumasz arrives at the church most nights by 7:30 p.m., often after attending Mass, and a long day of work at a printing firm in Lowell. She relieves people who have sat through the early evening shift. She eats, washes up, and changes clothes in the parish hall. About 9 p.m., she goes to bed. At least one other parishioner sleeps over each night with her. "I'm never alone," she said.

Tumasz has left only when she was sick, or faced a personal situation. On Saturday night, as the sun set, Tumasz stretched out on a pew, reading Corinthians 2:1, a favorite Bible passage that refers to "God of all comfort." She paused briefly to admire another window of St. Therese, over the main entrance. "Do you see St. Therese?" Tumasz asked. "Isn't she beautiful?"

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