Some may remember the stories of churches being occupied by unhappy parishioners in Boston and New Orleans.

Now police have made some arrests in Louisiana:

At least three people have been arrested today after the Archdiocese of New Orleans sent police to two occupied Catholic churches to remove parishioners who for more than nine weeks have participated in a vigil in resistance to a closure plan.

Police were instructed to arrest occupiers if they continue to resist, with Archbishop Alfred Hughes deciding “It’s time to bring this to a close,” spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said.

At Our Lady of Good Counsel on Louisiana Avenue, novelist Poppy Brite and Hunter Harris Sr. were led out of the church in handcuffs and placed in a police squad car. Later, another parishioner, Harold Baquet, who had talked of having a hard-to-locate hiding spot in the building, also was arrested and removed in handcuffs..

“They broke in a door … a 100-year-old door to get in,” said parishioner Mary Alice Sirkis. “This is a very poor example of religion. Not only is it not Catholic, it isn’t even Christian.”

As Comiskey arrived at Good Counsel, one person from the crowd asked loudly about an earlier statement from archdiocesean officials that those participating in the vigil would not be disturbed as long as they remained peaceful. She didn’t immediately respond.

There’s more details at the link.

Meantime, they’re still holding out up in Boston:

There are sleeping bags in the sacristy at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church and reclining chairs in the vestibule, but no one here gets too relaxed. “Please be ever vigilant!” a sign by the door warns, and the parishioners who have occupied the church since it closed more than four years ago take it as seriously as a commandment.

St. Frances was among dozens of churches that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston decided to close and sell in 2004, not least because of financial turmoil made worse by the abuse scandal in the clergy. But while most churches closed without a fight, parishioners at St. Frances, a brick A-frame on a wooded hill, and at four other churches rebelled.

For 1,533 days, the group at St. Frances has taken turns guarding the building around the clock so that the archdiocese cannot lock them out and put it up for sale. They call it a vigil, but by now it is more of a lifestyle.

“It’s much more of a living 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week faith,” said Margy O’Brien, 78, a parishioner since St. Frances opened in 1960. “My generation of Catholics have paid, prayed and obeyed, but you get to a point where you’ve had it.”

The archdiocese will not provide priests to most of the vigil churches, and it has removed most statues, altar cloths and sacred objects. It changed the locks at St. Frances in October 2004 but unwittingly left a fire door open, an error the parishioners call a miracle.

The archdiocese has not tried to evict the parishioners or shut off the heat and electricity. Three of the five vigil groups have appeals pending with the Vatican, but if the appeals fail, as is likely, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, may run out of patience.

“They can’t go on for infinity,” said Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese. “These have to end at some point, but how, I don’t know.”

There’s more at the IHT link.