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National advocate could be local parishes' white knight

THE DAPPER, quiet-spoken man with a slight build and gray hair doesn't look like a typical superhero. But to some area Catholics, Peter Borre, a canon-law consultant based in Boston, has all the makings of one.

Peter Borre , a canon-law consultant based in Boston, goes right to the top when appealing Catholic-school closings.
Peter Borre , a canon-law consultant based in Boston, goes right to the top when appealing Catholic-school closings.Read more

THE DAPPER, quiet-spoken man with a slight build and gray hair doesn't look like a typical superhero.

But to some area Catholics, Peter Borre, a canon-law consultant based in Boston, has all the makings of one.

The Harvard-educated Borre has been on a mission from Cleveland to Boston, fighting for fellow Catholics who seek to save their parishes and parochial schools from closure by their dioceses.

He's already made an imprint here in Philadelphia, helping two groups of parochial-school parents appeal directly to the Vatican to overturn the Archdiocese's rulings that the schools close. Now he's expanded his reach to include a school in Havertown and a parish in Coatesville.

Appealing school closings directly to the Vatican is "unusual" and simply filing them does not guarantee they'll be heard, Borre said. The Navy veteran, however, has plenty of experience standing up to established institutions.

He has obtained decrees from the Vatican that ordered the reopening of churches in Springfield, Mass.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Allentown, and he has 21 pending appeals in Rome.

In Cleveland, Borre was successful in reversing 13 parish closings, calling it "my major accomplishment."

In Philadelphia, parents from Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel schools in South Philadelphia turned to the 73-year-old Borre last month to advise them in their appeal with the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education. The schools are to be closed and merged into a third school, but parents want to merge only the two schools into the Mount Carmel site on 2nd Street near Ritner.

Parents at Annunciation BVM School in Havertown read the Daily News account of the two schools' appeal and tracked down Borre. Now, they also have filed an appeal in Rome.

The Annunciation appeal asks that the school stay open and that it not merge with St. Denis School, said parent Wayne Taitt. Annunciation has a financial surplus, an increase in enrollment by 10 percent this school year, and a feeder pipeline of pre-K students, which is crucial to a parish school's future, Taitt said.

"It doesn't make sense to us," he said. "The reasoning provided by the Archdiocese doesn't add up."

The case is closed, the Archdiocese says.

"We're not aware of the Vatican ever hearing an appeal of a school closing," said Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell. "Parish closing, yes, but not a school closing.

"The archbishop made his final determination and that was all announced back in February, so the appeal process is over here in the Archdiocese," Farrell said. "It is my understanding that there is no recourse to the Vatican."

Borre, when told of the Archdiocese response, said: "Well, let's find out."

He said that this week his colleagues in Rome will reach out to the Congregation for Catholic Education to determine whether it will accept the appeals for review and issue an opinion.

"We are going to argue that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, one of the largest in the United States, is undergoing convulsive changes that put the future of the Archdiocese at risk," he said. Borre cited the church abuse trial and "the wholesale closing of Catholic schools [as well as] the beginning of the shutting down and merging of parishes."

The Archdiocese announced Sunday that seven parishes would close, including St. Cecilia's in Coatesville. Borre said parishioners there hired him this weekend to help them with an appeal.

One of the Vatican's top priorities is the "re-evangelization" of church members who have "drifted away," he said, but the Archdiocese "is going in the wrong direction."

"The building blocks of Catholic faith are the parochial schools," Borre added. "It's an act of self-destruction to be shutting down dozens of such schools."